HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Major and minor Brothers Grimm characters populate “Into the Woods.”

“Into the Woods” takes creative license with centuries old Grimms Fairy Tales, and in the process resurrects them to new levels of logic.
Like Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters. After the famed ball Cinderella flees and drops a slipper and the Prince and his valet arrive.
In their eagerness to be the one whom the shoe fits, the stepsisters chop off their own big toes. That illustrates ambition.
And what’s the deal with Cinderella’s flight from the prince? If landing a prince-husband is such a desirable goal some would chop off a toe for the honor, why would a girl in her right mind flee?
In the hands of 90 Homer High School students under the creative direction of Lance Petersen and Mark Robinson, “Into the Woods” was by turns hilarious and somber while always engrossing. This was, after all, a familiar set of stories rendered new by a re-envisioning.
The play is based on music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego in 1986. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests as they head into the “unknown.”
“It is scary and exciting to venture into the woods,” the narrator tells us at the beginning. “Sometimes people never return from their journey; and those who do return are changed – they know things they never knew before.”
The main characters are taken from the stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, tied together by a more original story involving a baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family.
Since it involved so many students, Robinson said it was a major accomplishment and its creation was a commitment of time from many people.
“We started in January with auditions. It would be 90 cast members, a full orchestra in the pit and the choir,” Robinson said.
Jill Berryman choreographed the production. Laura Norton held a lot of pieces together as the production manager, and Peter Norton was the assistant director. JulieAnn Smith was the accompanist. Bobbie Lee Briggs did sound, while Jess Bolt did lighting.
Each year, the school puts on a big production that takes weeks and weekends to bring to fine tune for the stage. They have done “Rent,” “Les Miserables,” “West Side Story,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” This was the first production that used a pit orchestra.
The town turns out for these huge productions: Saturday’s final performance packed the house of 500 seats. “It’s a lot of people who help put it together,” Robinson said.
“The story line provides a mishmash of Grimms Fairy tales that intermingle. Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, everyone lives happy ever by the end of the first act,” Robinson explained. “The second act, though, is thought provoking in what happens after happy-ever-after. Be careful what you wish for.”
Grimms were always teaching tools, Robinson points out. “They give you things to think about. They were teaching tools and this kind of is too. It’s fun and funny, and it’s also thought provoking and emotional in places. A wide range of emotions.”
The play is held together by a quest undertaken by Baker and his wife, who must, in order to be released from a curse, gather four objects: a cape as read as blood, a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold, all before the chime of Midnight in three days’ time. This means talking Riding Hood into giving up her cape, getting the only remaining slipper away from Cinderella and conning Jack to trade his cow for “magic” beans, as well as taking a quick snip of Rapunzel’s hair when she lets it down from the tower.
In the second act, the notion of living happily on is found to not be a worthy goal after all. The characters seem happy but are, ironically, still wishing: The Baker and his wife have their precious baby boy, but wish for more room; Jack and his mother are rich and well-fed, but Jack misses his kingdom in the sky; and Cinderella is living with her Prince Charming in the Palace, but is getting bored. What to do?
A giant coming down from his bean stock and a witch bent on murdering poor Jack certainly get it all stirred back up again.
Of particular note in this production was the high level of talent in the not-easy task of singing, dancing and acting. Jack, played by John Walsworth, was funny and endearing in his severe attachment to the cow he must trade at the market. Mariah Stuart, as Jack’s mom, held pitch perfect as the nagging but beset mom trying to feed her family. Hannah Baird was a forceful, convincing witch yet managed to portray charm and irony. The unfortunate Jacob Mayforth, trying to get Riding Hood’s cape from her, was endearing and funny. Herman Hannan’s wolf was forceful – and amusing – hinting the reasons girls need to be on guard in dark places like the woods. And Cinderella, played by Kirsten Swanson, was convincingly not eager to become the princes’ misses.
Judging by the applause and frequent laughter, the high school students had achieved a high level of performance – good enough to be taken to Broadway.

