‘Spamalot’ opens Friday
“Monty Python’s Spamalot,” Pier One Theatre’s big summer musical, opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the little red theater on the Homer Spit.
It continues Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and continues July 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13 and 14. All shows are at 7:30 p.m. except a 3 p.m. show on July 7.
Lovingly ripped off from the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and the screenplay by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, the bawdy, boisterous and bloody show features brave knights, fussy Frenchmen and killer rabbits.
Spam is a registered trademark of Hormel Foods; no canned meats were killed in the making of the production.
Bookmobile gets state award
Books on Board (BOB), the Homer bookmobile, has received the 2018 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska, or CLIA, award from the Alaska Center for the Book. Also honored are Anchorage playwright Dick Reichman, Utqiagvik librarian David Ongley and Fairbanks poet and Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference faculty member Peggy Shumaker.
The statewide CLIA awards have been presented annually since 1993 by the Alaska Center for the Book, Alaska’s liaison with the U.S. Library of Congress Center for the Book. The program honors people and programs that have made a significant contribution in literacy, the literary arts, or the preservation of the written or spoken word.
Books on Board was awarded the CLIA Sue Sherif Award for Literacy, named for a longtime Alaska librarian pivotal in supporting literacy efforts through the state library system.
A totally volunteer effort, the Homer Friends of the Library’s bookmobile program is stocked with donated books that are given to children and adults who are encouraged to exchange other books for them.
Volunteer drivers take BOB to various locations in the Homer area on a regular schedule.
The CLIA awards program will also include recognition of the work of the late John Active, a Yup’ik broadcaster on Bethel-area public radio and television for 47 years.
The awards will be presented Tuesday, July 10 as part of the UAA Creative Writing and Literary Arts summer residency program at the Fine Arts Building of the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.
A dessert reception begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by the awards presentation at 8 p.m.
That will be followed by readings from two members of the summer residency faculty: Homer writer and poet Erin Coughlin Hollowell, and Juneau author, actor and playwright Ishmael Hope.
The event is free and open to the public. Free parking is available at the event. For information, see the Alaska Center for the Book website at alaskacenterforthebook.org, or call 907-764-1604.
