Daily Sitka Sentinel

Arts Camp Theater Brings Folk Tale to Stage

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

One of the actors in “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” says she has found a new family made up of trolls, a prince and princess, the four winds and a group of hags.

Addison Moore and Anan Weiland play trolls in "East of the Sun West of the Moon." (Sentinel Photo)

“I didn’t expect it would be so nice,” said Dana Artiomov, who is one of 32 cast members in the upcoming play to be presented by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Young Performers Theater.

“We’re like a family – when someone doesn’t remember lines, we help them,” said Dana, who is an exchange student from Moldova.

Dana and others taking part in the production talked with a Sentinel reporter Thursday during rehearsal breaks.

The play, written by Tina Howe, will be staged 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21; 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at the Odess Theater (Allen Hall) on the SJ campus.

The play, based on a Norwegian folktale, is the story of a young girl whose mother sends her away to live with some trolls. The girl falls in love with a bear, who is really a prince enchanted by a troll. She follows him to the land east of the sun and west of the moon to save him from a horrible fate. The actors in this production compare the story to “Beauty and the Beast.”

Director Zeke Blackwell, who is a Sitka Service Fellow, said he was looking for a play that would be appealing to kids of all ages, but also had substance and interesting characters for the actors to explore. The youngest actors in this production are in elementary school, and the oldest are in college.

Rhiannon Guevin, the music director for the play, said she and SFAC director Roger Schmidt like the folktale aspect of the play. Guevin was also music director of the inaugural production last year, “The Adventures of Beatrix Potter and Her Friends,” a musical. She said she likes it that “East of the Sun” has some music but isn’t a musical, 

“I thought this would be a good transition,” she said.

Guevin and Blackwell will stage the musical “Annie” in February, and Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor” in April.

Blackwell, a playwright who directed a children’s musical “Once on this Island” in Costa Rica, said he wasn’t prepared for the level of community involvement in this play.

“I was pleasantly overwhelmed at the lengths that – not just the parents – but the kids were willing to go to, to make this production a success,” he said. “The kids are very enthusiastic. They bring great ideas to rehearsal and pay attention and have fun all at the same time.”

Guevin agreed. The show is double-cast in some of the roles, and she has enjoyed seeing the different interpretations of the characters and the play by “east” and “west” casts.

Blackwell commented,  “We’re not trying to create the same show with the ‘east’ cast and ‘west’ cast.”

Guevin said she has also enjoyed seeing Odess Theater evolve. “Beatrix Potter” was the first production staged in Allen Hall in more than 20 years. This year’s play will be another milestone.

“We did the (first) show at a point where the theater was coming together – they had just put the floor in,” she said. “Now it’s complete. This is the first show going up in a theater that’s ... almost complete.”

New this year is a sound system, which will allow special sound effects to be used. “Acoustics are difficult so it will be good to have that new equipment,” Blackwell said.

The cast members said they’re enjoying their experience as well.

Michael Boose, who plays the bear/prince, said he has become more confident as a singer in this production. The Sitka High senior has appeared in “Beatrix Potter,” Sitka High productions and Sitka Community Theater shows. He said this role is more serious than most of the ones he has taken on in the past.

“I’ve never had to play a serious animal, and in this, I’m a big serious animal, and I’m a twiggy boy,” he said. “It’s interesting to characterize ... it’s definitely a challenge.”

Fifth-grader Alyssa Henshaw said this is her first play, although she danced in the “Nutcracker” ballet last year.

In “East of the Sun,” she plays the first hag (Tundra) and said she enjoys the challenge of having to “put emotion” into the role.

“It’s a little more dramatic – I get to use puns and dramatic poses.” She said she has enjoyed the time she has spent backstage at Odess, as well as the acting exercises that Blackwell puts the cast through.

Addison Moore, 7, is a troll and a servant, a role that requires her to twirl, and drop, a baton.

“I like to act,” she said. “I like to be on stage.” Her favorite part of the play is when she gets to “explode” as her troll character is exposed to light.

Zia Allen, 12, said she has her sights set on acting as a career. She plays the second hag, Taiga, but has also racked up other stage experience over the years, starting with Mrs. Fredrickson’s kindergarten production of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” Last year, she played a cat and a dancing lettuce in “Beatrix.”

Asked what she learned in this show, Zia said, “I learned how to talk – when you’re talking you should breathe through your stomach and not your chest, so you’re louder – I thought that would help in other plays.”

Dana Artiomov, 17, is appearing in her first play, but in Moldova participated in “social theater,” in which young performers act out social problems to explore and solve.

“I like this so much,” she said of “East of the Sun.” “I like the play, I like the people.” Her biggest challenge playing Gjerd/Queen Mother is being “angry” and “ugly” to people who are her friends and family.

“In real life, I’m not like this,” Dana said. “I learned how to not be too polite to Tove (played by Deborah Yearwood). In real life, Debbie is my friend. And my host brothers (Anan and Kobi Weiland) – I have to call them ‘stupid’ and ‘idiot.’ It was so hard.”

Tickets for the show are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, at Old Harbor Books, and the SFAC office. Children under 5 are free.