Perseverance Theatre and Arciniega Street to stage 'Wolf at the Door' in Anchorage

Perseverance Theatre announced Oct. 20 that it will co-produce Marisela Treviño Orta's play Wolf at the Door with Arciniega Street Productions in Anchorage. The co-production announcement sets the run for Nov. 27 through Dec. 13 at the UAA Fine Arts Building Mainstage.

The production is Arciniega Street's first live theater show. It is also director Rio Alberto's Alaska directing debut with Perseverance. The theater said the play is written, produced and directed by Mexican-American artists.

"We have longed to support the Mexican-American and Latine voices of Alaska and the perfect opportunity arose when Rio brought us this play and Kendra Arciniega," Artistic Director Leslie Ishii said in the announcement. She credited Crowded Fire Theatre Company with supporting the play's early development.

Perseverance calls itself Alaska's professional regional theater and points to a 47-year history. Arciniega Street is a local company owned by Latina, Filipina and queer producers. Kendra Arciniega and her partner, co-producer Mercedes, are entering their sixth year staging drag, burlesque, live music and dinner shows.

"The themes of resistance, survival, and the thin spiritual veil spoke to me especially as a Latina raised in a multigenerational matriarchal family," Arciniega said in the announcement.

The play follows Isadora, who wants to escape her abusive husband, Septimo. A pregnant woman named Yolot arrives at their hacienda seeking shelter from the snow, Septimo plots against her, and wolves close in.

It is the second play in Treviño Orta's cycle of "Grimm Latine/o/x fairy tales," drawn from Latino folklore and mythology. The cycle also includes The River Bride. The theater said the play draws on Aztec ideas of the afterlife, the Guaraní legend of the luisón and European fairy tales. It premiered in 2018 through the National New Play Network's Rolling World Premiere program. American Players Theatre, Milagro Theatre and Su Teatro have since staged it.

Alberto, a queer Chicano artist from Washington, has acted in Anchorage and Juneau in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Fun Home and Devilfish. "The story that Marisela has crafted is dreamy and dangerous in the same breath," Alberto said.

The theater recommends the show for audiences 16 and older because of strong adult themes. Ticket listings show $45 seats on Fridays and Saturdays and $35 seats on Thursdays and Sundays. Pay-as-you-can performances are set for Nov. 29 and Dec. 3. The cast has not yet been announced.