Moments From Ola Na Iwi

The sound clip of the exploding car was always unsatisfactory: the echo of the boom was edited quite short, for some reason. Still, that clip was preferable to the night when a wrong button was pushed, and instead of an explosion, the sound of a strumming guitar filled the theater. Recovering from that required all of Maria's acting skills!

Giggling fits galore! As Gustav, near show's end, I endeavored to hand a smaller and smaller scrap of paper with Nanea's address every night to Mina, until the microscopic scrap became an object of comedy in its own right.

One night during rehearsal, I was wearing a felt flat-brim hat, under a shroud, beneath a donkey's-head mask. I couldn't see damned thing. Then I announced, "Here we are!" The absurdity of each word, individually and as a phrase, struck me as hysterical - I felt like Stevie Wonder headlining the Super Bowl halftime show - and from me, the giggles spread to the rest of the cast.

In amateur theater, you sometimes have to make do, and it can make for interesting theater. I'm sure the playwright Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl didn't consider casting the youngest female and the oldest male opposite each other as love interests in Act 2, Scene 2. The pained lugubrious pace added to a sense of morbid unreality. One night, near the end of the run, in order to make the pace more lively and impress the ladies, the oldest male decided to spring a kiss upon the unsuspecting youngest female (as her family watched from the audience): I can only imagine the look on her face!

Larry Lew made a great Reverend Dr. Pinchbottom! Rick Cook made a fine Jamison. Maria Ramirez made a great Kawehi! Eva Laurent made a great Pua. A wonderful job by everybody in the show!

Link to the lyrics of "Hawai'i Aloha".