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Tongass Voices: Playwright Vera Starbard on writing a Lingít Opera

T’set Kwei Vera Starbard is an Emmy-nominated writer who has written six plays and multiple episodes of shows like Molly of Denali and Alaska Daily. Starbard is the librettist for Ḵutulagaaw — an opera about the 1802 battles between Lingít people and Russian invaders in Southeast Alaska. That means she wrote the script, which language teacher X̱’unei Lance Twitchell translated, and composer Ed Littlefield put to music. The production premiers  at Thunder Mountain Middle School on Friday Sept. 11. The show runs through Sept. 20.