9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25 May 2002
Po'okela Award Nominees:
Dion Donahue
Kaitlin Kiyan
Tom Giza
Directed and Choreographed by
BRAD POWELL
Musical Direction by
LINA JEONG DOO
Set Design by
TOM GIZA
Costume Design by
BRAD POWELL, GINNIE LITTLE & THE CAST
Lighting Design by
JOHN PARKINSON
CAST (in order of appearance)
Oliver Twist - KAITLIN KIYAN
Mr. Bumble - BRETT HUDSON
Widow Corney - GINNIE LITTLE
Mr. Sowerberry - DERRICK KAM
Mrs. Sowerberry - ANGELA CROWLEY
Charlotte - TIFFANY YUEN
Noah Claypole - RYAN HAASE
The Artful Dodger - ERIC JONES
Fagin - DION DONAHUE
Nancy - DARCI EVANS
Bet - ALYSSA GUTTENDORF
Old Sally - JOYCE LIU
Old Annie - DEBORAH LYONS
Bill Sykes - MIKE HUMERICKHOUSE
Mrs. Bedwin - ANNE MARIE
Mr. Brownlow - TIMOTHY YUEN
Dr. Grimwig - DAVID SOHMER
Londoners, Thieves, Dollies & Vendors - CHRISTOPHER ARSENAULT,
MICHA BENAVITZ, STEPHANIE CHANG, ANGELA CROWLEY,
EMILY DARIGO, NELSON EGUCHI, LARRY FUKUMOTO, RYAN HAASE,
JENNIFER HARTL-DAVIS, BETH JONES, FORREST JONES, DERRICK KAM,
BARBARA KANESHIRO, KELSEY KANESHIRO, GINNIE LITTLE, JOYCE LIU,
DEBORAH LYONS, ANNE MARIE, DIANA MILLS, ROSELANI PELAYAN,
JIM RISSER, DAVID SOHMER, DEENIE TAGUDIN KAM,
SEAN YAMURA, TIFFANY YUEN, TIMOTHY YUEN
Workhouse Kids & Fagin's Gang - JEFFREY AU, JIMMY DAVIS,
PAIGE FINCH, NICHOLAS GUTTENDORF, MAGGIE JONES, TREVOR JONES,
CHELSEY KAEO, EMILY LATIMER, HANNAH LATIMER, MALIA MA, ELISE MINKIN,
NATHAN MIYANO, JORDAN NAMOC, TX TARIO, PHILIP-ANDREW YUEN
Posted on: Friday, May 3, 2002
'Oliver!' performer finds niche in acting world
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor
Dion Donahue, left, is Fagin; Eric Jones, back, is the Artful Dodger; and Kaitlin Kiyan is Oliver Twist in the Army Community Theatre production of "Oliver!" The 41-year-old Donahue has taken on the roles of artistic creative director and consultant for the production, and says he is ready "to make acting more of a career."
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
'Oliver!'
A musical by Lionel Bart, produced by Army Community Theatre
Premieres at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday; repeats at 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, through May 25
Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter
$15 and $12 adults, $8 and $6 children under 12 438-4480
Actor Dion Donahue gets around.
Most days, he bops from one teaching gig to another as a substitute with Kelly Services, filling in at private schools when he's needed.
Other times, like the next few weeks, he'll be on stage, playing myriad roles. Starting Thursday, Donahue is Fagin, the irrepressible petty crook in the musical "Oliver!" in an Army Community Theatre revival at Fort Shafter's Richardson Theatre. He last did Fagin several years ago for Diamond Head Theatre, so it's a hana hou of sorts.
Next month, he starts rehearsals for Lisa Matsumoto's revival of her "Once Upon a Kapakahi Time" trilogy, which will descend upon the Hawai'i Theatre July 26 through Aug. 4. He recently wound up a daytime public-school tour of a Matsumoto play, which he stage-managed, along with a brief run with Jamarama Productions' "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" musical at the Hawai'i Theatre, in which he played Reuben, demonstrating an acceptable French accent.
