A touring production of Time Immemorial, a play co-written by Yup’ik storyteller Jack Dalton and Inupiaq performance artist, playwright and rapper Allison Warden, winds up in Anchorage later this week with four shows at the Sydney Laurence Theater in collaboration with Out North Contemporary Art House.
Time Immemorial has garnered national acclaim since it was originally produced in 2009 at Cyrano’s Theatre Company in Anchorage as part of a program funded by the Alaska Humanities Forum.
A recent Arctic Sounder article summarized the plot: “It is the story of Miti and Tulu [Eagle and Raven], who are two souls born into different relationships through many different lifetimes.”
One lifetime they are brother and sister, another they are elder and child, and so on. These two souls interact through all of Alaskan Native history, and together they weave a beautiful story of our people moving forward through time, through change and retaining our strength and identity.
In a cover story profile of Dalton published last week in the Anchorage Press, he credited Warden with inspiring the project: “The [original] idea was to write a play about Alaska Statehood, and when I mentioned this to Allison, she said, ‘Well, statehood for Natives is just a blip in our history. We've been here for 10,000 years, so 50 years is hardly anything," Dalton says. "At that point I said, ‘Would you like to help me write this play?'"
Dalton and Warden in Time Immemorial. Jamie Lang Photography.
After a successful first run, Time Immemorial was selected to undergo a rigorous dramaturgical process with Native Voices at the Autry in San Diego last spring and summer. The workshop led to substantial revisions, all of them positive, says Dalton.
“The last scene in the play used to be 12 minutes long; now it’s two minutes long,” Dalton said in a recent interview in the Alaska Humanities Forum offices. “They told us, ‘You have to trust your audience; your audience is smarter than you think. They get it.’ So instead of having the last scene be a complete retelling of the first scene, just from different points of view, we chopped it down to the essentials, and it’s much, much better.”
A full equity production of Time Immemorial is scheduled to open in Los Angeles next March, starring notable Hawaiian television and movie actor Kalani Queypo (Bones, Nurse Jackie, The New World) as Raven.
Dalton and Warden, who starred in the original 2009 production as Raven and Eagle, respectively, will reprise their roles for the Anchorage shows in what may be the final time they share a stage, at least in Time Immemorial.
“Our careers are going strong and another collaboration such as this will be difficult,” Warden told the Arctic Sounder. “We are the writers and the original actors. Seeing us on stage together like this is a rare opportunity."
SHOW & TICKETS INFO:
Time Immemorial is scheduled to be performed in the Sydney Laurence Theatre April 21-23 at 8 p.m. and April 24 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $20, available at www.centertix.net, or by calling 263-ARTS.
