Juneau theater artist Frank Henry Kaash Katasse won a short play competition Sunday. “Reeling” — a play based on Tlingit values — won Native Voices at the Autry’s Fifth Annual Short Play Competition in Los Angeles. Katasse says the play’s main characters are two female cousins who lose the uncle who raised them.
“They go and steal his urn from his memorial service and they decide they’re going to go throw the urn into the halibut hole (where) he would always take them. And so the whole play takes place on a canoe,” Katasse says.
Listen to our interview with Katasse here:
For the production, Katasse imagines the canoe on wheels with the uncle moving the cousins throughout the play. Flashbacks also help tell the story.
The play was partially inspired by a story Katasse heard about some determined canoers in Kake who braved high seas to honor a family member. In this story, the cousins are honoring their uncle’s wish.
“Because that’s what he said he always wanted — to be placed there because he took so many halibut from this halibut hole,” Katasse says. He adds, “I talk a lot about balance and a lot of traditional Tlingit core values. … That’s what it all comes down to.”
As winner of the competition, Katasse received the Von Marie Atchley Excellence in Playwriting Award and a $1,000 prize. Katasse says another one of his plays — “They Don’t Talk Back” — received accolades from the same theater company in the spring and is now under negotiation for production.
