Back in June, I was able to go to the Valdez Theater Conference, held in... well Valdez, Alaska! This was the thirteenth year of the conference, and it has been amazing the three times I've gone. The conference's main focus is developing the work of new playwrights; therefore, people who have written plays from around the country (even from around the world) submit a play of theirs, hoping that it will be selected to be at the conference. Those that are accepted are then scheduled to have a reading with assigned actors in front of an audience and are able to get feedback. Each play has a few people in attendance who have been invited to be responders who give advice on what is really working and what isn't, with reasons behind all of it. Comments are then opened to the rest of the audience and there is a small discussion about the piece. The benefit of this is that a playwright has an opportunity to hear his play read outloud and gets feedback on what types of reactions he is getting from an audience. Many playwrights take the opportunity to tweak what they've written based on some of the good advice that they've gotten.
So! I'm not a playwright, but I am an actor. I've gone to this conference in the past to read in plays. It's a lot of fun. Additionally, in the evenings the conference has plays performed. This year I had the honor of performing in two different evening performances. The first performance I was in was called "Alaska Tales", and it is a show compiled by the cast that tells stories and sings songs that focus on Alaska's history. It's a very fun show, and since the nature of the show is storytelling, the atmosphere is very intimate. The audience sings along with songs when they know them, and we all just laugh and have a good time.
The actors that are up there with me are some of my best friends in Alaska. In the photo to the left you can see (from l to r): Shane Mitchell, Erin Dagon Mitchell, Leif Sawyer, Elle Janicek Delaney, Petra Banks, Kristen Fernandez, Dennis Cleary and myself.
But there is one more! Don't worry Wayne! I didn't forget you! Wayne Mitchell (a certain twin to someone else on the stage) is the final cast member. I can't stress how much fun this show was, and the audience had a great time as well.
Here are some other photos from the show:
The second evening performance that I was a part of was a series of four short plays that were submitted to the theater conference in the past, and the evening was called "Beyond the Veil". I was in the first play of the night called "Exit Cute Ed" by Luke Krueger. Elle Janicek Delaney played my sister-in-law, and she is trying to get me out of the house to go somewhere... and the play reveals where that somewhere is--I'm not going to spoil it for you! This is a photo of Elle and me with the playwright, Luke Krueger, who was also able to attend this year. The photo at the top of this blog entry was from the play, and here are some other shots as well.
If you would like to see more pictures, particularly of the other shows that were performed in that same night of plays from past playwrights, you can click on this
Shutterfly Album to see a bunch of photos.
There is so much more that I could share, but I fear that this is getting just incredibly too long. Needless to say, the conference was amazing. For anyone who is connected to theater, I highly recommened going to this conference.
