..... Anna Gagne-Hawes is the UAF Theatre Departments’ outstanding student of the year. This undergraduate junior, who is a double-major (Theatre and History) came to UAF after being born and raised in Douglas, Alaska after finding she didn’t quite fit in at UAS – and after taking a year to study in France. The Theatre Department (and most others’ I suspect) typically bestows this honor to a graduating student; but Anna’s tremendous level of involvement & high GPA gave her a unanimous victory for the award.
..... You may recognize her from every grouping of Winter Shorts (student-directed one acts) produced over the last two years, was the female lead (Carol) in Oleanna, and will be performing tonight as Rosemary Sidney in Picnic.
..... She began her activist and theatrical career in High School where she wrote for the school paper, was part of the Drama Debate and Forensics team, co-founded the Gay/Straight Alliance and was part of the National Honor Society. While taking a Drama class, her teacher encouraged her; which is when she fell in love with the art and work of the theatre. Anna felt acting in high school was the first time she could see art as a tangible form. “You worked on your skill, you rehearsed it and then you performed and it was always alive and changing, and even through performances this energy was still growing and after the show closed you could reflect on it. You were never really done with the experience. It changed my perspective on learning…” and teaching. Gagne-Hawes teaches a class on base every Saturday to about 6 kids – and she’s been a counselor at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp three years running.
..... Gagne-Hawes also credits The Vagina Monologues as changing her life. After reading the play at 17 and discussing it with friends, she was “made aware for the first time that this was not just words on the page, this was active change being created by telling stories and by opening a dialog.” After producing the play at UAS in 2005, she co-produced a production here this year, where she (and over 20 volunteers) raised over $2000 for the Interior Center for Non-Violent Living. Gagne-Hawes feels “...theatre is a tool to open peoples minds, to put stories out there that maybe not everyone is ready to hear and to relish the everyday. Art is why I get up everyday, but the ability of that art to create positive change, and to craft your own art with that pro-active change is mind, is why I actually leave my house.”
..... When asked how she came to be a Theatre / History double-major; she replies, “I think of it this way. History is the story of all our lives, and theatre is how we tell that story”. When asked how she manages it all; lots-and-lots of coffee.