newsminer.com

Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

FAIRBANKS — Nothing screams entertainment more than a good controversy, especially when it involves local issues spanning five decades.

First performed in Fairbanks in 1984, “Letters to the Editor” is back for its sixth production and opens tonight at the Fairbanks Riverfront Theatre.

Director Melinda Mattson has compiled real letters to the editor from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner’s vault to tell the story of the Fairbanks community.

In the play’s sixth version, Mattson has compiled 50 years of letters from statehood to the pipeline and Exxon Valdez oil spill, school board debates on teaching homosexuality and controversial sculptures in front of the courthouse, into the two-act play.

“It’s certainly been a different experience this time around,” Mattson said of the latest version. “The state has changed and so have I in the last 25 years, and sometimes not for the better.”

When Mattson began the play-writing venture, she had 25 years of letters with which to work.

“It just struck me one day that there were some wonderful characters in our letters section,” she said. Like many News-Miner readers, Mattson has followed the letters to the editor section for many year.

“It’s the first thing I check out. I want to know what’s being said,” she said. “I’ve always been struck with the unique quality of some of the writing. There are so many unique perspectives here that lend to our daily experience in Alaska, both personal and political.”

Mattson said she scanned the News-Miner for letters that ring of commitment and truth and passion about a wide variety of local issues.

And throughout the 50 years of history, Mattson said one issue came up again and again.

“Oil — we’re certainly an oil state,” she said. “So much of what we are is described by our state having oil.”

While Mattson said she’s tried to remained balanced politically in the play, she offered an apology to the oil industry.

“I’m afraid they come off on the short side of the stick, but that’s just the nature of the letters in Fairbanks,” she said. “We don’t get many letters that say ‘oh yeah, those oil companies are great.’”

But the two-act venture is theater, not a town forum, Mattson said.

“It’s not a satire piece and if we end up mocking anyone then I don’t think we’ve done our job,” she said. “It’s more of a patchwork quilt of viewpoints and characters with certain ironies and juxtapositions, but I wanted to present these letters in a light that truly represents their views.”