All Alaska performances of a musical based on Palmer author Eowyn Ivey’s highly praised first novel “The Snow Child” have been canceled. The show was scheduled for performances in Anchorage and Juneau.
Juneau-based Perseverance Theatre, Alaska’s only professional theater company, announced the cancellation in a statement Friday.
“Perseverance Theatre stands by its reputation to create professional, high-quality theatre productions,” executive and artistic director Art Rotch wrote. “Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to meet the logistical needs this beautiful production deserves in order to stay true to our mission and the vision of the show.”
The theater will contact ticket holders for a “Snow Child” performance with options for refunding or repurposing costs, Rotch said.
“We regret we couldn’t successfully bring ‘Snow Child’ to Alaska this season and will look for other ways to share this adaptation of Eowyn Ivey’s novel with Alaskans in the future,” the statement continued.
Additional details weren’t immediately available Friday morning.
Ivey’s novel was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2013.
She took to Facebook on Friday morning with a brief note about the “disappointing news” of the cancellation.
“My understanding is that Arena Stage and Perseverance Theatre concluded that it was not economically feasible to bring the show north,” Ivey wrote in a post on her page.
The stage production was described on the Perseverance website as as “a magical new musical that dances on the edge of legend. In the 1920s Alaskan wilderness, a couple reeling from the loss of an unborn child struggles to rebuild their lives. Everything changes suddenly when they are visited by a wild, mysterious girl who embodies the dark woods that surround their cabin.”
The musical has a “bluegrass-infused” score, the site says.
Arena Stage, which is working in partnership with Perseverance Theatre, premiered the musical at the Kreeger Theater in Washington D.C., according to a report in Playbill. The production was scheduled to close at that 514-seat theater on Sunday.
The musical was slated to open in Anchorage on May 25 and run through May 27. It was also scheduled for a limited run in Juneau on June 9 and 10. An Arena Stage representative directed all questions to Perseverance Theatre on Friday.
Republished with permission from the Anchorage Daily News.
