UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MANOA OUTREACH COLLEGE
Community Services Division
Ko`olau: A True Story of Kaua`i
Info: Friday, March 5, 2010, 7:30 pm • Paliku Theatre, Windward Community College • Advance Tickets $15 - $23; at the door $20 - $28 • Tickets are available on line at www.etickethawaii.com, by phone at 944-BOWS (944-2697), or visit any UH Ticket outlet (Kennedy Theatre, Stan Sheriff Center, Rainbowtique stores, Paliku Theatre, and the UH Manoa Campus Center ticket office), service charges apply. Advance sales end 4 hours and 30 minutes before the performance. At the door sales begin 1 hour before doors open. For more information call 956-8246.
An intimate and inventive multi-media puppet performance based on the true story of Kaluaiko`olau, the native Hawaiian paniolo who achieved legendary status by resisting forced exile to Kalaupapa in the 1890s. Its spare text is taken from Francis Frazier`s powerful, poetic translation from the original words of Pi`ilani, the wife of Kaluaiko`olau.
In 1892, Kaluaiko`olau (hereafer Ko`olau) learned that he and his son had contracted leprosy. Rather than be separated from his wife and exiled, Ko`olau took the family from Waimea, Kaua`i to the remote valley of Kalalau. Here they lived until a deputy sheriff attempted to arrest him. Ko`olau shot the man and two soldiers of the Provisional Government army sent to capture him. They continued to live in the valley until first his son, then Ko`olau died of their disease. Pi`ilani buried both of them and returned to her home in Kekaha. In 1906, she recorded her story in Hawaiian with an American journalist, John Sheldon. The volume was entitled Ka Moolelo Oiaio O Kaluaikoolau (The True Story of Kaluaikoolau).
Employing music, animated projections, shadow puppets, and Japanese kuruma ningyo (wheeled puppet) figures, designer and director Tom Lee evokes the poetry of the Hawaiian language and the natural environment of the islands. The piece is performed by four puppeteers, two musicians, and two projectionists. The puppeteers sit on a wooden, wheeled seat, an innovation which allows a single person to manipulate the puppet. This is in contrast to the older form of Japanese puppetry, bunraku, in which three people are needed to operate one puppet. The music is inspired by sounds of nature and compositions of Queen Lili`uokalani and is performed on shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), hammer dulcimer, guitar, and percussion. The projection artists animate live shadow and video images projected onto a screen at the back of the stage.
The New York Times called Ko`olau: A True Story of Kaua`i "beautifully conceived and performed... . Tom Lee`s production...not only reveals its lyrical beauty, but through it`s rich combination of music, film, and puppet animation, brings out the sadness and strength at its core."
Sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Western State Arts Federation, and Windward Community College and part of a Performing Arts Presenters of Hawai`i tour. Ko`olau: A True Story of Kaua`i is a University of Hawai`i Mānoa Arts and Minds event.