Sandy Harper
Prior to founding Cyrano’s Theatre Company, Sandy and her husband Jerry Harper created Cyrano’s Bookstore and Cafe featuring everything from music to cinema to special events. In 1992 they built Cyrano’s Off-Center Playhouse and co-founded its resident theater company. Its mission was not only to produce cutting edge, classic, contemporary and original plays, but to provide the opportunity for Alaska theater artists to participate in professional theater and practice their craft, whether actor, playwright, director or technician. As producing artistic director, Harper chose the plays, selected and nurtured the artists and commissioned new work. Under her spirited leadership and vision, CTC established itself as a vibrant presence in the life of downtown Anchorage and an important incubator of Alaska’s theatrical talent with a strong focus on women and Native cultures.
Harper believes that awareness of the arts must be part of public life and actively joined, served and collaborated with various businesses, civic and non-profit organizations from the Anchorage Downtown Association to the national board for the Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Where possible, she coordinated theater activities with municipal events such as commissioning new plays to complement Anchorage’s centennial celebration. As a cultural entrepreneur, she initiated and organized cultural activities such as the founding of the Alaska Center for the Book.
Her numerous honors and awards recognize her contributions to and her effectiveness as an advocate of the arts. Examples include: Governor’s Award for the Arts; the 2016 Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities; UAA’s Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts; YWCA Woman of Achievement; Anchorage Cultural Council; Alaska State Legislative Citation, and Mayor’s Arts Award.
Harper earned a bachelor’s degree from Immaculate Heart College in L.A. and a master’s degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks in Pasadena, Calif. Harper is a risk-taker who demonstrates what determination and a clear vision can build and accomplish.
2nd Annual Alaska One Minute Play Festival—Perseverance Theatre—Mon, April 13, 2015
The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) and Perseverance Theatre present the 2nd Annual Alaska One-Minute Play Festival livestreaming from Anchorage on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday, April 13 at 8pm AKDT (Alaska) / 9pm PDT (San Francisco) / 11pm CDT (Chicago) / 12am EDT midnight (New York) / 04:00 GMT (Tuesday, April 14).
In Twitter, follow @oneminuteplays, @howlroundtv, and use hashtag #1MPF.
Featuring brand new one-minute plays by:
Greg Aldrich, Allen Bailey, Jill Bess, Linda Billington, Jay Burns, Deborah Gideon, Jason Hodges, Steve Hunt, Matt Jardin, Marleah Labelle, Josh Lowman, Jerry McDonnell, Dawson Moore, Tom Moran, Mark Muro, Andrea Onstad, Teresa Pond, Richard Perry, Peter Porco, Ann Reddig, Dick Reichman, Lucas Rowley, Schatzie Schaefers, Lois Simenson, Holly Stanton, & Vera Starbard, and more!
Directed by:
Caleb Bourgeois, McKenzie Callahan, Ron Holmstrom, John Parsi, Peter Porco, Kalli Randall, and Art Rotch
Curated by:
Dominic D’Andrea and Caitlin Wees
The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) is America’s largest and longest running short form theatre company in the country, founded by Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D’Andrea. #1MPF is barometer project, which investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue and consensus building sessions and a performance of many moments. #1MPF works in partnership with theatres sharing playwright or community-specific missions across the country. #1MPF creates locally sourced playwright-focused community events, with the goal of promoting the spirit of radical inclusion by representing local cultures of playwrights of different age, gender, race, cultures, and points of career. The work attempts to reflect the theatrical landscape of local artistic communities by creating a dialogue between the collective conscious and the individual voice.
In each city, #1MPF works with partnering organizations to identify programs or initiatives in each community to support with the proceeds from the work. The goal is to find ways give directly back to the artists in each community. Supported programs have ranged from educational programming, youth poetry projects, teaching artists working in prisons, playwright residencies, and memberships, and community arts workshops.
Annual partnerships have been created with theatres in close to 20 cities including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Trenton, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, Anchorage, and more, with partnering institutions like Primary Stages, Victory Gardens Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre Company, The Playwrights Foundation, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Actor’s Express, InterAct Theatre, Mixed Blood, Passage Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Kitchen Dog, Salvage Vanguard, ScriptWorks, ACT, Perseverance Theatre, and others.
Notable #1MPF contributors have included: David Henry Hwang, Neil LaBute, Tina Howe, Donald Margulies, Nilaja Sun, Lydia Diamond, Phillip Kan Gotanda, Kristoffer Diaz, Rajiv Joseph, Sam Hunter, Karen Hartman, José Rivera, Craig Lucas, Mike Daisey, Greg Kotis, Michael John Garcés, & close to 600 famous, emerging, and midcareer playwrights. For more information visit: oneminuteplayfestival.com
Perseverance Theatre’s mission is to create professional theatre by and for Alaskans. We value community engagement, professional rigor, and regional voice. The Theatre was founded in 1979 by Molly Smith as a theatre by, for, and about Alaskans and today is led by Executive Artistic Director Art Rotch. Perseverance was born in Juneau—the state’s capital and a community of 30,000 that is only accessible by plane or boat. Now into our fourth decade, we’ve grown into the state’s flagship professional theatre, serving nearly 15,000 artists and audiences annually with classical, contemporary, and world premiere productions on our main and second stages; education and training programs for youth and adults; statewide and national tours; and outreach collaborations with statewide artistic and social service groups. Perseverance Theatre is the resident theatre at the University of Alaska Southeast. Perseverance recently launched a subscription season in Anchorage.
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