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Carhartts and Xtratufs Ball — get tickets here!

Updated revival of 'The Battle of Kenai;' Five shows starting Thursday

The Kenai Performers are taking to the stage starting tomorrow (Nov 15) with an updated play recounting life in Kenai in several historical periods.

“The Ballad of Kenai,” which is in its fifth revival, is largely set in Kenai Joe’s, the venerable watering hole near Old Town.

Terri Zopf-Schoessler (like wrestler) said the costumer worked hard to get the look right.

“The most modern in here would be the ’72 pipeline. We were going back to early versions of Carharrts and hard hats. But in the late 40s and early 50s, when it’s the past in this show, we were looking at the early timber industry, the early fishing industry — the highliners — coming into that,” she said. “And Chris Cook and all of the people who work with her have done their very best to make sure this is period correct and appropriate. And in their cases, they’re going back to the memories of when they were kids.”

Another aspect that has gotten a lot of work in this revival is how the local Natives are portrayed. Zopf-Schoessler says the Native stories that are told in the play were written by Peter Kalifornski and integrated with the help of local elders.

“He originally wrote and told these stories. And that’s one of the things Phil spent hours and hours talking to the local elders. Bunny has come in and corrected our pronunciation on a lot of things,” she said. “We have accumulated knowledge over the years and we’re doing our best to try to respect a culture that is different from ours, and yet has been so generous in lending some of their ideas and stories and music to this version.”

Cast member Mike Gallagher said the play tries to be honest about how it portrays aspects of the relationship between Natives and white settlers.

“This show, Phillip was really careful with this, but he really did want to show how the Native culture was marginalized, or set apart somehow from us. And how the treatment was of the people, and to really show the truth about really what was going on here,” he said. “It’s not sugar-coated. And it tells the story in a way that might not have been politically correct.”

Zopf-Schoessler said it was described as “warts and all.”

The Renee C. Henderson Auditorium will host “The Ballad of Kenai,” which was first performed in 1963. Its 21st Century revival starts Thursday night and plays through the weekend, including two shows on Saturday and a matinee on Sunday. Tickets are available online.

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