Do you wish you could have shared a meal with President Andrew Johnson, or toasted William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State who arranged the purchase of Alaska?
Haines residents have a chance to dine in style with the bigwigs of the past at “Dinner at the White House with the Russians, 1867” next month.
Lynn Canal Community Players will host the theatrical meal on Saturday, April 29 in the Chilkat Center lobby, an event celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase, said Lori Dudzik.
“The people who attend this dinner are dignitaries, infamous characters and fictional characters from the era,” Dudzik said.
Haines residents will act and dress as the historical figures who played a large part in the Alaska Purchase. Some ridiculed Johnson’s decision to buy Alaska from the Russians in 1867 for $7.2 million, saying the price was too high. Some nicknamed the territory “Johnson’s Ice Box” or “Seward’s Folly.”
Dudzik said the dinner theater, the brainchild of Suzy Waterhouse, will take a comedic spin on the Alaska Purchase and “make up a hypothetical reason we paid the price we did.”
Main characters will perform scripted lines and music. The show, written and narrated by Michael Stark, will be interspersed with the meal.
John Norton and Annette Smith will portray Andrew and Eliza Johnson, the 17th President and First Lady of the United States. David Routh will portray Seward, and Dudzik will act as his wife, Frances Adeline Seward.
Fred Shields will play Russian minister Baron de Stoeckl, with Kristen Brumfield taking on the role of his wife, baroness Elisa Howard. Margaret Sebens will play the secretary.
The dinner will be Russian themed with moose stroganoff, Russian rye bread, vodka and “caviar pie romanoff” hors d’oeuvres.
Only 48 tickets are for sale for $50 each at the Babbling Book.
“We are asking everyone who purchases a ticket to select a character from the era that they will take on for the dinner, like Emily Dickinson or Mark Twain,” she said. The Babbling Book has a list of nineteenth century figures to choose from. “We’re hoping people get into the spirit and take on a personage and really go with it.”