"I'm at that point in life, yeah, where I want to make acting more of a career — I'm going through that issue right now," said Donahue, 41, a 1979 Saint Louis School grad. "I'm thinking East Coast. Mainly because you can't make a living (by acting) here. "But Hawai'i has been a fantastic practice field."
He said the teaching helps the acting, and vice versa.
"As a teacher, theater often is educational for some of the kids in 'Oliver!' who look to me for guidance," he said. "Stephanie (Conching, the director) has given me permission to be AC/DC — artistic creative director and consultant — and I often help with character molding, helping people find deeper meaning through body language.
"I had a wonderful experience doing 'Joseph' with Jamarama. It's a fabulous program for kids; Matthew (Pedersen, the founder-director) wants me to work with some of the kids, teaching acting this summer, so I'll probably do that. I tell youngsters that acting helps no matter what job you take — doctor, lawyer — because you get in front of people, and it's important to learn poise and body language, which you get when you interact with theater."
His longish hair and beard are natural for Fagin, a character he adores. "I like the overall challenge of interacting with the kids in a light-hearted comedy that often gets quite dark," he said of the Lionel Bart chestnut. "When people hate you (in a role like Fagin), you're doing a good job. And people love to hate me."
His physical appearance and a lack of proper credentials posed a problem recently. "I was stopped at the (Shafter) gate; the MPs (military police) wouldn't let me in to go to a rehearsal," Donahue said. "You know, the long hair, the beard ... they jokingly said they'd put me in cuffs, but I told them I only wore French cuffs."
He made frantic calls to Vanita Rae Smith, Army entertainment director, and actress Linda Ryan, his good friend, to vouch for his legitimacy. "It all worked out, but it took an hour," he said.
Donahue, of Hawaiian, German and Irish descent, is the eighth of 12 children. He said he has always been interested in acting, doing a bit part in "The Wizard of Oz," when he was in the first grade, and getting serious while in high school and college.
At Chaminade University, Ryan was his teacher and mentor. "She's been my guiding light, always with the yea or nay about my characters, never saying anything bad but goading me on to make up my own mind, challenging me," he said.
The musical co-stars two youngsters — Eric Jones, a Punahou freshman, as the Artful Dodger; and Kaitlin Kiyan, a sixth-grader at Kalei'opu'u Elementary, as Oliver Twist.
That's right: Kaitlin, a girl, is playing a boy, but Donahue said "she's fabulous. You're not seeing a girl or a boy, because she plays the character well."
Indeed, she brings a new twist to the Oliver lore.
Posted on: Wednesday, May 15, 2002
STAGE REVIEW
'Oliver!' production falls short of expectations
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic
Dion Donahue, left, is Fagin; Eric Jones, back, is the Artful Dodger; and Kaitlin Kiyan is Oliver Twist in the Army Community Theatre production of "Oliver!"
Advertiser library photo
"Oliver!" is true to the spirit of Charles Dickens' novel, and Lionel Bart's musical version has some beautiful songs. But the show fails to earn its exclamation point in the production by the Army Community Theatre.The show looks good, with a large cast in appropriate costumes filling Tom Giza's double-turntable set. But if you didn't already know this Victorian story of an orphaned boy who falls in among thieves, you might have a hard time following the action.
Staging by Stephanie Curtis Conching needs better focus and clarity, and the musical direction by Mark Vogel desperately needs to be sorted out. The audience needs to know what's going on and to be able to hear these characters sing.
Too many in the cast approximate an English accent, only to lose dialogue down some guttural cockney alley from which it never returns. Characters appear like pop-up greeting cards and behave like low-technology cartoons. If the production had a style, it might be studied cuteness, which is in direct opposition to the progressively dark story line.