Photo provided - Barrow residents Josiah Patkotak and Frank Qutuq Irelan play close friends who share a tragic secret.

The film “On the Ice” premieres Thursday and Saturday in Homer; a rare glimpse into life at Barrow by an Inupiaq filmmaker.
Director Andrew Okepeaha MacLean’s film presents what critics are calling an engrossing and suspenseful feature film about two teenage boys who share a dark secret. Played by Barrow residents Josiah Patkotak and Frank Qutuq Irelan, the boys have grown up like brothers and “go about their lives in the comfortable claustrophobia of an isolated Alaska town.”
Early one morning, on a seal hunt with another teenager, an argument between the three boys quickly escalates into a tragic accident. Bonded by their dark secret, the two best friends are forced to create one fabrication after another in order to survive. The shocked boys stumble through guilt-fueled days, avoiding the suspicions of their community as they weave a web of deceit. With their future in the balance, they are forced to explore the limits of friendship and honor.
MacLean grew up between Barrow and Fairbanks, where both of his parents worked at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
While in Seattle as an undergraduate at the University of Washington, he majored in theatre, acting and writing plays.
“Then when I went home to Barrow, I started a theatre doing plays. We did adaptations of traditional stories. They were language-based to teach Inupiaq. I started thinking from there that it would be nice to reach a wider audience and I saw film as a way to do that,” MacLean said. At New York City University, he studied film, and completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree. Now he lives in New York and visits Barrow.
“I go back there all the time – a few times a year. I think it’s a beautiful place, a strong community in a lot of ways. I hope to make more films there,” he said.
“On the Ice” is a story that tends to focus on the negative aspects of village life, he noted. “It’s a truthful look – there’s as much strength as there is weakness, the challenging aspects of life, the avalanche of pop culture that can be disorienting and can be a confusing thing to deal with. At the same time how the community responds to tragedy shows there’s a lot of strength in that,” MacLean said. They show that strength through their traditional dance, performed in the movie, and through the unfolding attempts at a rescue.
A lot of theaters around the country, including the Lincoln Center in New York, have picked up the film and it has won a slew of awards. “Everybody has heard of Eskimos, but no one has really seen an actor portrayal,” MacLean said. This made the film all the more fascinating to viewers across the country.
“On the Ice” premiered in the U.S. Feature competition in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. While in development on this film, MacLean was a Fellow in Sundance Institute’s 2009 Directors Lab and Screenwriters Lab, and was subsequently named the 2009 George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation Directors Lab Fellow. In 2010 he was one of the first recipients of a Sundance Institute Cinereach Feature Film Fellowship, offered to Lab alumni whose projects push the boundaries of conventional storytelling.
“On the Ice” is based on MacLean’s short film, “Sikumi,” which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking. It went on to win awards at other festivals around the world and was short-listed for the 2009 Academy Awards. His other short films include “Natchiliagniaqtuguk Aapagalu/Seal Hunting with Dad,” which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was named one of the 10 best short films at the festival by IndieWire.
Whenever possible, MacLean likes to be at the opening as his film is shown around Alaska. But he is presently at work exploring a new film based on scripts submitted to him. In the future, he plans to make more movies based on the stories from the north.
“My philosophy of working in independent film is to tell compelling stories about interesting and real people. My Iñupiaq culture is a part of the films I make because it is a part of who I am,” he said.

Photo provided

Hig and Erin Higman took on North America’s largest tidewater glacier to learn about climate change, trekking with their toddler and baby. They will talk about their experiences at 7 p.m. tonight at Islands and Ocean Visitors Center.
The talk is called “Life on Ice.” Over the course of two months in the wilderness, they watched a world in transformation.
Dramatic coastal erosion, newborn lakes, disappearing rivers, giant bears, and forests on shifting ice make this 1,000-square mile glacier one of the most dynamic places in the world.
Along with the challenges, their experience is defined by this extraordinary glacier – the last of a dying breed – and by the day-to-day trek as a family of four.

