Last Frontier Theatre Conference

Jerry Harper Service Award

The Jerry Harper Service Award was created in 2007 to honor people who have given their time, energy and spirit to making the Last Frontier Theatre Conference a success. It is named after Cyrano’s Theatre Company founder, the late Jerry Harper, who spent his life in service to the greater good of the Alaska Theatre community, whether it was as a producer, performer, or father figure. Jerry served on the Conference Advisory Board from the event’s inception.

In 2007, the first Jerry Harper Service Award was presented to Michael Warren Powell, the founder of the Play Lab. Tributes were paid to him by playwright Ann Reddig, Tony award-winning director Marshall Mason, and Conference Coordinator Dawson Moore. The award was presented to him for his life-long commitment to fostering playwrights and his role in turning the Play Lab into a vital part of the Conference.

The 2008 award will be presented to the Conference 14-year Technical Director, Jim Cucurull.

A resident of Alaska for 40 years, Jim Cucurull has been involved with theater at almost every level for over 33 years. He has trained as an actor, director, designer and technician, and has worked and/or performed throughout the state for such groups as Perseverance Theatre, Alaska Repertory Theatre, TOAST Theater, Anchorage Opera, UAA Theatre, Pacific Rim Theatre, and numerous others. He has produced and directed several independent productions including Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary, which received best of the year honors from both the Anchorage Daily News and The Anchorage Times, and which was the first independent production at Jerry and Sandy Harpers’ fledgling Cyrano’s Playhouse. Recent work has included several projects with Perseverance Theatre including How I Learned to Drive (with Paula Vogel and Molly Smith), Short Stories (a Perseverance / SITI joint production), and the touring productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Moby Dick, and (Tlingit) Macbeth.