Spoken accents are bad enough, but when they morph into song, all intelligibility is sacrificed — especially when microphones fail, the tempo corkscrews into double time and sad moaning sounds begin to escape from the orchestra pit.
At the center of the activity, playing against gender, is 11-year-old Kaitlin Kiyan, who holds up well. The challenge in the essentially passive role is to keep it energized rather than merely acted upon. Kaitlin fares best with her big Act 1 solo, when the stage empties and Oliver is left alone with the coffins in the undertaker's parlor where he has just been apprenticed.
"Where is Love" is pure longing, and could be damaged by plaintive bleating. Kaitlin gives it strong vocal support. We not only hear every word, we get the correct sense of a vital character who is missing an important element, but not consumed by its lack.
•
'Oliver!'
7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through May 25
Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter
$15, $12; discounts for students, seniors, military
438-4480
Dion Donahue also generally fares well as the scheming pickpocket Fagin. Donahue has done this role before and each time takes greater possession of it, adding physical filigree and comic nuances.
Other major characters fare less well. Darci Evans' husky vibrato, approximated accent and vengeful body microphone almost eliminate her from the musical numbers, although her character of Nancy has some fine ones.
As the villain Bill Sykes, Mike Humerickhouse is more annoying than frightening. He shouts his way through "My Name," working against the orchestra, most of whom play it in triple time.
The chorus is on-and-off successful. The beauty of "Who Will Buy" is completely lost to the orchestra and "Oom-Pah-Pah" has the right spirit, but misses its full visual possibilities. One nice touch: The large children's chorus sounds fine and makes a successful transition from the militarized orphans to the ragged gang of pickpockets.
This is a large production, but one that is missing necessary guidance.
Monday, May 13, 2002
KEN IGE
Kaitlin Kiyan plays Oliver Twist in Army Community Theatre's production of "Oliver!"
‘Oliver!’ is a steal
of a great show
Review by John Berger
| Posted on: Friday, May 3, 2002
'Oliver!' performer finds niche in acting world By Wayne Harada
Most days, he bops from one teaching gig to another as a substitute with Kelly Services, filling in at private schools when he's needed. Other times, like the next few weeks, he'll be on stage, playing myriad roles. Starting Thursday, Donahue is Fagin, the irrepressible petty crook in the musical "Oliver!" in an Army Community Theatre revival at Fort Shafter's Richardson Theatre. He last did Fagin several years ago for Diamond Head Theatre, so it's a hana hou of sorts. Next month, he starts rehearsals for Lisa Matsumoto's revival of her "Once Upon a Kapakahi Time" trilogy, which will descend upon the Hawai'i Theatre July 26 through Aug. 4. He recently wound up a daytime public-school tour of a Matsumoto play, which he stage-managed, along with a brief run with Jamarama Productions' "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" musical at the Hawai'i Theatre, in which he played Reuben, demonstrating an acceptable French accent. "I'm at that point in life, yeah, where I want to make acting more of a career — I'm going through that issue right now," said Donahue, 41, a 1979 Saint Louis School grad. "I'm thinking East Coast. Mainly because you can't make a living (by acting) here. "But Hawai'i has been a fantastic practice field." He said the teaching helps the acting, and vice versa. "As a teacher, theater often is educational for some of the kids in 'Oliver!' who look to me for guidance," he said. "Stephanie (Conching, the director) has given me permission to be AC/DC — artistic creative director and consultant — and I often help with character molding, helping people find deeper meaning through body language. "I had a wonderful experience doing 'Joseph' with Jamarama. It's a fabulous program for kids; Matthew (Pedersen, the founder-director) wants me to work with some of the kids, teaching acting this summer, so I'll probably do that. I tell youngsters that acting helps no matter what job you take — doctor, lawyer — because you get in front of people, and it's important to learn poise and body language, which you get when you interact with theater." His longish hair and beard are natural for Fagin, a character he adores. "I like the overall challenge of interacting with the kids in a light-hearted comedy that often gets quite dark," he said of the Lionel Bart chestnut. "When