I grew up backstage in Anchorage, following my mother from rehearsal hall to costume shop to dressing room to green room. In those days (and by "in those days" I actually mean "for a couple of generations of Anchorage performers"), theater critic Catherine Stadem, who wrote first for the Anchorage Times and then for the Anchorage Daily News, was as close as it got to the voice of God. It might be overdramatic to say Anchorage actors lived and died by Stadem's criticism, but there was no question that Stadem's hard-won approval carried significant weight in the theater community. Her reviews were neither overly generous nor unnecessarily cruel; rather, they were honest and sharp and intelligent, and if she liked what you'd done, you knew you'd done it well.
Now Stadem, who was for many years the definitive authority on Anchorage theater, has written the definitive history of Anchorage theater. "The History of Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska 1915-2005" is a walk down Memory Lane for anyone who's been involved in the local arts scene, but Stadem's book, released this year by The Edwin Mellen Press, really isn't 200 pages of nostalgia -- it's a comprehensive overview of the evolution of theater in Alaska's largest city.
Stadem's history more or less begins, unsurprisingly, with the arrival in town of a young schoolteacher named Lorene Cuthbertson -- later Lorene Harrison, a name well known to Anchorage artists and audiences -- and travels quickly through the early years of local theater, introducing many more familiar names: Gertrude Mulcahy, Frank Brink, Bob Pond, Jack Roderick. Chapters are dedicated to the founding of Anchorage Community Theatre, the Anchorage Drama Lab, military performers, Theatre Guild, the rise and fall of the Alaska Repertory Theatre, Out North, the evolution of Cyrano's, college and youth theater, and the triumphs and travails of local theater through decades of boom and bust following the arrival of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
With more than two decades of experience observing and analyzing Anchorage's theater scene, Stadem is one of the few people who has the depth of knowledge and understanding of the local arts community necessary to make this history more than just a recitation of names and dates (although it has plenty of both). She compares productions of the same play on different stages, recalls the births and deaths of local companies, touches tactfully on Anchorage troupes' sometimes-complicated feelings about the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, and even has a complimentary nod for Mr. Whitekeys' "Whale Fat Follies," the cornerstone production of the late great Fly-By-Night Club.
Present throughout Stadem's history is a sense of the adventurous, entrepreneurial spirit that has characterized Anchorage's theater community since its very beginning. From early amateur productions staged at the pioneer schoolhouse or Elks Hall to more contemporary ambitious undertakings -- Out North's theater-meets-activism concept, Jerry and Sandy Harper's conversion of the former police substation adjoining their downtown bookstore to the now-thriving Cyrano's Off-Center Playhouse, Actors' Equity Association companies that have come and gone -- Stadem never loses sight of the moxie, ingenuity and determination that have been the hallmark of performing arts on the Last Frontier.
Here's the rub. "The History of Theatre in Anchorage" comes with a price tag so steep it will give pause to even the most devoted lover of the Anchorage stage: $119.95. I know. Ouch. This is one situation in which it's better to be from Fairbanks; "Backwoods Broadway," Charles Parr's history of theater in the Golden Heart City, retails for just $49.95. Mellen is an academic publisher, and as you probably recall from college (particularly if you're still paying for it), textbooks don't come cheap.
Since I received my review copy of the book, a few people have asked whether I think it's worth the off-putting price tag. I've come to the conclusion that I can't answer that definitively. The book is a valuable resource, but I can't say I would fork over that kind of money for my own copy. On the other hand, I might be more willing to shell out for a copy as a Christmas gift to my mother, who is mentioned on page 173.
I was in the process of wrapping up this review when I heard that John Strohmeyer, who wrote the preface to "The History of Theatre in Anchorage," had died. In his preface, Strohmeyer, himself a chronicler of Anchorage history, called Stadem's book "a valuable contribution to history wherever the impact of theatre in our society is taught, studied or discussed." I don't think I could sum it up any more succinctly than that.
Contact Maia Nolan at maia(at)alaskadispatch.com.