The Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) is seeking applicants for the Alaska Native Playwrights Project (ANPP), a new program that identifies and trains Alaska Native writers and other artists who wish to tell their stories and the stories of their people in theatrical form.
ANPP is a ten-month playwriting project that will begin with a five-day intensive writing workshop on Jan. 25-29, 2010. The project seeks to establish a repertoire of uniquely Alaska Native plays derived from the rich oral tradition of Alaska’s Native cultures and the artists’ personal narratives.
Ten Alaska Native artists from across the state will be selected for mentorships with recognized professional indigenous playwrights from Alaska and the Lower 48. The mentors will coach the artists in the five-day workshop and assist them through the seven-month process of creating an initial draft of a play.
The time commitment for the project includes the five-day workshop in Anchorage, seven months to write the play in the applicants’ home communities, three teleconferences in April, June and August 2010, and five days in November 2010 for the final staged readings in Anchorage.
All Alaska Native artists are encouraged to apply. Candidates may be emerging or experienced playwrights or artists working in any medium or discipline, including storytellers, poets, dancers, musicians and carvers. Applicants do not have to know how to write a play, only be willing to learn the process.
Applications must be submitted by Monday, Oct. 5. The Heritage Center will notify candidates who are accepted into the program on Monday, Nov. 23. The application and more information about the program can be found online at the Heritage Center’s website, www.alaskanative.net. Click on the “Calendar of Events” box on the lower left side of the screen, then click on the “Alaska Native Playwrights Project” link under the Calendar of Events.
In addition to the application, candidates must submit a resume, a writing sample up to 10 pages long, a 150-word bio and a 300-word statement of purpose. For more information about the project and the application process, contact Ed Bourgeois, ANHC’s director of public programs, at ebourgeois@alaskanative.net or (907) 330 8057.
