Perseverance Theatre is a professional theater company located on Douglas Island in Juneau, Alaska. It is Alaska's only professional theater and is particularly dedicated to developing and working with Alaskan artists and to producing plays celebrating Alaskan culture, history, and themes.
Perseverance Theatre was founded in 1979 by Molly Smith. She developed it as an important not-for-profit regional theater that collaborated with leading theater artists. It has premiered more than 50 new plays by Alaskan and national playwrights. Paula Vogel’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned To Drive was written and developed while Vogel was an artist-in-residence with the company.
Smith served as artistic director from the theater's founding until 1998, when she left to become artistic director of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. She was succeeded by Peter DuBois, who served until the fall of 2003. He was appointed Associate Producer, then the Resident Director, at the Public Theater in New York City. In July 2008, DuBois became Artistic Director of Boston's Huntington Theatre.
In 2004, PJ Paparelli became Artistic Director of Perseverance Theatre. He left in November 2007, to lead the American Theatre Company in Chicago.
Art Rotch served as Executive Artistic Director from 2008-2019.[1] Rotch is a Perseverance alumnus who earned an M.F.A. in set design at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2018 Art Rotch was joined by Managing Director Joshua Midget.[2]
The current Artistic Director is Leslie Ishii[3] and the current Managing Director is Frank Delaney.[4]
In addition to a full season of plays produced from September to May on its 161-seat Mainstage, Perseverance Theatre also produces a Second Stage season in its on-site rehearsal space, commonly referred to as "The Phoenix." It features smaller-scale productions, and, often, the work of developing actors, designers, and directors. Readings, as well as productions generated by the theatre's educational programs, are also regularly produced in the Phoenix. In 2014 Perseverance Theatre began performing its full season in Anchorage [5] and created a summer series in downtown Juneau called Summerfest.[6]
In 2001, Perseverance Theatre signed an agreement with the University of Alaska Southeast to assume responsibility for all theater education activities at the University, offering theater minors to its students. In December 2002, the theatre was one of just seven American companies to receive a $500,000 endowment challenge grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York through its Leading National Theatres Program. The company successfully completed the challenge in 2005. The theatre also recently raised $1.1 million for a facility renovation and expansion project.
Perseverance Theatre participates in the National Playwright Residency Program (NPRP) from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and HowlRound Theatre Commons.[7] In 2016, Vera Starbard began a three-year term as the Playwright in Residence (in cohort 2) and her grant was renewed in 2019 (cohort 3).[8] Her play, "Devilfish" was written and performed during her first term.[9]
An example of the range of productions mounted by the theatre on its Mainstage can be seen in the list of shows from the 2006-07 season:
From the 2007-08 Season:
The theatre's Second Stage features more intimate productions and the work of developing actors, directors, and designers. The 2006 - 07 Second Stage season included:
Perseverance Theatre's "Young Company" performs on the Second Stage.