01/17/2004: "Shakespeare and Tlingit Culture"

I went to see Perseverance Theatre's presentation of Macbeth tonight and it was really great. They used the traditional Shakespearean language but they used an all Alaskan Native cast and had it set in clan houses instead of castles. They wore traditional costumes and incorporated a lot of the Tlingit symbols and words into it. There was also lots of drumming and Tlingit dancing. One scene I liked in particular was the fight scene between Macduff and Macbeth. Instead of using swords, they used drums, beating on their own drums as well as beating eachothers. It looked and sounded really cool. The image above is the program cover. The art work is a Tlingit design.

I had a very social day today, earlier I went to my friend Seon's house for dinner. She is South Korean and made a Korean dinner. Susi, a korean miso soup, and tempura mushrooms. It was very good. Afterward we were having a beer and she offered me some toasted seaweed which I declined. She said that is the typical snack that South Korean's eat with beer, like our beer nuts I guess. We also listened to some Korean music and she showed me one of her ceramonial dresses. It was very interesting. I have had several South Korean friends before but none of them really had very strong ties to South Korea anymore...so it was nice to be treated to two seperate cultures in the same evening.

I got started on a new painting this afternoon and it's going OK. It will be more of a landscape with a figure in it, than a figurative painting with background. I'm not sure I like that yet. Still, I'm going to try and go into more of a magical realism direction for this next show.

Also, from out of the blue I received a package from an old friend I hadn't seen or heard from in many years. He sent me a copy of a book he just had published and a card with a nice note in it. I guess he's going to have another book coming out soon. I was friends with a lot of writers when I lived in Anchorage. It's fun to see them going on to great things with their craft. I try not to judge myself against their accomplishments. I just need to be encouraged by them and continue to work hard to accomplish my own dreams.

Well, I'm pretty sleepy, I think I'll watch The Committments (the movie about Irish soul musicians) before I turn it in.
Gunal'cheesh