By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
For 10 years now the stage of the Sitka Performing Arts Center has been graced by hundreds of dancers, thousands of musicians and scores of actors as the showcase for the performing arts in Sitka.
And on Saturday Sitkans will have the chance to celebrate their cultural treasure with the second “Pack the PAC.”
The 7 p.m. fundraiser for the PAC will have acts by many of the groups that have performed there over the past decade in an event recognizing the benefits the city-owned facility provides to the schools and to the community as a whole.
“Every single kid from kindergarten is on that stage,” said Connie Kreiss, president of Friends of the Performing Arts, a booster group that raises funds to support the facility. “It can be a transformative experience.”
The entertainment lineup for Saturday night has performances by the Sitka Gymnastics Academy, Sheet’ka Kwaan Dancers, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Young Performers Theater, Sitka Cirque, Fireweed Dance Theatre, GSAC Sitka Community Theater, and the Sitka High Drama, Debate, and Forensics team.
An AFS exchange student will perform a traditional Thai dance, and there will be acts by the Mt. Edgecumbe Yup’ik Dance group, Blatchley Middle School Jazz Band and the Sitka Studio of Dance.
Darby Osborne and Macee Steinson will present a one-minute, 10-second, duet of acrogymnastics, mixing dance with partner stunts and tumbling. Sitka Gymnastics Academy director Trisha Bessert describes it as “dramatic and dynamic.”
Members of Sitka Cirque spin on silks during their April show at the Performing Arts Center. Sitka Cirque will be among the many groups taking the stage for the upcoming Pack the PAC show. (Sentinel file Photo by James Poulson)
Actors with the Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s Young Performers Theater will present scenes from “Charlotte’s Web,” with Ben Hedrick (Wilbur), Abigail Fitzgibbon (Templeton), and Muriel Reid (Charlotte).
“This is our most recent project, and it’s a celebration of that work on a larger stage,” said Zeke Blackwell, who directed the play when it was presented at Odess Theater on the SJ campus, the YPT’s usual venue.
The PAC fundraiser is part of the tradition of community support that led to the creation of the facility in the first place. The need for an auditorium had been recognized as far back as the 1960s, when the auditorium designed as part of the then-new Sitka High School was taken out of the plans for lack of funding.
It was over 50 years later that the long-standing need for a dedicated performing arts space gained momentum as the outgrowth of a senior project by Sitka High School student Katie Cavanaugh. She gathered a number of residents to explore possibilities for a community auditorium.
In 2002 former School District Superintendent John Holst drew together a group to work on a bond proposal that would mesh with the state program to cover 60 percent of the cost of school buildings. The $17 million PAC was one of three school projects that would be paid off with a 1 percent seasonal sales tax.
The ballot question passed with 58 percent of the vote and a high voter turnout in a special election, said Kreiss and Susan Litman, secretary and treasurer of the Friends of the Performing Arts.
“There was a feeling Sitka had lost out compared to other communities in Alaska that got an auditorium when oil money was available,” Kreiss said.
The building was designed by John Sergio Fisher and Associates, a San Francisco firm specializing in theaters and auditoriums. The designers worked with user groups and other community members to make sure the building would meet the users’ and community’s needs, while providing their expertise in theater acoustics, stage design and seating.
“There was a lot of thought put into the design,” said Litman.
After three years of construction the building opened with a Sitka High music concert on May 25, 2008.
Friends of the Performing Arts, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, had been formed in the meantime to raise money for the finishing touches inside the building and to help with continuing operating and equipment expenses. Current board members are Kreiss, Litman, Tonya Venneberg, Lauren Allen, Martha Pearson, Melinda McAdams, Mike Kernin, Sitka High School junior Cora Dow, Karen Grussendorf, Susan Brandt-Ferguson, Sarah Frank and Roger Schmidt.
Like other school district buildings, the PAC is owned by the city, with operations covered by the Sitka School District. The building is managed by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. Fees paid by non-school related users of the PAC cover a portion of the district’s expenses, and the friends group raises another $10,000 to $12,000, which is given to the school district to help with the costs.
FOPA’S main ongoing fundraiser is the “Take a Seat” program, which invites you to “buy” a seat in the auditorium. The donor has no rights to the seat, but is recognized by an engraved plate on the arm of the chair. So far, about 200 of the 608 seats have been spoken for. Proceeds from Pack the PAC will be given to the school districts for PAC-related expenses.
The PAC is most heavily used for school programs, but it is available for stage performances of all kinds. The building hosts some 70 performances each year for an estimated 23,000 audience members, Litman said.
She said the value of the PAC to the community can be seen by how well it looks today, after 10 years of use. Keeping the building in first-class shape was a goal from the start: food, drinks and gum are not allowed, and every performance starts with an announcement not to climb over seats.
“People are proud of the space, the students take care of it and the community takes care of it and respects it,” Litman said.
Tickets for Pack the PAC are $10 for general, and $5 for youths, available at Old Harbor Books and at the door.
