Anchorage Community Theatre's 2007-08 season will include:

ACT repeats "The Wizard of Oz" in its 2007-08 season.

“The Wizard of Oz,” based on the book by L. Frank Baum , Oct. 12-Nov. 11. A repeat from the 06-07 season, this time “Oz” will be staged at an auditorium to accommodate larger crowds.

“Perfect Wedding” by Robin Hawdon , Nov. 23-Dec. 16. A wedding day farce where the groom wakes up next to a stranger, the bride gets locked in the bathroom, and a union seems less possible with every passing moment.

By Anne Herman
Daily News correspondent

Minh Tran and Company

Minh Tran is a chameleon choreographer. One dance is full of barely contained fury, while the next is calm and contemplative. This dance is infused with an urban edginess, and that one echoes the serenity of Asian spirituality.

These meetings of peace and anger, of calm and storm, colored Tran’s works in Alaska Dance Theatre’s aptly named “Intersections” concert Saturday in the Discovery Theatre. The three works he created for his Portland, Ore.-based Minh Tran and Company performers and ADT dancers carried his personal blend of Western and Asian aesthetics.

By Mike Dunham

Winners of the 23rd Annual Vocal Competition held by the Alaska Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS)showed their stuff in a recital in Grant Hall on Saturday.

Call 'em up-and-coming, fresh, raw -- whatever. These were performers from whom, with a little encouragement (or, more likely, with never as much encouragement as they deserve) will come the voices we hear for years to come.

Here are the winners, placement, division and award amounts, listed alphabetically. If I've misspelled something, log on and add the correction:

* Eden Barrington, 2nd, College Classical, $225.

By Sarah Henning
Anchorage Daily News

"Ladyhouse Blues" at Anchorage Community Theatre.

As far as kitchen sink dramas go, “Ladyhouse Blues” isn’t the best written. But it is 100 percent relevant.

There’s not an emotion or scenario in this play that’s foreign to America’s military families today, whether it’s the soldier-shaped hole left in a mother’s heart or the desperate attempts to keep it together – for the family’s sake.

Through the rearview mirror of World War I domestic fallout, Anchorage Community Theatre offers catharsis and some hope. The play runs through May 13.

By Maia Nolan
Daily News correspondent

"Shakespeare in Hollywood" at Cyrano's.

Now that the days are longer and the weather is warmer, ­theatergoers in the mood for lighter fare need look no further than "Shakespeare in Hollywood," which opened Friday at Cyrano's­ with all the glamour and glitz befitting a Tinseltown premiere.

Teresa K. Pond directs a "cast of thousands" (by Cyrano's­ standards) in Ken Ludwig's mad­cap comedy inspired by Warner Bros.' 1934 film version of William Shakespeare's classic "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which starred James Cagney, Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland. In Ludwig's version, the real-life Oberon and Puck materialize on-set and, as you can probably imagine, hilarity ensues.

By Sarah Henning
Anchorage Daily News

Dancers rehearse Brian Jeffery's "It Goes Outwards" for UAA's New Dances concert.

In the subversive, post-apocalyptic choreography of “induct,” female dancers wearing dirt-colored rags dash and leap, panicked, onto male dancers.

Only, the men are indifferent. They let the women slide off, landing hard on the ground.

As the Skinny Puppy soundtrack becomes more industrial sounding, the dancers mechanically jerk, shiver and collapse. Then, the ensemble moves as one intertwined body, writhing like a pit of snakes, each dancer clawing over the others, arms extended to the audience in a plea.

Iranian-born film maker, Shirin Neshat, came to America before the Iranian revolution in 1979, but speaks to culture and exile through films that appear in national and international exhibits and festivals.

In the October 2001 issue of "Art in America," Amei Wallach describes Neshat's work as an "iconic exploration of the heart, mind and psyche of Islam."

Wallach goes on to applaud Neshat's scope and sensibility. "She succeeds in being at once specific in subject matter and epic in expression, practicing an intricate alchemy of image, locale, action and music."

Now Anchorage audiances can get a taste of her work in a screening of her films this Sunday, April 15, at 7 p.m. in room 150 of the Fine Arts Building at UAA.

Anchorage Concert Association’s 2007-08 season:

"Hairspray" is one of three touring Broadway productions coming to Anchorage next season.

Broadway Series
Dec. 7-12: “The Producers,” musical adaptation by Mel Brooks
Feb. 14-19: “Hairspray,” musical based on John Waters’ 1988 movie
April 15-20: Cirque Dreams’ “Jungle Fantasy,” similar to Cirque du Soleil
Subscription costs $125-195.

Family Series
Oct. 6: Riders in the Sky, country western music and comedy
Jan. 31-Feb. 2: Moscow Circus

Gaaa! The four final designs for the Alaska state quarter were announced on Tuesday, April 10, and they look like coasters from a tourist shop. Yeah, most of the quarters from other states are tacky, too, and no one iconic image will satisfy everyone or anyone. But must all four designs from which Governor Palin must now make choose look so insufferably similar? Three, at least, are lifted from Fred Machetanz illustrations, though without his gift for draftsmanship. The polar bear on an ice berg was considered for Alaska's flag back in the 1920s, before Benny Benson's simple and beloved Big Dipper design got picked. The prospector would seem more contemporary if he were an environmental engineer taking water samples. As for the dog team... is that the south side of Denali? If so, then they're not mushing "north to the future" or north to anywhere else; they're heading south. The lucky brown bear and unlucky salmon may be the best of the lot, both as a matter of execution and as a substantive comment on life.

The Anchorage Opera’s mainstage 2007-08 season:

Anchorage Opera's 2004 production of "La Traviata."