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter - Karaoke host "Dax" Radtke takes suggestions from the audience Thursday night at the Down East Saloon for a freestyle round of a naturalist rap-off between Julie Hinkle, of Homer, and Dan Pascucci, of Soldotna.

When Dax Radtke starts his karaoke show by announcing, “We’ve got a little something weird going on here tonight,” take him seriously.
This is, after all, karaoke. Karaoke at the Down East Saloon in Homer, no less. Where a heartfelt Janis Joplin ballad to Bobby McGee is followed by a grind down into the dirt of Alice in Chains grunge. Where patrons wait patiently for refills while the bartender and sound engineer belt out the entire, full-length, six-minute, 17-second rendition of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” complete with oversized, sparkly glasses as flamboyant as their choreography. Where the regulars include a soulful songstress who classes up the mic every time she takes the stage, followed by a guy only referred to as “Evil Spawn,” who has perfected his Tenacious D “Tribute” knee slide to the point where his black stovepipe top hat doesn’t budge off his head.
Out of the ordinary is ordinary. Still, the natural course of the evening got somewhat derailed Thursday, by, well, nature.
Naturalists, to be precise, and they were very precise — in their rhythms, in their rhymes and in the ecological information they were there to relate.
The Down East karaoke show was the unlikely scene for a meeting of two like-minded ecological educators. Julie Hinkle, a special education aide at Homer Middle School during the school year and nature guide for Alaska Wildland Adventures in Cooper Landing in the summer, has been dubbed the “rapping naturalist” for her tendency to make up rhymes to encourage outdoors good times. (Editor’s note: Keep reading. Their rhyming is much better.) Dan “Dirty D” Pascucci, education specialist for the Kenai Watershed Forum in Soldotna, has a similar reputation for amping educational content with mandolin music and mad rap beats.
Mutual friends have been scheming to arrange at least a meeting of the two, ideally one involving a rap battle of ecologically important proportions. Finally, the stars aligned — Pascucci was in Homer for a school visit to McNeil Elementary last week, Hinkle had the evening free, and Radtke was willing to allow his karaoke show to take a turn down an educational path.
The tour guides came ready to lead the crowd, each with two rounds of prepared material and quick minds poised to freestyle a rap off of suggested topics from the audience.
“Party people in the place to be, you’re chilling with me, Dirty D, on the M I C,” Pascucci greeted the crowd.
Hinkle took a more hometown approach, wielding her local appeal.
“I’d just like to say that you know you’re a Homer girl when you have your rap songs next to which hunting tags you’re going to apply for and your caribou hunt pack list,” she said, holding up the journal she uses for sketching out lyrics.
Round one was prepared material. Hinkle led with her “Ice Ice Baby” ode to glaciation, a la the mode of Vanilla Ice:
“Alright stop, collaborate and listen / Ice is melting from its current position. Something warms the Earth so slightly / carbon gas is going up in smoke not so lightly. Will it ever stop? Yo, I hope so. The ice starts to melt and starts to flow. Alaska’s the scene so you better get a handle / now listen up for more of this scandal.”
By the hook verse, bar patrons who had otherwise been hollering their approval of steamy though educationally devoid lyrics were now whooping and joining in a rap about global warming:
“This is a problem, we can solve it / Get with your community and lets involve it. Glacial ice ice baby / Not so cold, not so cold. Glacial ice ice baby / Not so cold, not so cold.”

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter - Dan "Dirty D" Pascucci, with some homemade aluminum-foil embellishment brought by a fan, performs a rap about protecting sand dunes.