people hate you (in a role like Fagin), you're doing a good job. And people love to hate me." His physical appearance and a lack of proper credentials posed a problem recently. "I was stopped at the (Shafter) gate; the MPs (military police) wouldn't let me in to go to a rehearsal," Donahue said. "You know, the long hair, the beard ... they jokingly said they'd put me in cuffs, but I told them I only wore French cuffs." He made frantic calls to Vanita Rae Smith, Army entertainment director, and actress Linda Ryan, his good friend, to vouch for his legitimacy. "It all worked out, but it took an hour," he said. Donahue, of Hawaiian, German and Irish descent, is the eighth of 12 children. He said he has always been interested in acting, doing a bit part in "The Wizard of Oz," when he was in the first grade, and getting serious while in high school and college. At Chaminade University, Ryan was his teacher and mentor. "She's been my guiding light, always with the yea or nay about my characters, never saying anything bad but goading me on to make up my own mind, challenging me," he said. The musical co-stars two youngsters — Eric Jones, a Punahou freshman, as the Artful Dodger; and Kaitlin Kiyan, a sixth-grader at Kalei'opu'u Elementary, as Oliver Twist. That's right: Kaitlin, a girl, is playing a boy, but Donahue said "she's fabulous. You're not seeing a girl or a boy, because she plays the character well." Indeed, she brings a new twist to the Oliver lore.
|
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| Posted on: Wednesday, May 15, 2002
STAGE REVIEW By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
The show looks good, with a large cast in appropriate costumes filling Tom Giza's double-turntable set. But if you didn't already know this Victorian story of an orphaned boy who falls in among thieves, you might have a hard time following the action. Staging by Stephanie Curtis Conching needs better focus and clarity, and the musical direction by Mark Vogel desperately needs to be sorted out. The audience needs to know what's going on and to be able to hear these characters sing. Too many in the cast approximate an English accent, only to lose dialogue down some guttural cockney alley from which it never returns. Characters appear like pop-up greeting cards and behave like low-technology cartoons. If the production had a style, it might be studied cuteness, which is in direct opposition to the progressively dark story line. Spoken accents are bad enough, but when they morph into song, all intelligibility is sacrificed — especially when microphones fail, the tempo corkscrews into double time and sad moaning sounds begin to escape from the orchestra pit. At the center of the activity, playing against gender, is 11-year-old Kaitlin Kiyan, who holds up well. The challenge in the essentially passive role is to keep it energized rather than merely acted upon. Kaitlin fares best with her big Act 1 solo, when the stage empties and Oliver is left alone with the coffins in the undertaker's parlor where he has just been apprenticed. "Where is Love" is pure longing, and could be damaged by plaintive bleating. Kaitlin gives it strong vocal support. We not only hear every word, we get the correct sense of a vital character who is missing an important element, but not consumed by its lack.
Other major characters fare less well. Darci Evans' husky vibrato, approximated accent and vengeful body microphone almost eliminate her from the musical numbers, although her character of Nancy has some fine ones. As the villain Bill Sykes, Mike Humerickhouse is more annoying than frightening. He shouts his way through "My Name," working against the orchestra, most of whom play it in triple time. The chorus is on-and-off successful. The beauty of "Who Will Buy" is completely lost to the orchestra and "Oom-Pah-Pah" has the right spirit, but misses its full visual possibilities. One nice touch: The large children's chorus sounds fine and makes a successful transition from the militarized orphans to the ragged gang of pickpockets. This is a large production, but one that is missing necessary guidance.
|
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Monday, May 13, 2002
|
‘Oliver!’ is a steal
of a great showReview by John Berger
Dion Donahue proves once again that he is one of Honolulu's great stage actors with his portrayal of Fagin in Army Community Theatre's season-closing performance of "Oliver!" Donahue previously defined the role with a stellar performance, and topped a strong cast in doing so, when Diamond Head Theatre did "Oliver!" in 1998. He is every bit as good with this encore performance.
