2022 Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony
Oldies but Goodies
On November 10, 2022, the Pier One Theatre Board of Directors held their annual meeting at the Homer Theatre and honored eight Pier One Theatre participants with a lifetime achievement award: Lance Petersen, Barbara Petersen, Lynne Roff, Dick Sanders, Mark Robinson, Ken Landfield, Peter Norton, and Laura Norton.
It has been a few years since Pier One Theatre has given awards to our numerous hard-working participants. This presentation endeavors to remedy that by honoring those who have continued to give over multiple years of their time and talents. We begin with a short Board meeting followed by the awards ceremony. You'll learn interesting facts about our recipients, and you will be entertained, this being theater after all! So sit back and enjoy the film!
Thanks to Scott Bartlett for capturing the occasion on film.
Watch the full meeting now on our YouTube Channel!
LANCE PETERSEN
Having grown up in Alaska and graduated from the Kenai Territorial High School before Alaska became a state, Lance was integral to the growth and support of the performing arts in the State. Knowing that "The Play's the Thing", Lance would do whatever was needed to make the performance happen from finding the right willing conspirators and rehearsing to painting sets and hanging lights late in the night. He served on the Alaska State Council for the Arts, taught theatre to high school and college students across the peninsula, wrote, directed, and acted. He helped those new to the theatre "find their light", both literally on the stage and in what they wanted to do in and around the Theatre. He is grateful for this recognition and for everyone that has traveled together over the last 50 years to make theatre come alive on the Kenai Peninsula.
BARBARA PETERSEN
Barbara truly discovered theatre for the first time when she joined a production of the Lion in Winter in Anchorage after moving to Alaska in the early 1960s. Since then, she explored and pushed herself to grow and evolve in all aspects of the performing arts, from being on stage and directing to laying out programs and managing volunteers. Barb is grateful to have had the opportunity to help Pier One Theatre grow and the space that it has provided for strong independent Alaskan women (and men) to share in and collaborate on art.
LYNNE ROFF
Homer introduced Lynne to her playmate, Dick Sanders, who introduced her to the theatre and dance community. Lynne wishes to thank all of the individuals present here today, those people not present today, and especially those dear people who are no longer with us physically, but encourage us in spirit, for providing their friendship, their knowledge, and the ideal environment for her artistic development. Homer is the community that was much needed, and greatly appreciated, that allowed Lynne the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to create in complete freedom.
DICK SANDERS
"I studied fine art and photography at the University of Colorado. I have held a number of one-man shows including four in Alaska. I spent four years in L.A. where I collaborated with my mentor, Roland Reiss, and had prints included in his one-man show in the L.A. County Museum of Art. When I arrived here for a visit in ’78 I was whisked from the airport to the then high school gym and given a ticket to the Pier One production of Fiddler on the Roof in which both my brother and his wife were involved. I moved back the following spring and began my affiliation with Pier One, photographing West Side Story. One of the Jets had to drop out and the entire cast and director turned and looked at me. 'Oh no,' I said, 'You’ll never get me on stage!”
MARK ROBINSON
Beginning in 1982 with K-12 music at Anchor Point School, Mark transferred in 1989 as choral director for Homer High School and Middle School, staying for 23 years. He was artistic director for the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra for 18 years. He brought the orchestra, adult community choir, and students together for musicals, the Brahms Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, the Vivaldi Gloria, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. He has taken combined choirs to Los Angeles, Honolulu, New York, Italy, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. They sang in Carnegie Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Mark’s Basilica, the Duomos of Florence and Milan, Thomas Kirke,St. Stephen’s Cathedral, cathedrals in Berlin, Prague, Salzburg, and Mauthausen Concentration Camp.
Mark holds a Master of Music degree in conducting from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He has received a number of local, state, and national awards for his work.
Since Retirement in 2012 Mark has worked with Pier One Theatre on Les Misérables, Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, Spamalot, Beauty and the Beast, and the Concert For Peace.
KEN LANDFIELD
"I’ve had the inestimable good fortune to be involved with Pier One Theatre since the winter of 1983, when Dick Sanders suggested we audition for The Butterfingers Angel, Mary and Joseph, Herod the Nut and the Slaughter of Twelve Hit Carols in a Pear Tree. I went along, with some skepticism (me, an actor?!) and not a little trepidation; we got cast in not one but three parts! There was no going back. In 1989, I directed for the first time, My Three Angels (after seeing the movie, I was sure it must have originally been a play and was able to to track down the script); now I was completely committed. More acting, more directing, the occasional title role - including in Frankenstein: the Musical with a lot of singing and dancing, which may have contributed to JulieAnn Smith subsequently moving to Hawaii; neither Arthur Griffith, Igor to my Dr. F., nor I read music, so we made up our own music language! - They keep letting me come back, so I keep coming back, and now, practically 40 years later (40 years?!), here we are…."
PETER NORTON
The first ten or so years were perhaps a bit spotty, but this year is more or less Peter’s fifty-fourth season as a performer, and forty-second with Pier One Theatre. As of this writing, it appears that he has averaged at least 2.5 productions per year since a friend in college challenged him to audition back in 1969. Peter has toyed with the idea of taking a season off, but as long as auditions are held he keeps showing up.
LAURA NORTON
“42 years ago, while trying to persuade us not to make the move, my father said that the only reason I wanted to go to Alaska was because I hated to miss out on something. There was some truth to this assessment. Certainly when Peter wanted to audition for Pier One's production of Scrooge in 1981, I wasn't going to stay at home. So I joined the pit orchestra and our first child, Carolyn, was in her first show at one month old. Through the years (accompanied by our children) I have served as musician, book holder, props mistress, set builder, actor (once!), poster distributor, stage crew, sound & lighting technician, stage and house manager, singer, producer, director, production manager, and bookkeeper. I think the Alaskan adventure has turned out rather well.”