To set the mood for his turn, Pascucci busted out his portable beats generator (a boom box noisemaker toy he found in a secondhand store and lovingly dubbed the Big Bam Boom) and fish hand puppets for his “Salmon Rap.”
“I’m anadromous, you anadromous? I’m anadromous, you anadromous? Fresh, salt, fresh, yes!” Pascucci began, to the collective cheers, and a groan or two, from the audience. “I am a salmon, just look and see / if you live in Alaska, you’ve seen a lot like me. You’ll find five species if you look / the first one is the king a.k.a. chinook. Then you’ve got a sockeye which is red you know / did you know that a silver’s sometimes called coho? Pink — humpies, the rivers they clog / and don’t forget chum ’cause they’re my dogs.”
They had different performance styles — Pascucci more musical, Hinkle preferring a cappella — yet coincidental similarities. Hinkle arrived in a sweatshirt bearing the Alaska Wildland logo to Pascucci’s Kenai Watershed Forum vest, and both wearing knit caps. Indoors attire both happened to be plaid, long-sleeved shirts with pearlized buttons — Pascucci’s snappy, while Hinkle’s were shiny.
More importantly, they share an educational philosophy when it comes to ecology: Use fun to get people learning about and loving nature.
Hinkle said she’s maybe not the norm when it comes to being a naturalist, since she doesn’t bother much with scientific specifics like taxonomic classifications and the proper Latin nomenclature of the plants and critters she teaches about. She can do that stuff if she studies up on it, but experiencing the bigger picture of nature is more important to her, and for her to convey.
“I’m more about just taking people outside and letting them enjoy it. I count the quality of a trip by how many tears are at the end. Like, how many people are sad to leave Alaska. That’s how I measure my trip, not by how many things they can now name.”
For Pascucci, instilling information and a love of nature are like whipped cream and hot chocolate. Both sweet on their own, but much better together.
“If I can do both I have achieved my goal. If I do one of the two then that’s probably all right too. Between appreciation and enjoyment of nature and actual information, I think they’re both fairly important,” he said.
Infusing fun, humor and music into education is a great way to achieve both goals.
“It’s a new way of connecting the information to the audience. Instead of just lecturing, if you can make it rhyme it will at least be more interesting, and if you can make it flow people might remember it,” he said. “If it creates an atmosphere of enjoyment with the information it makes the next time you talk about it a little bit easier to come back to, instead of just being like, ‘Hey, remember that time I talked to you for a really long time about that boring thing?’”
The karaoke audience Thursday at the Down East may remember more than just two science nerds serving hip-hop with a side of Mother Nature. From Hinkle, they may retain some trivia about whales:
“First off is beluga whose name means ‘white’ / they grow up in the sea ice stayin’ out of sight. They are the ones you see in Turnagain Arm / in 2008 they were put on the endangered species to gain protection from harm. Genetically distinct from those in the Bering Sea, only 300 left and they’re lucky to be. Next up are those that travel a long way, come to Alaska in the summer to play / just like Captain James Cook and the Resolution, winter in Hawaii is the perfect solution. Now if you can pay attention and you’re astute, you can tell the individuals apart by the pattern on their fluke.”
From Pascucci, they may think twice about destroying sensitive beach grass:
“Better listen here man, take your beer can, put it in a garbage here can. Clean your waste, yo, clean your space, yo, and a garbage can’s a place where waste goes. / I got my ATV, yeah you know me / Going off the dunes so recklessly. Stop! For just one time, explain to me how on the dunes you came to be. Sure it’s awesome, sure it’s fun, wreck the dunes, it sure is dumb. / Without the dunes, the bluffs are screwed, without the bluffs, you are too.”
After the three rounds — including a freestyle round with Pascucci rapping about salamanders, it was up to the audience to decide the winner.
At first, anyway. Contestants were initially ranked by audience appreciation, including a sudden entrant dubbed, by virtue of hometown, “Anchor Point,” who recited a free verse he’d written on a cocktail napkin in what Radtke designated the “instant, write-him-off-on-a-napkin subdivision.”
But Radtke ultimately put the kibosh on audience influence, deciding that the good-natured group was too enthusiastic to be trusted as discriminating jurors. Instead, he appointed a bar patron to have the final say.
“I just gotta say, these people will applaud for anything,” Radtke said. “Let’s hear it for this table! (The crowd went wild.) The mic stand! (More cheering.) I’m thinking it’s up to you, because we cannot trust these people.”
The designated authority took his position seriously, considering all that had been brought to the mic, before declaring Pascucci the victor.
“He came at it with all three rounds, he also put a lot of enthusiasm into what he was doing. He really put himself out there and I’ve got mad respect for that. Everybody did a lot of great stuff, but give it up for your winner right here,” the judge declared.

