<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This story first appeared in <\/em>The Juneau Empire<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n by Amy Condra<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1879 Libby Beaman boarded the S.S. St. Paul to venture across the Bering Sea toward the Pribilof Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her presence there wouldn\u2019t be by accident; Libby had asked President Rutherford B. Hayes, a family friend, for permission to accompany her husband to what Russian missionaries once called, \u201cthe place that God forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ship\u2019s captain told the Washington, D.C. socialite that she would be the first non-Native woman to venture to the remote Pribilofs, where her husband would serve as Assistant to the Senior Revenue Agent. Her husband\u2019s superior officer told her her presence would be, as Libby later recounted in her journal, \u201cthe most unwise and foolhardy thing I\u2019ve ever heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This week in Juneau, Libby Beaman, as portrayed by actress Elizabeth Ware, will tell audiences what it was like to live in a land that could be both hostile and hauntingly beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLibby,\u201d a one-woman play based on Beaman\u2019s diary and sketchbook, has been performed throughout Alaska and the Lower 48, and has earned a four-star review at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. This week\u2019s performances at the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council will mark the first time the play has been staged locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s about time!\u201d Ware said. \u201cI\u2019m very much looking forward to coming down and performing for Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Anchorage-based actress has assumed the role of Libby numerous times over the past 13 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the story of an adventurous and brave woman,\u201d she said. \u201cShe goes into this experience with a colonial attitude, and comes out with the realization that there are others ways of living life, of living in the world, than the ones she\u2019s used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On St. Paul Island, Libby met the Pribilof Aleuts, who had been brought to the Pribilofs a hundred years earlier by seal fur traders and had, under first Russian and later American rule, endured tumultuous upheavals. They had also developed a unique culture, one that couldn\u2019t help but influence Libby\u2019s impressions of life on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe was drawn into the life and people there, into their community and values,\u201d Ware said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The director of the play, David Edgecombe, holds a Ph.D. in theater history and directing from Kent State University and is a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage\u2019s Department of Theatre and Dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ware says that she and Edgecombe first learned of Libby\u2019s story in 1992, when they were working with a theater company in Vladivostok, Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy mother was planning to come over and asked us what we wanted, and we said, \u2018Peanut butter and books in English, please!\u2019\u201d Ware said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the books her mother brought was \u201cLibby: The Alaskan Diaries and Letters of Libby Beaman, 1879-1880,\u201d published in 1987 by Libby\u2019s granddaughter, Betty John.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe story was fascinating, and I had a sense of it as a one-woman show,\u201d Edgecombe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the story of an adventurous and brave woman. She goes into this experience with a colonial attitude, and comes out with the realization that there are others ways of living life, of living in the world, than the ones she\u2019s used to.<\/p>Elizabeth Ware<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n He started adapting the book for the stage in 1997, in response to a request for a play that would commemorate Women\u2019s History Month by celebrating Alaska\u2019s pioneering women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLibby\u201d was first performed at Cyrano\u2019s Off-Center Playhouse in Anchorage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it is a performance on St. Paul Island, where Libby wrote her journals and drew in her sketchbook, that offered Edgecombe a rare insight into the play\u2019s setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLiz performed in a community center, and in the distance you could hear barking seals, right when she was talking about the seals!\u201d Edgecombe recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe experience was thrilling to say the least,\u201d Ware said. \u201cJust to be able to go to St. Paul \u2014 I still get goose bumps! When we drove up to the place where we were staying, we found it was near one of the seal rookeries. And the only way to describe the sound was as a cacophony. I was brought up in the southwest on a ranch, and the barking of the seals sounds just like cattle \u2014 herds and herds of cattle, going nonstop!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The play\u2019s Juneau performances are being sponsored by the Friends of the Alaska State Museum, and the organization\u2019s vice president, Renee Hughes, said a museum exhibit prompted her desire to bring \u201cLibby\u201d to town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRecently the State Museums hosted a traveling exhibit on the Pribilof Islands and the fur sealing industry. This brought back memories of reading the book \u2018Libby,\u2019 and then seeing Elizabeth Ware\u2019s performance in Anchorage,\u201d she said. \u201cWe discovered that she was still doing the performance and would enjoy bringing the story to the Southeast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Alaska State Museum is charged with being the stewards of all of Alaska\u2019s history,\u201d added Hughes, \u201cand this is an opportunity for the Friends to showcase a small part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A story of Libby Beaman, who ventured to the remote Pribilof Islands This story first appeared in The Juneau Empire by Amy Condra In 1879 Libby Beaman boarded the S.S. St. Paul to venture across the Bering Sea toward the Pribilof Islands. Her presence there wouldn\u2019t be by accident; Libby had asked President Rutherford B. Hayes,… Continue reading Historical play \u2018Libby\u2019 makes its Juneau debut<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alaska","category-arts","category-juneau","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1335,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/1335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis story first appeared in <\/em>The Juneau Empire<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nby