Perseverance
Tuesday, May 10th, 2005 by PatMy dad used to own the Perseverance Theatre building and we lived upstairs above the neighboring Billiken Bar. I remember at age three just having the vague impression that it was somewhere special. When anyone talked about art, theatre, or public television I assumed it all took place there. They once did a Sherlock Holmes play and since it was all the same to me I assumed that Sherlock Hemlock from Sesame Street was my neighbor and they were filming his portions of the show downstairs.
One of my favorite stories from that time is of Billy Horner, another tennant who lived above the theatre. Perseverance was doing The Diary of Ann Frank and night after night he had to listen to the Nazi’s stomping about as he was trying to sleep. One night he got fed up and went downstairs with his shotgun to save Ann.
I went to the theatre Saturday night to see columbinus and the space still feels the same to me even through the first slow steps of rennovation and expansion.
Columbinus was directed by PJ Paparelli who co-wrote the play with members of his theatre collective, The United States Theatre Project, and brings it to Juneau as part of a co-production world premiere. Paparelli, also the new artistic director for Perseverance, researched this play extensively and often quotes directly from a journal, tapes and other artifacts left behind by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. It’s not my favorite play of the season but it had me thinking about the events after I left the theatre and ranks highly as a social examination. The play opening comes at a time when our own Juneau Douglas High School is being scoured for weapons and under watch after finding a message written on the wall of the women’s restroom that claimed the writer would bring a gun to school Thursday.
High School is a strange little social Petri dish… Theatre too.
May 10th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
’tis indeed a strange social petri dish (high school, i mean) — but do things really change that much from the silly little social cliques back then to social groups as adults? i’m finding that this little town is a strange little social petri dish of its own — the way things connect or disconnect as they float around the various watering holes downtown — haven’t figured it out yet… it’s almost like a junior-high dance where kids are split onto various sides of the cafetorium and everyone is annoyed with the one kid who actually has the nerve to talk to someone outside of their group… i dunno, just my thoughts so far.
May 18th, 2005 at 8:39 am
cool story about my old friend billy horner. i had heard lots of stories of von loon’s (billy) adventures in the Billiken Bar, but not this one. i’m trying to locate billy. i last heard he owned a bar in montana. does anyone have any contact info on him. thanks bob
June 17th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
sure bobby i’m married to him and we own the full moon saloon in stevensville montana and it took my daughter in nyc to find out about this story - it was a great night of laughter… email billy at horndogs1@msn…