Out on a Limb
At Ptarmigan Art’s, the Back Room Gallery presents: “Out On A Limb” with a First Friday Opening 5-7 p.m. Friday. In this exhibit, 10 Ptarmigan Arts artists will present their solutions for cabin fever with their wild and whacky winter blues art work. In other words, some of the artists went “out on a limb” while others stayed traditional, but artists predict patrons will enjoy these new works and fun installations.
Participating artists are Kathi Drew, Jelena Fliehman, Deb Lowney, Gary Lyon, Cindy Nelson, Marali Sargeant-Smith, and Toby Tyler. Collaborating installation artists are Marilee Dupree and Linda Skelton, with installation by Jean Steele.

Native art at Bunnell
“Things are looking Native, Natives looking Whiter” is an installation by Nicholas Galanin, a Tlingit/Aleut/ Multi-Disciplinary Artist, at Bunnell Street Art Center. Galanin works with concepts of the “Indian Art World.” He says he had become impatient with the “institutional prescription and its monolithic attempt to define culture as it unfolds. The viewer, collector, or curators’ definition often conveys more about themselves than that of the Native Artist.” Bunnell Street Art Center presents an opening reception 5-7 p.m. Friday with an artist talk at 5 p.m.
The First IndigenAud Show follows at 9 p.m., featuring Nicholas Galanin aka Silver Jackson and Inupiaq rapper, Allison Warden aka AKU-MATUB.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Laurel and Doug Epps joined Zimbabwaen musician, Tendai Maparutsa Monday to entertain and instruct at West Homer Elementary. The Epps documentary film on the marimba shows 8 p.m. Saturday at Homer Theatre.

Laurel and Doug Epps are debuting their first documentary, “Soul Resonance” in the Homer Theatre’s DocFest this week.
The first showing of Soul Resonance is 8 p.m. Saturday, with a marimba jam to follow. In conjunction with the local marimba bands, Zimbabwean musician Tendai Muparutsa will perform. The second showing will be 4 p.m. Tuesday. The Epps will be at both showings to meet people and answer questions.
“There is a deep spiritual aspect to the ancient music that seems to resonate with the souls of people who hear it,” Laurel said.
The Epps became independent filmmakers after leaving Homer in 2007. But it was while living here that the couple developed a passion for marimba music. They got hooked on Zimbabwe music at Alice’s Champagne Palace in 2003.
“Doug’s heart was touched and our lives were changed forever when he started playing with Shamwari Marimba, one of several marimba ensembles in Homer,” Laurel recalled.
Traveling the Lower 48 for the past four years, they have been working on this documentary, which celebrates the spread of Zimbabwe music across North America for the past 40 years. It documents the infusion of this music into the American music scene through interviews with people from the 1970s to 1990s and attending concerts.
The roots of marimba are traced back to colonized Rhodesia at the turn of the 20th century.
“When the country (Zimbabwe) was called Rhodesia, a specific college was formed to teach Rhodesians more Westernized music, but they wanted to use a different instrument in order to do that,” Laurel said. “Marimbas were being played in neighboring countries, like Mozambique. They taught playing the instruments to music teachers and then to schools.”
Through an arts residency at the University of Washington, the first Zimbabwean musician was brought there in 1969-70. “Due to his charisma and personality, it just took off. It was like a pebble that was dropped in the water and it just kept spreading,” Laurel said.
This is one of the many stories detailed in the documentary, narrated by blues musician Taj Mahal. Muparutsa, one of the musicians featured in their documentary, recorded his arrangement of a traditional Zimbabwe song to accompany the movie’s opening scenes.
The movie-making talent arose from the Epps’ respective expertise. Doug’s background includes electronics engineering, being a commercial pilot and flight instructor. He worked for Smokey Bay Air in Homer for several years. He also has 25 years experience in designing and developing video equipment for use in industrial and broadcast applications. “He’s the total techie,” Laurel said.
“I’m the people person. It was my job to find the people to interview and then to make them feel comfortable,” she said. Laurel has a Master of Arts Degree in Fine Art. She owned the natural food store, Home Sweet Homer until 2004. At that time, she began creating art again and became part owner of the Old Inlet Printmaking Studio before leaving Homer at the end of 2006.
Their website, www.sacredpathexplorations.com, which is dedicated to spreading higher consciousness, grace and well being through the power of visual media, states: “since music is considered by many to be the breath of life, we use video and music to spread this consciousness and expand awareness.”
After their Alaska visit, they plan to return to their home in Pagosa Springs, Colo., on Oct. 5.

