College of Wooster Professor of Theatre and Dance Dale Seeds has spent his last three sabbaticals in Alaska. He has been studying indigenous Alaskan performance since 1994. Alaska is home to various indigenous cultures, some of which, Seeds says, have vivid memories of the first time they saw a “white man”. Many of the places Seeds was working have only had about 100 years of contact with Western civilization. Thus, the native cultures and lifestyles have been preserved well, which is a main factor that drew Seeds to the area.
Seeds has been working most directly with the Chenega tribe, an anthropological hybrid with a great deal of Russian influence. They engage in Russian orthodoxy and celebrate Christian holidays while maintaining many indigenous beliefs, rituals and practices. Archaeological evidence found in the village suggested it has been there for a millennium.
In 1964 the Chenega people were met with great tragedy.. An earthquake that measured 8.5 on the Richter scale struck near the village, but it was the ensuing tsunamis that decimated the Chenega tribe.
The community was extremely remote and it was not until the postal service attempted to deliver mail that people realized the devastation had occurred. Today there is almost no indication of human habitation at the site of the old village.
Eventually the surviving Chenega were airlifted out and lived in diasporas for two decades. In 1984 the Bureau of Indian Affairs helped to build a new village. The only people that can visit the old village are the Chenega for memorial reasons. Today, Seeds says the new village is “one of the most well-off villages I’ve visited.”
Tragedy struck again in 1989 when the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred near the new Chenega village. Eerily, both the 1964 earthquake and the Exxon Valdez occurred on Good Friday. The village is now outfitted as a rapid response staging area in case of future oil spills.
John E. Smelcer organized interviews from the survivors of the 1964 earthquake in his book “The Day That Cries Forever.” Seeds has written a drama based on this book to be performed by members of the Theatre department here at Wooster. The play has yet to be published and is currently in its seventh revision.
There was a stage reading at The University of Alaska Fairbanks in April. Another stage reading will take place in Wooster on November 21 and 22, which Seeds says is “like a test drive for the playwright.” Bonnie Milne Gardner will come from Ohio Wesleyan University to direct the play. Auditions will be held in October.
Seeds says the difficulty lies in “finding a story worth doing dramatically while avoiding the imposition of a Western viewpoint.” Seeds obtained copyright permission from the Chenega and Smelcer but it is much more than a legal contract for him; Seeds views it as a “moral copyright.” Does this play respect the truth? The voice of the Chenega? These questions must be asked when undertaking such an endeavor. Seeds believes in a “do no harm to the culture” mentality, maintaining that, “I’m willing to abandon the project if the people of Chenega say I’ve gone too far.”