Alaska Theatre of Youth's INUK AND THE SUN was directed and designed by Kari Glass
INUK AND THE SUN is a coming-of-age story which "explores the fundamental human experience of life and death" (Beissel), set in an Arctic winterscape in a small Inuit village. The young protagonist, Inuk, is on a classic hero quest, seeking self-determination by searching for the light and nurturing warmth of the sun in the midst of the cold dark winter. Playwright Henry Beissel chose the Inuit setting for his story because "Canada's first people have much to teach us . . . [about] the need to understand and accept our place in nature in order to survive."
The master symbol for this production is the Yin-Yang image a two part interlocking puzzle joined together to complete the whole. The archetypal characters present riddles at every stage of the journey and Inuk is asked to collect pieces of information in order to solve the puzzle.
The opening poem begins, "White is black, and black is white," a concept symbolized by the two halves of the Yin-Yang circle. Inuk's journey ultimately becomes a completion concept symbolized by the juxtaposed Yin-Yang. Inuk's life is complemented and completed by the love and brilliant illumination he finds from his union with the Spirit of the Sun. Her warm femininity tempers Inuk's cold competitive masculine tendencies. She fills him with a transforming light and brings him into the heart of his community. This play is about the juxtaposed elements of nature, light-dark, life-death, feast-famine, sun-moon, young-old, summer-winter, day-night, hot-cold, mundane-spiritual, and female-masculine.
About the Production:
Kari Glass directed and designed Henry Beissel's poetic stage play "Inuk and the Sun" produced by Alaska Theatre for Youth's 2005 summer conservatory in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts Discovery Theatre. Yngvil Vatn Guttu composed and performed an original score for the production. Poet and performance artist Brian Hutton and California award winning drama teacher Susan Raley coached and ran second scenes while Kari ran the rehearsals.
