All of the ‘Iolani Theatre classes got their chance to take to the stage at the Paliku Theatre at Windward Community College over the past two weekends. On Friday, May 18, Katherine Jones two Beginning Theatre sections performed two one act plays. Although it was the first opportunity for these students to perform on a real stage with an audience, they did beautifully. Their staging and projection were excellent. The students knew their lines and delivered them well.

Friday evening, May 25, the Intermediate Theatre classes presented “A Day in the Life” (of an ‘Iolani student). These ten scenes were written by the students and directed by David Saito.  The audience was very responsive to the scenes presented by the students, especially the interplay between students when the “teacher” was out of the room. The students performed very well and the audience had no problem understanding the dialogue. At the conclusion of the performance, the students presented Mr. Saito with a variety of gifts.

On Saturday, May 26, section 3 of the Beginning Theatre class presented their version of the two one act plays previously done by the other two classes on May 18. Katherine Jones had prepared the class for this performance. The students did well in their version of the plays. 

On Saturday evening, also at Paliku, the Advanced Theatre class staged seven original one-act plays as part of a play writing and directing competition. All of the plays were good, both in content and direction. Junior Matthew Kor did an outstanding job, appearing in major roles in all of the plays. Juniors carried off the honors with Burch Godwin’s Math Crimes, directed by Erin Taketa, being chosen a the outstanding play of the evening.  In a non-competitive finale piece written, directed, and performed by them, Mr. Saito was featured in a mock funeral /class reunion many years hence. It sounds very bizarre but it was staged as a farce and came off as a hilarious conclusion to a very entertaining evening.

Congratulations to all of our young thespians and their teachers, Katherine Jones and David Saito. David has built the program during his eight years here, taking it from a part-time PAD class to next years’ four sections of Beginning Theatre, three sections of Intermediate Theatre and two sections of Advanced Theatre. Thank you David and best wishes in your new business career in Japan.