The Prince William Sound community college hosted the 2004 Edward Albee Last Frontier Theatre Conference from the 17th through the 28 of June. It has done so for the past 11 years.
How did I get involved? I was fortunate to be reminded of the conference by my good friends the Rangers who live in Valdez, Alaska. Catherine Ranger did a couple of neat things for me. First, she sent me in the direction of Dawson Moore (who had the initial hint of faith in me, as he runs the conference operations), then she offered to be my host and next thing I knew I had a flight reserved. Soon three scripts appeared in my mail box for the staged readings that I would participate in during my week in Valdez..
The layover between the midnight flight arrival in Anchorage and the 7:50am flight was interesting and I blended right in with the rest of the airport chair snoozers.
I hit the ground on Saturday when I arrived in Valdez with  rehearsals for the Play lab selection “ Dad’s Arrival” which was written by Kate McCloud and proceeded to re-familiarize myself with my surroundings in Valdez.
I have been to Valdez, Alaska many times in my life and the majority of those times have been on very large crude carriers (Oil Tankers/Ships) while I worked for Atlantic Richfield Company’s Marine Division as a Chief Engineer.
On my trip up from LA, I hoped for the opportunity to give something back to the Alaskan community because for years I had come up to “extract the resource”….what a bonus that would be for me if I could make that happen!

Kim delivers in his role as the Corrections Officer in Kushner’s “East Coast Ode To Jarvis”

My first staged reading came on Sunday @ 2:30pm. The short play titled “Circumstances” written by Chris Kompanek was a wonderful piece which was reviewed and critiqued by featured playwrights. Favorable reviews were given and a good time was had by all. A big thanks to Sherry Fischbach for being a great scene partner. Good luck Chris in your future endeavors.
My second staged reading was the full length play “Dads Arrival” directed by Vicki Russell. We performed on Monday @ 3:00pm and great scene partners in the form of Sara MacMillan, Stu Erickson and Bernie Blaine - wonderful actors that made the event a true pleasure. Thanks also to Linda Billington for being the reader.
Around this time it was discovered that I was an old ARCO (now ConocoPhilips) sailor, I had worked in the office in LA and Long Beach, and also that I had at one time been on a very short list for a job at Alyeska, which would have had me living in Valdez. ConocoPhilips (formerly ARCO) is a huge supporter of the conference, has been for years, as was ARCO back in the Independence, Kansas days. What greater notoriety could one person ask for? Well, the only thing that tops the aforementioned is to know Dr. Jody McDowell, as she is the person who started the conference and the one who asked Edward Albee to attend and participate at the level he does. She also gets stage and screen luminaries such as Marian Seldes, Courtney B. Vance, John Guare, Romulus Linney, Joel Vig, Patricia Neal, Tony Kushner, Lloyd Richards, Lawrence Sacharow, and others to appear for the week as well. So, all in all she is a good person to know. What a treat she is!
After I participated in the Marian Seldes Master Class for actors for the stage, I was thrilled to be the selected scene partner for the wonderful and talented actress Ms. Sara Wagner of New York, in the Courtney B. Vance Master Class for actors. The scene from “Proof” was indeed a pleasure for me to do.


On Friday morning, I participated in my final short play lab doing a play called “Citizen Bernie” by a talented LA playwright by the name of Terence Anthony. A big thanks to the reader Dulcy Boehl and my scene partner Steven Hunt. Well received work and a wonderful staged reading….great writing helps a great deal. I’m sure we’ll hear more from Terance Anthony in the future.
I was also asked to participate in another set of readings for the Saturday night performance which is held on the main stage at the conference center to read from Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and to be in a scene with Marian Seldes & Jerry Harper. How lucky does one guy get? Well, I thought you might ask that…….. so, (in a Gumpian moment) then I was asked to participate (on the same Saturday night) in a reading of Kushner’s “East Coast Ode to Jarvis” with an ensemble cast of talent from across the country…what a treat! Thanks to Gloria Allen for the trust and thanks to Vincent Scott for herding the kittens and making it work.