Raven is known as a creator and a trickster god in most cultures, but he can also be childlike, romantic, conniving and dark. He eludes simple description.

"We did not want to say that all the Alaska Native people are one big Native people, and all the stories are the same and we're all connected," Perseverance artistic director PJ Paparelli said. "There's certainly some truth behind us all being connected, but there are very crucial distinctions in each culture.

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Story time: Jake Waid (left), who plays Raven, and Allan Hayton rehearse a scene from "Raven Odyssey" Saturday at Perseverance Theatre.

Paparelli and Perseverance outreach director Ishmael Hope began gathering stories in the fall of 2005, when they traveled to Kotzebue, Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, Anchorage, Hydaburg, Craig, Klawock and Fairbanks and amassed almost 600 Raven stories.

"It was a very conscious decision to make this theater, and that's very different from traditional storytelling," Hope said. "It reflects the elements of what the story is, but it's different in that we're putting it in dialogue."

"The more we talked to elders, the thing we were the most nervous about was the form we were taking," Paparelli said. "If we just brought all the storytellers together and they told their stories, I wouldn't be so worried about whether we discredited these stories by changing their form."

Korry Keeker / Juneau Empire   This mask, designed by Lena Amason, depicts the Alutiiq Raven.

"The Aleuts and the Alutiiqs don't have as many Raven stories as some of the other cultures," Paparelli said. "Or maybe they did have them, but they're lost."

While Hope and Paparelli have adapted the play and written the dialogue, director Ruben Polendo has conceptualized the performance.

Polendo is the artistic director of the New York-based Theater Mitu, an ensemble that explores traditions, rituals and mythologies from ancient cultures. A team from Mitu has traveled to Juneau to work on the play.

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Kalani Queypo, left, and Lily Hudson at a critical juncture of "Raven Odyssey." The play opens Jan. 6 and runs through Jan. 28.

The set is minimalistic yet multi-tiered - a grove of branches, a series of steps floating up to a lookout, and a shallow pool of water surrounding the stage.

"Because the piece moves through so many landscapes, one of the goals was to manifest and represent all the different terrains that exist," Polendo said. "If you're north, it's complete tundra with no trees. If you're in the middle, it's a whole different landscape. The hope is to represent the major elements: the trees, the snow, the water and the wood."

Hope, Paparelli, Polendo, the cast and crew began workshopping the movement and dance of the piece this May. They presented a preliminary version at Beyond Heritage and Celebration in June.

Korry Keeker / Juneau Empire   Another mask depicts the Iñupiaq Raven designed by Roswell Schaeffer.

Raven is played by Austin Tagaban (as a young person) and Jake Waid (as an adult).

"At the core of it, the discovery was that Raven is such a magical character," Polendo said. "There isn't a story that defines him. Sometimes he's childlike. Sometimes he's a Casanova after the ladies. Sometime he's a little darker and brings about quite a bit of havoc in the world. And sometimes he just wants food."

Act I is about Raven's interactions with animals and the items he brings to the Earth. Many of the origin stories are early in the play. Act II chronicles his relationships and interactions with people.

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Jake Waid as the Raven talks to Lily Hudson during practice. The "Raven Odyssey" combines Raven stories from Tlingit, Haida, Inupiaq, Alutiiq, Aleut, Athabascan, Central Yup'ik and Siberian Yup'ik regions into one play. Almost 600 Raven stories were researched for the play.

"After that it was about writing the connective tissues," he said. "We realized this play was so much about identity and journey and odyssey, where a man grows up and makes decisions - some good, some bad."

"We couldn't do a Raven play without the comedy," Hope said. "It certainly feels like a comedy, especially in the first half-hour. Then it gets deeper into these sort of tug-of-war of relationships: love, betrayal, revenge and ultimately, discovery."

Donald Varnell, a 33-year-old Haida artist and Ketchikan resident, designed a Haida mask and "Voice Handler," a giant mask shadow creature meant to represent the manifestation of everything. Varnell created a complex, interlocking design that reflects the recurring "box within a box" theme of Haida stories.

"I liked how (Paparelli and Hope) were combining these stories into one project, which is always a scary thing to get into," Varnell said. "You're combining so many cultures. You have to ask a lot of people for permission to use stories.

"I just felt that it was pretty fantastic that guys my age were willing to get together and see what they could make," he said.