HOMER TRIBUNE/File photo - Hundreds gather for a past Burning Basket in Mariner Park.

Volunteers have been at work since Sunday creating a basket to be burned Sept. 18, at Mariner Park at the base of the Homer Spit.
A headquarters tent was erected and materials that had already been gathered to begin the seven-day process were delivered to the site. On hand are refreshments for workers who are out gathering more materials and weaving them into the structure.
Under the direction of homer public art facilitator, Mavis Muller, volunteers will be working on the basket noon to 5 p.m. daily. Muller started the Homer Burning Basket Project in 2004 and facilitates the event in the autumn every year.
“The theme this year is ‘Together,” she said. “It is consistent with themes over the years as a basket of remembrance and unburdening.”
Through the week of construction, more volunteers show up on nice days than raining-sideways days, Muller said. “We bond while working on this. The wet windy days are the most memorable. Our imagination gives us the ability to override the conditions. Some volunteers are passionate about this project and come year after year from near and far. One came from Pennsylvania this week, just to help build the basket. In addition to locals, also helping so far is one volunteer from Chicago and a group from Anchorage. Curiosity stops travelers headed down the Spit and some stay to help. The beauty of this kind of art, people stumble upon it by accident and are drawn in to participate,” Muller said.
This is the eighth basket enactment for Homer of 21 constructed and burned in several states. “It’s like a coming-of-age landmark,” she said. “The project was born here and now it’s coming home on its 21st birthday.”
Volunteers are gathering natural materials such as wild grass, nettles, fireweed, branches of alder, birch and spruce as well as seaweed that has washed ashore and weaving them into a basket. As the structure is completed, people attach messages to loved ones, some of whom have passed on.
The Burning Basket project doesn’t cost much. “Sometimes I put out a donation jar and if people put even a dollar in that helps because the cost is minimal since we use natural materials.” Muller adds that the cost is mostly for incidentals such as posters, supplies and stocking the headquarters tent with food and water. Sometimes tools need to be purchased and celebratory effects are added with sparklers. She said the cost of cds dvds comes out of pocket. “The biggest expenditure is time,” she adds. “It’s a gift and it’s a very rewarding feeling. When given as a gift to the community Sunday, those who have invested time are moved by how the community receives the gift.”
This year there is an added attraction. “We’re going to have another special sculpture, fire-breathing salmon, on site,” she said, “facilitated by metal smith artist Doug Schwiesow. I had a dream and called him. He became very animated and promptly gave me a list of materials.” The resulting creations were debuted at the Kenai Salmon Stock Festival in early August. Paralyzed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), he directed construction of this art from his wheelchair.
At the 2009 event, Schwiesow installed a 5,000-pound gong at the site to sound at the lighting of the fire. Schwiesow dedicated the gong to be installed permanently at the park to honor his former partner, Lois Bettini, who died that year.
Another attraction is a labyrinth nearby that is decorated and becomes more elaborate each year as students from Fireweed Academy embellish the pattern. They are working on it today, Wednesday.
Every year local people who practice fire spinning – juggling and spinning staffs with balls of fire on the ends – perform, she said, and drummers usually show up and form a drumming circle. Spontaneous dancing and music often add to the festivities.
Beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday people are invited to attach messages and/or other decorations to the basket that they wish to send up. The show begins around 6 p.m. with potluck dining, Muller’s short talk and then at sundown torches will be lit to ignite the basket. Hundreds of people have participated in this event over the years.
“I’m learning that the burning is just a small part of the event,” Muller said. “The creation is a huge part of the life of the sculpture.”
Anyone wishing to be a part of it can stop at Mariner Park any afternoon.

