Anchorage Repertory Theatre

In the early ’80’s, the Alaska Repertory Theatre mounted two productions: Midsummer’s Night Dream and Fools. They were amazing. I was converted. The technical aspects of these two performances blew me away. If I had to pick an event that eventually led to my choice of theatre as a vocation, it would have to be the high school field trips I took to see these shows done at the Rep in the old Sidney Lawrence.

And then, just a few years later ART closed forever.

No Room for College Actors

In 2006 I became head of West High School’s theatre department. It was a dream come true in many respects; something I had been aiming for since I began teaching in 1994. After several years of running the program I found that many of my students who went on to theatre programs in universities in the lower 48 were not only not given roles in university productions in their Freshman and even Sophomore years, but also were enjoined from participating in theatrical activities outside of the program. In some cases, theatre majors were getting degrees having only been in two or three school productions, and then, only as walk-ons. This made no sense.

Midnight Sun Theatre Fills Niche

I started Midnight Sun Theatre in 2010 to fill, what I perceived, was an empty niche; para-professional summer theatre for college aged students. They would tackle scripts that were edgier than what they experienced in high school, earn a credit and make a little bit of money. The goal was to provide opportunities to collegiate students receiving excellent training, but that had relatively little actual stage experience. This, however, was actually an ulterior motive.

The Future of Midnight Sun

Anchorage should have a repertory theatre. My hope is that some incarnation of Midnight Sun will be that repertory theatre within the next five years. MST has been running with critical success for the last few years. The plan is to grow slowly, adding productions over the next few years, until we have a repertory program running through the summer with 3-5 shows in rotation.

While I have many creative goals I am pursuing: a high school theatre text book, several plays I am currently writing; teaching; of all of them, re-forming a Rep theatre in Anchorage is at the top of the list.