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Community theater is often understood to mean theater that is made possible through community involvement, from local actors and directors to audience members and volunteer ticket takers. But at its best, community theater also refers to one that is oriented to the particular group of people it serves. The theater is fed by the town's energy, and in turn feeds that energy back to the community in the form of plays that speak to that audience.

Perseverance Theatre works with this symbiotic definition of community theater in mind. Each of the five productions that will be staged this season is oriented to its audience in terms of place and time - Alaskans and Americans in the unstable world of 2009.

"Our mission is to be an Alaskan company, speak to Alaskan audiences, and tell Alaskan stories and really represent our region," said Art Rotch, artistic director of Perseverance.

Rotch, whose long history with Perseverance was renewed last year when he returned from living in New York, selected the plays for the season with help from a small team of readers that included artists, staff and board members. In some cases, plays were chosen for their thematic elements (strength in adversity is a major motif this season); others for their historical setting ("The Skin of Our Teeth" has an early '40s timeframe that appealed for its current applications), or for an outstanding playwright ("Eurydice" by Sarah Ruhl). Another consideration was a desire to make the most of local talent, such as with "Hansel and Gretel," for which local musician Bob Banghart will adapt a new score. Rotch said including Banghart's work was a way to bring the last production of the season back into the Alaska realm, and to place it within the larger American framework.

"The reason to do that with this piece of music is to fit it into this American season that begins with a great American classic, "The Skin of Our Teeth," and end with an Americanization of this ageless story about children overcoming all kinds of things (in 'Hansel and Gretel')."

"Eurydice" also will feature local musicians and an original musical score. Ed LIttlefield, who played K'alyáan in David Hunsakers' "Battles of Fire and Water," will compose and perform the music, and will be joined by CrossSounds director Jocelyn Clark.

Rotch said bringing in local musicians seems like a natural fit for the theater company.

"Juneau is such a musical town, and music and theater go well together, so we have been looking for as many ways to do that as possible."

Rotch was the artistic director last season as well, and has spent part of his time trying to build a core team at Perseverance. He has recently been joined by marketing director Ryan Odorizzi, who replaces Flordelino Lagundino, and managing director Jeff Rogers, who takes over for Elizabeth Davis.

Odorizzi, originally from Madison, Wis., has worked with the University of Wisconsin's Center for the Arts and with Glimmerglass Opera, and held positions ranging from box office assistant to actor. Odorizzi and his wife, Kelsey, just arrived in town a couple weeks ago, and had never set foot in the state before. Odorizzi said he took the job partly because he was impressed by Perseverance's focus on community, and that he has been very pleased with his job so far, especially by the dedication of his coworkers.

"Its an incredibly unique experience here in that everybody embraces the theater and everybody is in love with their work," he said.

Rogers, originally from Michigan, has extensive theater experience, including work with the Yale Repertory Theater and Yale School of Drama, as well as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He received his master's degree in dramaturgy from Yale in 2007.

Ruth Kostik, Perseverance's development director, is also new on the scene - and is yet another Midwesterner. From Minnesota, Kostik has her master's degree in arts and cultural management, and has done production work with Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre.

Rotch said he is pleased that the core team has shaped up so nicely.

Here's a quick look at what's in the works.

"The Skin of Our Teeth"

"The Skin of Our Teeth" is a comedy set in the late Depression, pre-World War II era, a time period that was of interest to Rotch partly because of its parallels to the present. Rotch, who studied history, said he's intrigued by the cycles of history and the way events recur.

Playwright Clifford Odets was first considered, but when none of his plays seemed to fit, his contemporary, Thornton Wilder, was brought in. Wilder is most famous for his 1938 play "Our Town," for which he won the Pulitzer prize for drama, but he also won the prestigious award two other times, for "Skin" and for his novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey."

"He's one of the few who have won the Pulitzer prize for drama and for literature," Rotch said. "It's very unusual."

"The Skin of Our Teeth," written in 1943, is a comedy with a message: This too shall pass. The characters in the play confront numerous disasters, some of them apocalyptic and Biblical in scope.

In writing the play, Wilder was influenced by James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake," so much so that some critics charged him with plagiarism, an accusation he successfully rebutted.

Drew Barr will direct the production, which runs from Sept. 11 to Oct 4. Opening night is this Friday.

"Leading Ladies"

This play, also a comedy, brings in a common Shakespearean theme, that of mistaken identity. Two actors pose as women in attempt to claim an inheritance from a wealthy widow. Things become more complicated when the men fall in love with two women who don't know their true identifies. In addition to echoes of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," the play has elements of the 1959 movie classic "Some Like It Hot."

"Leading Ladies" was written by Tony award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig, and premiered in October 2004 at the Alley Theatre in Houston. It will be directed by Juneau's Brandon Demery. Among other roles, Demery played Hamlet in last season's Wittenburg.

It runs from Nov. 6 through Dec. 6.

"Eurydice"

This classic Greek tale was given fresh narrative form by Rainer Maria Rilke in his 1904 poem, "Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes." and is retold once again by playwright Sarah Ruhl. The basic story tells how Eurydice, about to marry Orpheus, has a tragic accident and dies. She travels into the Underworld and Orpheus, inconsolable, begs to be allowed to bring her back to the land of the living. After enchanting everyone with his music, he is granted his wish, but is told he must not look back at her while leading her home. He does, and she vanishes.

Up-and-coming playwright Ruhl reinterprets this classic for modern audiences, drawing in part on Rilke's focus on Eurydice as the narrative focus. In her version of the story, Eurydice meets her father in the Underworld prior to Orpheus' arrival, and, as he has no memory, tries to remind him of who she is. When her husband arrives to claim her, she must choose between going back with her husband or remaining with her father. Ruhl also drew on her own experience in losing her father while writing the play.

"It's really an amazing piece of writing - very poetic, very beautiful, very spare." Rotch said.

An original score composed by Ed Littlefield will also feature CrossSounds Jocelyn Clark.

Juneau's Roblin Gray Davis directs. The production runs from Jan. 8-31.

"boom!"

Another young American playwright, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, is featured next with his play, "boom!," first staged in 2008.

The set up for this dark comedy is a doomsday scenario in which the only man and woman left on earth must confront their romantic possibilities as well as more metaphysical concerns. Like "Skin," the play also confronts the inherent fragility and resilience of life in the face of overwhelming disaster. Elements of science fiction come into play in this sparsely populated production.

The New York Times described Nachtrieb as having "a gift for darkly funny dialogue and an appealing way of approaching big themes sideways."

"Boom!" runs from Feb. 26 to March 21.

"Hansel and Gretel"

Most if not all are familiar with the classic Grimms fairy tale. Two children, abandoned in the woods, stumble upon an edible house, wherein dwells an evil, cannibalistic witch. The horrific tale, while not sugar-coated in this production, will be played out with humor and is appropriate for families.

Local musician Bob Banghart will reinterpret the original operatic score written by Engelbert Humperdink -- unbelievably, not THAT Engelbert Humperdink but an entirely different one who worked as German composer Richard Wagner's assistant. Humperdink composed the classical piece based on German folk melodies. Banghart will reinterpret Humperdink's piece and, Rotch said, probably strip it down to its folk roots.

"(The original score is) a little over-arranged, I think, because the guy worked for Wagner," Rotch said. "So it will be interesting to strip it away."

Banghart was given the job of composer partly for his quick grasp of the assignment, which Rotch said he phrased this way: "So it sounds like what you want me to do is sort of Gustav Mahler meets Ralph Stanley down at Tim Burton's place, is that right?" Rotch knew he'd found his man.

This production runs from April 23-May 30.