HOMER TRIBUNE/Randi Somers - The Condons perform one of their songs devoted to nature. Their performance is slated for 8 p.m. Friday night at Islands and Ocean Visitor Center auditorium.

Andres and Navino Condon will perform nature-inspired music and Persian poet Rumi’s works accompanied by a slideshow of wildlife photographs taken by Mary Frische and Tom Callopy at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Center auditorium starting at 8 p.m. Friday.
Asia Freeman of the Bunnell Street Art Gallery arranged for the appearance and provided information about the Condons, supplemented by a Tribune interview with the pair at the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center Friday.
Andres said since his brother Willie Condon lives in Homer, he has come here several times in recent years to perform. A native of Chile, Andres and his German wife travel around the world performing in many venues.
The pair combine the musical sounds of nature, like creeks and waterfalls, whale songs and bird calls with guitar, harmonica and other instruments and their duet vocals. Their cds are said to be rich tapestries invoking peace, relaxation and the beauties of nature. Their instruments include guitar, harmonica, bandurria, mandolin, viola, caipira, tiple and charango.
Described as a New Age artist inspired by folk, jazz and nature, Condon writes and performs music that has been called spiritual.
Born in Santiago, Chile in 1957, Condon is recognized as one of the most important musicians from Chile in the genre of world music, having performed internationally in many concert halls and during festivals, including the Latin American Festival in the Royal Albert Hall, London, and the State of the World Forum in San Francisco.
In his home country, Chile, he not only gives numerous concerts but he has also musically mentored many TV series. Among his credits, Andres over a period of seven years acted as composer and sound engineer for the award winning TV series ‘Al Sur del Mundo’ (In the South of the World). For his musical contribution to educational and environmental programs he was awarded the prestigious ‘Chucao Price’ by the Chilean ministry of education.
In order to help musicians from Chile make their work known, Andres together with Rodriga Cepeda (Subhira) founded the music label ‘Mundovivo’ (www.mundovivo.cl), which produces and sells music from Chile, North America and Europe. Among these productions some of Andres’ own CDs such as Caminos del Agua, Nomad, Waves of Silence, Dharma Moments and Corazon de Aguila are noteworthy.
Since 2005, Andres and his German wife Navino have lived in an artistic German village, Parimal, from where they repeatedly go on international concert tours, primarily to Canada, Chile, the USA and Europe he told the Tribune reporter. They agreed that Germany is fine in the summer but the climate of Chile is more appealing in winter.
Andres has been performing, recording or producing with Subhira (Chile), Grupo Agua (Chile), Jacqueline Fuentes (Chile), Joakin Bello (Chile), Lenedra Carroll (USA), Sluka (USA), Jewel (Kilcher)(USA), Amaresh Seelig (Germany), Dr. Hans Georg Hammerla (Germany), Vatika (Switzerland), Samarpan (Germany) and Sankalpananda, (Greece.)
Their next performance is at the Festival of Italy Sept 9, he said.
The performance in the Islands and Ocean auditorium Friday evening begins at 8 p.m. The price is $10 to $20 (Pay as you can.)

