Dave Hunsaker, one of the writers whose work will be premiered this summer, is writing "Warriors," a world premiere that will explore the history and journey of the Alaska Native Warrior through movement, song, and storytelling; photo by David Sheakley for the Juneau Empire

Updates
Perseverance Theatre Summerfest ’14 continues to gain momentum in both community awareness and staff time devoted to the project. With the holidays and a new year came a natural slowdown; there were many distractions, and timing being what it is around the holidays, but now that the new year has kicked in, the task lists are growing as we near the launch in May 2014.

Potential tourism partners have begun staffing up their offices; they are back from the winter break and firing up their programs. It has made it a bit easier to make more contacts and to work toward building partnerships for Summerfest.

The Perseverance staff is hard at work making production calendars, securing housing for guest artists, working with designers to finalize the designs of the sets that will need to get built. The opening of a new show play at Perseverance has allowed the marketing team to begin pushing festival passes directly to patrons.

Recent Wins
-- Awareness and feedback on our programming schedule from those individuals and businesses that are already established heavy summer tourism market. We have decided to targeted independent travelers as the main branch of tourism we will look to find in our audiences.

-- Graphic designs are almost complete and will be made into advertising and collateral materials we can share around town.

-- The first of 13 company members who will perform in the shows was hired.

Insight/Provocation
The holidays along with the end of and beginning of a new year can take its toll on productivity. What strategies and/or communication methods are best used during this time period? Is it best to withhold or place deadlines far enough in the new year to make them achievable and effective? It’s an interesting dilemma for a theatre company with regular programming between September and May. The holidays and the new year fall right in the middle of this work. Does it become a mid-year break for all involved? How do you adjust timings to be forgiving but also to keep the team on task?