The milieu is the ugly streets and dank alleyways of early Victorian London, where life is cheap and children are a commodity. Young orphan Oliver Twist (Kaitlin Kiyan) is starved and abused in a workhouse, sold to the Sowerberrys and then lured into a life of petty crime. Oliver lucks into a chance for a better life but sees it stripped away when he's kidnapped and returned to Fagin's hideout.
Fagin uses runaway boys as pickpockets and petty thieves while he stays safely out of harm's way, and Donahue wears the role like a slimy second skin. He dominates the string of production numbers that close Act 1 and set up the final brief scene. Donahue returns in Act 2 to make Fagin's great solos -- "Reviewing the Situation" and "Reprise: Reviewing the Situation" -- two of the show's strongest musical numbers.
|
And if that ratty turquoise trench coat looks familiar, yes, it is the same one Donahue wore in 1998! He uses it with equal dramatic effect here.
Also reprising a great DHT performance for ACT is Mikel J. Humerickhouse as the brutal and abusive Bill Sykes. Humerickhouse again creates a convincing physical portrait of a lethal street thug who has no redeeming qualities but nevertheless attracts submissive women -- one hapless punching bag named Nancy (Darci Evans) in particular. Donahue as Fagin has a certain creepy charm, but Humerickhouse as Bill S ykes is bad news straight up. Humerickhouse's powerful interpretation of "My Name" establishes Sykes as a man even Fagin is afraid of.
Evans emerges as a stronger presence as Act 2 progresses and makes "Reprise: As Long as He Needs Me" the key emotional turning point. Yvonne Filius, who had the role in the DHT production, played Nancy bawdier than Evans and director Stephanie Curtis Conching have interpreted the role here. Filius' approach to "As Long as He Needs Me" suggested that Nancy's devotion to her abusive boyfriend was somehow romantic. Evans' performance better suggests the unvarnished human tragedy of abusive relationships.
Derrick Kam and Angela Crowley (Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry) distinguish themselves with bizarre interpretations of a ghoulish undertaker and his domineering wife. Credit Kathy Kohl (costume design) with creating such cadaverous costuming and makeup for Kam that he is completely unrecognizable.
Kam and Crowley give the strongest performances of all the secondary nasties in the dark and grim tale, but Brett Hudson (Mr. Bumble) and Ginnie Little (Widow Corney) create some sparkling moments of light and subtle comedy with "I Shall Scream." Hudson also joins Kam and Crowley to create an expressive comic trio for "It's Your Funeral," the best musical number in which Donahue does not participate.
"Oliver!" is Lionel Bart's musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Oliver Twist," and many of the character relationships make more sense in the novel than on stage. The ACT production seemed particularly truncated in terms of characterization and plot continuity. For instance, the first time Evans sang "As Long as He Needs Me," there hadn't been enough sense of the relationship between Sykes and Nancy to understand the song was expressing Nancy's feelings for Sykes -- not Fagin, or possibly even Oliver.
Oh, well. ACT's "Oliver!" is entertaining regardless of any issues with Bart's storytelling skills. Director Conching and choreographer Grace Bell Humerickhouse get a series of visually engaging performances from the appealing corps of preteen singer-dancers who portray the workhouse inmates and street kids. Tom Giza's sets are some of his best in recent memory (the drop-in bridge looks good and works perfectly), and the quality of the opening-night sound Thursday was almost up to the benchmark set by ACT's 2001 staging of "South Pacific."
Mark Vogel (musical director) provides smooth and well-textured support in his Honolulu theatrical debut. Vogel and William Edwards (sound design) share credit for making "Oliver!" enjoyable listening despite the fact that Kiyan and Eric Jones (Artful Dodger) lacked sufficient microphone volume at times.
And then there's Dion Donahue, whose performance as Fagin is worth "pickin' a pocket or two" for the ticket price.