HOMER TRIBUNE/Randi Somers - George (Ken Lanfield) and Charlotte (Margaret Quarton) practice their sword fight for a scene in a play, Cyrano de Bergerac, they are performing in Buffalo. Both actors were in training, learning how to fence, with Ethen Ford and Scott Meyer two nights a week since the play "Moon over Buffalo" went into rehearsal in June.

Called a “love note to theater” by one critic, Moon over Buffalo takes the audience backstage to experience the personal interaction of actors. Pier One Theatre will present this play for three weekends, beginning Friday.
The play is set in 1953, the end of the era of touring classical repertory theater. Actors George (Ken Lanfield) and Charlotte (Margaret Quarton) carry on despite small audiences and their inappropriate roles as young lovers in two classic plays. Their company and crew are in Buffalo, (called New York’s least favorite city), to present Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac and Noel Coward’s Private Lives. Cyrano is a late-1800s romantic sword fighting play with a huge cast (George and Charlotte have reduced the cast to five, thereby losing most of the point of the play). Private Lives is a British drawing-room comedy from the 1930s, fortunately (for the small touring company) having very few roles.
Taking their shows on the road was the main means of livelihood of Broadway actors from the late 1700s into the World War II years. Theatrical touring evolved to adapt to local conditions and stay in each town as long as they had an audience and helped establish theater in places which might never have known live theater otherwise. The Great Depression closed touring to all but a few highly publicized successes. The tours also needed high-profile Broadway or Hollywood stars in order to succeed. Hollywood was changing the face of entertainment in America. After World War II, there was a brief demand for theatrical entertainment that died out with the end of war-time inflation. Broadway’s only salvation seemed to be the popularity of musical comedies and dramas.
A broad knowledge of plays and theatre in general helps the audience grasp many references and inside jokes, Pier One Artistic Director Lance Petersen wrote.
The protagonists see their performance as a shot at starring roles in The Scarlet Pimpernel epic because director Frank Capra himself is en route to Buffalo to catch their matinee performance.
With Joe Lawton directing, the farce is sure to leave the audience smiling if not laughing out loud and would be actors will especially identify with the stage players aspirations to secure movie roles.
Actually three plays intertwined, the slapstick action uses doors opening and closing to create near misses of people trying to avoid each other, people hiding in closets, half-naked actors, mistaken identities and mass confusion.
Director Lawton studied and acted under Frank Brink at Alaska Methodist University in the mid-60s. He met Petersen there, and they stayed in touch. Lawton subsequent worked primarily at Valley Performing Arts in Palmer. He said he recently ran into his old friend Petersen and they discussed the possibility of Lawton directing a play here.
During rehearsals which have been underway since the end of June, Lawton lived on his fishing boat, a 26-foot double ender, in the Homer Harbor, occasionally driving home to Palmer.
The cast is comprised of Ken Lanfield playing George Hay, a traveling actor; Margaret Quarton as Charlotte, George’s wife and actress in his company; Elizabeth Caldwell as Rosilind Roz, their daughter who left the stage to lead a “normal” life; Alan Olson playing a TV weatherman, Howard, who is Rosalind’s fiance; Reuben Sherwood as Paul ,the rear stage manager for George’s company and Rosalind’s ex-fiance; Jules Joy as Ethel, Charlotte’s nearly deaf mother; Michael McKinney playing Richard, a lovesick lawyer who is courting Charlotte and Taneeka Hansen as Eileen, an acress in George’s company who earlier was his one night stand. All but Quarton are veteran actors. She said this is her second summer of acting.
The play will be performed Aug. 26, 27, 28, Sept. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Sept. 8, 9, 10.
All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are available at Etude Studio and the Bookstore. They are $12 with discounts available.
Volunteering at the snack counter or as an usher gets one in free. Call 235-7333 for reservations.