“The Abduction from the Seraglio,” Mozart
Nov. 10, 14, 16, 18
A lighthearted opera in which a Spanish nobleman goes on a quest to rescue his true love from pirates. A first for Anchorage Opera.
Sung in English.

“Il Trovatore,” Verdi

Just announced -- UAA’s 2007-08 theater season:

UAA Theatre's 2006 production of "Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge."

“The Diviners” by James Leonard, Jr.
Oct. 5 – Oct. 21
Set in Southern Indiana in the 1930s, “The Diviners” is the story of a disturbed young man and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher. Directed by David Edgecombe.

“We Bombed in New Haven” by Joseph Heller
Nov. 23 – Dec. 9
“Catch 22” author Joseph Heller, who flew 60 missions during WW II as a bombardier on a B-25, also wrote this tragi-comedy about America’s wars, leaders, apathy, and duty to its children. Directed by Tom Skore.

Does anyone know what went "boom" in the middle of act one during Anchorage Opera's production of "Romeo et Juliette" Saturday night?

Did a hunk of wood plummet to the stage floor? Did a panel come undone from the modular set? Did anyone get hurt?

Whatever went "thud" behind the curtain, it stole a wee bit of magic from an otherwise poignant performance of Charles Gounod's operatic version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" at the Discovery Theatre last night.

The squeal, groan and delays of sets getting rearranged--coupled with long lulls in the super titles--busted up the momentum on opening night, but the luster of wonderful voices, music and acting carried the day.

The crowd at nearly-full Atwood Concert Hall greeted the return of "Stomp" on Friday night with almost as much enthusiastic energy as the performers brought to the stage. Ninety minutes of non-stop action, a blend of meticulously timed choreography and percussion in which the eight-member troup sustains driving rhythms - and sometimes makes music - with everything from closely-miked brooms to cigarette lighters to kitchen sinks (with water), kept all eyes wide open, with gasps, laughs and much applause throughout the show.
A number of younger folk were in the audience, some of whom are members of the local found-instrument ensemble Envirobeat, which entertained pre-show patrons with a polyrhythmic performance in the lobby. A bonus for the not-so-young set was the announcement of the Anchorage Concert Association's upcoming season, which will include the musical "The Producers" in December.

Hamell's looking up

Oh sure, Ed Hamell plays a mean guitar when he sings, rants, screams, howls, rambles and digresses, but he's no minstrel, no troubadour, no post-punk acoustic rock-n-roll sage.

He defies all that; he expands and extends the categories. At the Snow Goose Theater last Wednesday, he didn't put on a show, he put the human race on trial. He joked, cajoled and rampaged through two sets of spoken word assaults, social commentaries, personal stories and hardcore acoustic punk/rock/anti-song songs that spoke of friendship and love, politics and faith, and the perennial question, "guilty or innocent?"

The wool on Esther Littlefield's "Button Robe" has turned from black to green in the light. Photo by Marc Lester.

Today’s front page features a story about the Alaska Native Art Collection at the Ted Stevens International Airport, explaining how the collection is suffering from over exposure to light.

Read the story here. Then tell us: What do you think should happen to the airport’s Alaska Native art collection?

Share your opinion in the comments section below.

Former East High graduate Joe Acton did time in law school and the Anchorage Police Department before starting his own publishing business, but his latest creative endeavor put him in the director's chair for a film about gay veterans who relive traumatic combat experiences while at a military hospital.

Acton says "Courage Doesn't Ask" is about honor, duty and service, not gays in the military ala "Brokeback Army," though the 12-minute film certainly questions the integrity of the U.S. military's "Don’t Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The film will show all weekend during the Black Maria Film Festival at Out North.

By Sarah Henning
Anchorage Daily News

Last Tuesday marked the first congressional hearing on federal arts funding in a dozen years.

Delores Churchill is a Haida weaver from Ketchikan who earned an NEA National Heritage Fellowship.

It’s slightly difficult to celebrate that without acknowledging some ­bitterness. Twelve years is a long time: If you had a kindergartner during the last hearing, he’s graduating this spring.

But the upside is that artists and arts advocates finally got to explain why National Endowment for the Arts funding should be returned to its 1994 level of $176 million, up from this year’s $124 million.

Samarabalouf

By Leland Smith

When a friend recently asked me if I had heard of Samarabalouf, I envisioned that it must be some kind of techno-designer cheese whiz or perhaps a mystery pate found in the pimento loaf section in the market.

As my awareness embraced the day, I was elated to learn that it was an acoustic French performance ensemble. As a rabid fan of bands with unpronounceable names, I leaped at the chance to hear this charming trio that celebrates the genius of Django Reinhardt’s music via the compositions of Samarabalouf’s founder Francois Petit.

If you pay attention while you walk and drive around town, you'll see art in schools, along roadways, at virtually all public facilities--black ravens in a elementary school library, an outpouring of text down the stairway of a high school, a sculpture of hands at a fire station.

"Upstream" by Sheila Wyne, public art installation on A Street.

Both the state and city earmark a percentage of capital expenditures toward art, and these collections grow every year.

What do you think of the public art around you--do you notice, take certain routes to see or avoid it, have a favorite piece?

By Maia Nolan
Daily News correspondant

"The Lieutenant of Inishmore" staged by Kokopelli Theater Company.

There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong with Kokopelli Theatre Company’s production of Martin McDonagh’s “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” a play that relies heavily on elements like gunshots, Irish accents and live animals. Well, one live animal, anyway.

The good news is that it all goes hilariously right. Director Kari Mote has assembled a top-notch team of performers and technicians to stage “Inishmore,” a black comedy about a militant Irish nationalist and his beloved cat.