Guide to the Alaska Light Opera Theatre records
1986-1989
Collection number: HMC-1339.
Creator: Alaska Light Opera Theatre.
Title: Alaska Light Opera Theatre records.
Dates: 1986-1989.
Volume of collection: 0.31 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Materials in the collection are in English.
Collection summary: Programs and set designs of a theater company in Anchorage.
Organizational history:
The Alaska Light Opera Theatre (ALOT) was founded in 1984 by Peggy MacDonald Moon and Gloria Marinacci Allen to bring Broadway-style musicals to Alaska. The company opened its first season in 1985 with a performance of Oklahoma!, held at the Anchorage Community College Performing Arts Center. The company later moved to the Fourth Avenue Theatre and then the Alaska Performing Arts Center in Downtown Anchorage. Citing significant debt and loss of grant funding from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, ALOT canceled a second production on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The company did not produce a 1990-1991 season. In 1991, ALOT merged with the Alaska Festival Theater to form the Alaska Stage Company. The two theater companies reverted to their original names but continued to produce plays and musicals together until 1995, when Alaska Festival Theatre officially shut down.
Collection description:
The collection consists of programs and set design plans for shows put on by the Alaska Light Opera Theatre. The collection contains programs for My Fair Lady, I Do! I Do!, West Side Story, Annie Get Your Gun, Little Shop of Horrors, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Baby. The set designs were created for I Do! I Do!, West Side Story, and Annie Get Your Gun.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged by type of material.
Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Rights note: Archives and Special Collections does not own copyright to materials in the collection.
Preferred citation: Alaska Light Opera Theatre records, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Works used in preparation of inventory:
“In Brief.” Anchorage Daily News, June 21, 1987. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Billington, Linda. “Capri Rides Waves in Art-Film World.” Anchorage Daily News, September 3, 1995. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Billington, Linda. “Opera Group Cancels Show.” Anchorage Daily News, November 8, 1989. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Blucher, Jay. “Stage Fight Imported Road Shows, Local Productions to Vie for Audiences.” Anchorage Daily News, September 23 1990. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Gluckman, Ron. “Suddenly summer: musicals tap city.” Anchorage Daily Times, July 14, 1985. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Gluckman, Ron. “Theater group founders plan ambitious debut.” Anchorage Daily Times, November 25, 1984. Accessed August 6, 2019.
McPherson, T. Massari. “Tying the knot may make cents for this ‘couple’.” Anchorage Daily Times, May 17, 1991. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Palmer, Susan. “In Performance When in Rome……Do Enjoy What Those Goofy Romans Do in ‘A Funny Thing’.” Anchorage Daily News, February 26, 1993. Accessed August 6, 2019.
Related materials: For additional collections related to performing arts in Alaska, please visit our Performing arts collections topic guide.
Acquisition note: The set design plans were donated to the Archives and a deed of gift signed by Connie Soltis in 2019.
Processing information: This collection was described by Gwen Higgins in 2019.