By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Ribald performances featuring song, dance and various stages of undress will hit the stage in a nautically-themed set piece this weekend as Sitka’s Ramshackle Cabaret returns after a two-year absence.
The annual event is a fun night, cabaret performer, set designer and writer Erin Fulton told the Sentinel.
“For the cabaret in general, it is truly like an adult variety show… You get to see your friends and neighbors in a space that you would not have seen them previously,” she said. “So we have everything from group dance pieces, solo burlesque pieces, there’s your classic striptease.”
Performers rehearse in Harrigan Centennial Hall for the 2020 Ramshackle Cabaret bulesque show. This year’s event takes place Friday and Saturday. (Sentinel File Photo)
With 18 acts on the docket this year, a nautical theme binds the innuendo-laden event together. This year’s cabaret catchphrase, “Sploosh! Come get your deck wet,” summarizes the event’s bawdy sense of humor.
Cabaret performances in Sitka date back to 2012, and were held yearly until the pandemic. The shows this weekend will be the first since 2020.
Doors open at 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday at Harrigan Centennial Hall, with the program beginning an hour later. All those age 21 and older are invited.
Fulton described the cabaret synthesis of the art and its overarching narrative as “empowering.”
“It’s just so fun. There’s nothing else like it,” she said. “We have such creative flexibility… It is such an empowering environment to be in – like anything you want to risk, to try to step outside your comfort zone, you’ve got, like, two dozen, three dozen people who are like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes!’”
On an island with limited entertainment options, cabaret offers a unique outlet for Ally Witherspoon, a performer who also works with the show’s decorations.
“This is really the only thing in Sitka like this, you know – there’s no other spaces that we can just go and do this here,” she said. Witherspoon described her role in the production as a “vibe check.”
After two years without a local cabaret performance, Serena Wild said “people have years of acts stored up… That’s how our shows come together. We give a broad idea, a theme. And then they bring us acts and we go, ‘Cool! Now we have a show.’”
Wild handles the group’s finances, and is also a burlesque dancer. Her involvement in the Ramshackle Cabaret began in 2016, and she appreciates the event’s ability to make the audience question some preconceptions.
“It’s an adult variety show that pushes some boundaries, makes people squirm… It just makes them think a little bit sometimes, too. ‘Why did that make me uncomfortable?’”
Witherspoon noted the political undertones that roll into cabaret as well.
“We can’t go backwards, we have to keep going forward… We can go up there and be like, I want to show you this. And just this. You get to be a little bit rebellious,” she said.
Cabaret profits are directed towards reproductive health groups, Fulton said.
“All of our proceeds – once you cover basic costs – go to supporting sexual, reproductive health and rights. So we have donated probably close to $100,000 so far, over the years to predominantly Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Northwest,” Fulton said. “We can earmark the funds so that they’re used in Alaska, not for lobbying.”
The cast of this year’s show includes longtime Sitkans and newcomers, she added, and aims to offer a fun evening.
“It’s pretty polished, we do a good job, but at the end of the day, we’re having fun. We’re being silly and it’s also, I think, different being in a small community,” Fulton said. “It’s an extra step of bravery to have, you know, everyone on stage and you know the audience… It’s a fun kind of new, spicy thing to do.”
General admission tickets cost $35 and are for sale at Old Harbor Books.
