05/29/2026
For those of you who have inquired, have concerns, and/or are interested in auditioning; please see the below.
CASTING CALL: Sealaska Heritage Institute and Perseverance Theatre are seeking adult performers to audition for the world premiere production of Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles.
Casting is open until filled. For more information, visit bit.ly/TlingitOpera.
Edit: Several people have commented on our characterization of SHI’s Tlingit Opera as the “Tlingit-Russian Battles.”
The Tlingit Opera is based on historical facts as told from the Tlingit perspective. The stories are recorded in the oral traditions told by Tlingit Elders to their youth. They were embedded in the memories of the youth who played “Tlingit and Russians” on the Sitka beaches where the battles occurred and who shared their accounts with their children who then shared them with their children in succeeding generations.
The accounts are drawn from tape recordings of Elders Alex Andrews and Sally Hopkins that are held in the Sitka National Historic Park. They are also based on the classical text written by historians Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Richard Dauenhauer, and Lydia T. Black in SHI’s book, Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 and 1804. They scoured Russian and American archives and also interviewed Elders. Discussions around the Dauenhauer/Black book at the time of its publication also led to the conclusion that the basis of their 1802 victory was attributed to the unification of the Tlingit clans and the Haida. It was a different story in the 1804 War in which only the Sitka clans fought the Russians and were ultimately forced to retreat.
Publications by several Russian scholars were also consulted. What is not included in the Opera are the whispered oral accounts that we chose not to disclose in the Opera, but they are included in the scholarly publication. Like all works of art, we concede this production is not infallible and may include nuances that may not be totally accurate.
