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Theatre in the Rough was born 18 years ago after Aaron Elmore and Katie Jensen met in Juneau and fell in love at first sight.

"It did not take long for us to talk about how we feel about theater and what our dream theater would be," remembers Jensen. Since 1991, TR has produced several classical works and a nearly a dozen Shakespeare plays.

"How fantastic to be recognized by the academic community," said Jensen, who holds bachelor degrees in theater and opera performance and an Master's of Art in theater from Brigham Young University. Elmore's Bachelor of Science in graphic design is from California Polytechnic State University. He started acting and singing on stage in college, in the men's choir and then cast in the title role in Hamlet.

Jensen and Elmore are currently working in Perseverance Theatre's, "The Long Christmas Ride Home." This winter and spring they produced Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and an original adaptation of "The Three Musketeers." In 2002, TR received the Gov- ernor's Award for the Arts from the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

TR has given countless actors of all ages a unique opportunity: to take a risk that can pay off for a lifetime.

"With theater and all kinds of art, if you stand on the edge it's a scary place to be, but you can see so much more. And it's beautiful," said Jensen. "It's terrifying to walk into that room," said Elmore. "But the people who are a part of it are fed by it in a way they cannot be fed any other way."

As a young child, Megan Behnke convinced her parents to take her to TR plays several times over and got all the actors to sign her program book. Now a teenager who often acts in its productions, she thanks Elmore and Jensen for "enrapturing a child and encouraging her love of Shakespeare."

"Theatre in the Rough is one of Alaska's treasures," said Behnke's parents, Larri and Steven Behnke. "And Elmore and Jensen are the creative force behind it, not only the jewels in the setting of the plays for their astonishing, breathtaking acting abilities, but creators of the entire crown from which all the jewels shine forth-choosing the plays, conceiving the productions, designing all the sets and costumes, casting, directing and doing it all for the love of doing it."

Elmore and Jensen have earned the rare distinction of being known as true renaissance people. They create puppets from thin air, build sets and sew costumes, choreograph dances and sword fights, design posters and programs and create unforgettable characters, tragic to comic to somewhere in-between.

"It's like making a carving from a tree to the finished product," Jensen said. "Your hand and spirit is involved in every piece of it."

"I can be fed by spending an hour working on choral music just as I can spend an hour making a coat," adds Elmore.

Day jobs as a graphic designer (Elmore) and for the state of Alaska (Jensen) help support their commitment to one of a kind community theater where, "the audience will somehow, someway feel that passion as well, and find something in themselves in the process," Jensen said.

"I don't make a living on this. I do this because it is who I am," Elmore said. "Not for money. Not for glory. Not for reviews," Jensen added.

"We are simply working out of love and passion for the art. It is our church."

In the loss of the historic Holy Trinity Church to fire in 2006, TR lost nearly its entire stock of sets, lights and sound equipment as well as props, puppets and costumes.

"I had made 90 percent of them and to lose them was like losing group of friends," Elmore said. "The puppets were even worse. They had personalities."

"We had a choice, to stop or begin again," Jensen said. "We found out we aren't the ones who own this theatre," Elmore said. "It's the actors, the community, the audience," Jensen noted.

With massive community support, TR is rebuilding.

"You stand on the edge and you trust that you will be caught," she said.

Jensen and Elmore's overriding objective is to delight their audience. "Delight most often comes when we embrace the deepest mystery that theatre exists in between audience and stage," they say, "in an ongoing conversation on every sensory level and in an ever changing discovery and agreement about what is real."

The University of Alaska Southeast is delighted to present JensenJensen and ElmoreElmore with the 2008 Meritorious Service Award.

• JensenBausler is the Marketing and Public Relations director for the University of Alaska Southeast.