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Alaska Native Actress, Storyteller
& Weaver Lily Hudson:
"Raven Odyssey" '06 Performance at Perseverance
Theatre
Tlingit student Lily Hudson, a senior at University of Alaska Southeast, plays ‘Woman’ in Perseverance Theatre’s Raven Odyssey. She is working on an undergraduate degree in Language Arts and Communication with a minor in Theatre. “I want to be a teacher and an actor,” Hudson says, “and hopefully I can do both through teaching theater by day and acting by night.” Continued...
Scene from Raven Odyssey: Raven (Jake Wade, left, who is disgused as a stranger
with a feather necklace) tricks Man (Kalani Queypo, right) to go off
hunting moose while he seduces the Man's wife (Lily Hudson, front) and takes her away, marries her and fathers children with her. Photos: Flordelino Lagundino |
“I hope my work is an infectious example for the next generation to exemplify the rich artistic heritage of our cultures through whichever craft they choose, and encourage a dedication to constant learning. Raven Odyssey challenges me to live these possibilities.”
Two years ago, Alaskan playwright Ishmael Hope and Perseverance Theatre’s Artistic Director PJ Paparelli discussed bringing a contemporary play to life by gathering raven stories from all the native cultures of Alaska. After two years of research, traveling to villages, listening to elders and storytellers share the oral histories, they created a two-act play: a journey of Man and Raven through community, love, trust and a search for identity, through the Alaska Native cultures. Continued...
Scene from Raven Odyssey: Man (Kalani Queypo) and his wife (Lily Hudson) share an intense moment. |
"I’ve learned Yupik dances, Inupiaq Eskimo songs, Athabascan fiddle songs, and I can say ‘Raven’ in most of the Alaskan languages.
At our first rehearsal, our director, Ruben Polendo, Artisitic Director from Theatre MITU in New York City said, 'A production is successful if we, the participants, are affected by it.' In this way, the audience is affected in turn."
Raven Odyssey stirred Lily Hudson to a new hunger for absorbing and sharing the Alaskan cultures, a determination to create lasting art, and a fierce resolve to motivate the next generations to carry on. She says, “This is what we were born to do.”
Raven Odyssey
Runs January 5-28, 2006• Weds-Sun • 7:30pm at Perseverance
Theatre
www.perseverancetheatre.org (for more information about Raven Odyssey)
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