Amy Condra<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1879 Libby Beaman boarded the S.S. St. Paul to venture across the Bering Sea toward the Pribilof Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHer presence there wouldn\u2019t be by accident; Libby had asked President Rutherford B. Hayes, a family friend, for permission to accompany her husband to what Russian missionaries once called, \u201cthe place that God forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe ship\u2019s captain told the Washington, D.C. socialite that she would be the first non-Native woman to venture to the remote Pribilofs, where her husband would serve as Assistant to the Senior Revenue Agent. Her husband\u2019s superior officer told her her presence would be, as Libby later recounted in her journal, \u201cthe most unwise and foolhardy thing I\u2019ve ever heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis week in Juneau, Libby Beaman, as portrayed by actress Elizabeth Ware, will tell audiences what it was like to live in a land that could be both hostile and hauntingly beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cLibby,\u201d a one-woman play based on Beaman\u2019s diary and sketchbook, has been performed throughout Alaska and the Lower 48, and has earned a four-star review at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. This week\u2019s performances at the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council will mark the first time the play has been staged locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s about time!\u201d Ware said. \u201cI\u2019m very much looking forward to coming down and performing for Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Anchorage-based actress has assumed the role of Libby numerous times over the past 13 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThis is the story of an adventurous and brave woman,\u201d she said. \u201cShe goes into this experience with a colonial attitude, and comes out with the realization that there are others ways of living life, of living in the world, than the ones she\u2019s used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn St. Paul Island, Libby met the Pribilof Aleuts, who had been brought to the Pribilofs a hundred years earlier by seal fur traders and had, under first Russian and later American rule, endured tumultuous upheavals. They had also developed a unique culture, one that couldn\u2019t help but influence Libby\u2019s impressions of life on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cShe was drawn into the life and people there, into their community and values,\u201d Ware said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe director of the play, David Edgecombe, holds a Ph.D. in theater history and directing from Kent State University and is a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage\u2019s Department of Theatre and Dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWare says that she and Edgecombe first learned of Libby\u2019s story in 1992, when they were working with a theater company in Vladivostok, Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cMy mother was planning to come over and asked us what we wanted, and we said, \u2018Peanut butter and books in English, please!\u2019\u201d Ware said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne of the books her mother brought was \u201cLibby: The Alaskan Diaries and Letters of Libby Beaman, 1879-1880,\u201d published in 1987 by Libby\u2019s granddaughter, Betty John.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe story was fascinating, and I had a sense of it as a one-woman show,\u201d Edgecombe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is the story of an adventurous and brave woman. She goes into this experience with a colonial attitude, and comes out with the realization that there are others ways of living life, of living in the world, than the ones she\u2019s used to.<\/p>Elizabeth Ware<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHe started adapting the book for the stage in 1997, in response to a request for a play that would commemorate Women\u2019s History Month by celebrating Alaska\u2019s pioneering women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cLibby\u201d was first performed at Cyrano\u2019s Off-Center Playhouse in Anchorage.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut it is a performance on St. Paul Island, where Libby wrote her journals and drew in her sketchbook, that offered Edgecombe a rare insight into the play\u2019s setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cLiz performed in a community center, and in the distance you could hear barking seals, right when she was talking about the seals!\u201d Edgecombe recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe experience was thrilling to say the least,\u201d Ware said. \u201cJust to be able to go to St. Paul \u2014 I still get goose bumps! When we drove up to the place where we were staying, we found it was near one of the seal rookeries. And the only way to describe the sound was as a cacophony. I was brought up in the southwest on a ranch, and the barking of the seals sounds just like cattle \u2014 herds and herds of cattle, going nonstop!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe play\u2019s Juneau performances are being sponsored by the Friends of the Alaska State Museum, and the organization\u2019s vice president, Renee Hughes, said a museum exhibit prompted her desire to bring \u201cLibby\u201d to town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cRecently the State Museums hosted a traveling exhibit on the Pribilof Islands and the fur sealing industry. This brought back memories of reading the book \u2018Libby,\u2019 and then seeing Elizabeth Ware\u2019s performance in Anchorage,\u201d she said. \u201cWe discovered that she was still doing the performance and would enjoy bringing the story to the Southeast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe Alaska State Museum is charged with being the stewards of all of Alaska\u2019s history,\u201d added Hughes, \u201cand this is an opportunity for the Friends to showcase a small part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A story of Libby Beaman, who ventured to the remote Pribilof Islands This story first appeared in The Juneau Empire by Amy Condra In 1879 Libby Beaman boarded the S.S. St. Paul to venture across the Bering Sea toward the Pribilof Islands. Her presence there wouldn\u2019t be by accident; Libby had asked President Rutherford B. Hayes,… Continue reading Historical play \u2018Libby\u2019 makes its Juneau debut<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alaska","category-arts","category-juneau","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1335,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions\/1335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amycondra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20221003180146\/http:\/\/amycondra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Libby-Photos-2-001.jpg\"){kind=link}