Thank You, Fairbanks

Hello everyone out there,

Allison here.  I want to thank Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre, and Erica Lord, and Nellie Iyapana and Jack Dalton for all the work involved in putting up "Time Immemorial" in Fairbanks.  Also to Bruce Rogers and Rebecca Eddy and John and Chris and Anna and Andy White and Evon Peter and Enei Begaye and all the people who attended the show, or supported the show in any way shape or form.  If I've forgotten your name, please forgive me. It was awesome and an honor to be in Fairbanks, the land of which I was born and raised.

I am back in Anchorage and reunited with my 15 year old nephew, who is really more like my son, because I am his guardian here in Alaska.  I'm his person.  He's my boy.  I missed him while I was in Fairbanks, and it was challenging to arrange for care for him whilst away.  He gave me the best hug ever when I returned.

We received a standing ovation for our Saturday performance in Fairbanks.  Jack and I know that this show impacts people, and has a healing affect on people.  The show is strong and amazing.  We asked for donations at the end of the last three shows, and my pocket just kept getting stuffed with cash, an outpouring of support to make up for the house that didn't sell out, yet had very committed and beautiful audience members in it.  

If you feel moved and want to support the show from a distance, you can.  Checks can be mailed to: Time Immemorial c/o Allison Warden P.O. Box 110522, Anchorage, Alaska or to my paypal account at akootchook at gmail dot com.   We appreciate your support.  You can stuff our pockets, from a distance...

It takes time to build momentum and we can feel the momentum building as we push forward on the tour, excited to travel to Nome and Kotzebue this week, honored to be performing in Inupiaq communities in the Arctic. When we return, we will perform the show in Anchorage at the Sydney Laurence Theatre at the Performing Arts Center downtown.  It will be my first time performing there, outside of a TedX talk I gave a couple of weeks ago.  It's a beautiful amazing space, perfect for our show.   We hope to see you there, and we hope you buy tickets now at:  http://alaskapac.centertix.net/eventperformances.asp?evt=797

We are moving forward, as a cast/production crew/writers of two.  We two, together, have prepared a gift, for the communities that we are moving forward towards, the communities of Nome, Kotzebue, Anchorage and Valdez.  This gift is beautifully packaged and visually interesting.  It sounds good.  It's a good mystery, it unfolds itself into pools of laughter and tears...  It smells like truth, and it tastes like seal oil.  This gift is a personal one, one that is requiring of the givers (us two) lots of sacrifice in terms of time away from our families, friends and other work commitments.  We are offering this show to you and your friends, your family, as an invitation to have a moment (a two hour journey moment) where you are able to relax and absorb, to breathe and reflect, to laugh and to cry, to dream and to remember, to recognize and to release.  That is the amazing gift of good theatre.  You are allowed (for two hours) to sink into another world, to immerse yourself into a story, to unravel your inner tensions and to allow yourself to just be.  Just be, in the audience, allowing the performance to unearth you in the best possible way.

We ask that you extend the invitation - so that others may be next to you as you open the gift of the show, as you sink into your cushy seat at the Sydney Laurence in Anchorage, or in your chair at the Nome Elementary School commons, or on your spot at the table at the JNES Cafeteria in Kotzebue, or in your theatre seat in Valdez at the Civic Center.   Who is sitting next to you, as the journey of the show unfolds and brings tears and laughter to your hearts and soul?  Who are you going to invite, to open this gift with you?

One of my favorite parts about working in theatre is being able to look out into an audience and recognize friends and family, to see people I've met from a distance, to see the faces of people I don't recognize, and to hear them collectively laugh and clap, and react to the unfolding drama that is being given to them...

Time Immemorial is our gift to you.  We hope to see your face soon, looking back at us, from the audience, as we move forward, through Time Immemorial....

Allison