Kumu Kahua Theatre Presents The gripping historical drama set in 19th Century Honoka‘a, HAWAI‘I, ANOTHER HEAVEN
Based on a true story about violence on a Honoka‘a sugar plantation in 1890, Eric Anderson’s Another Heaven will play at Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant Street, downtown Honolulu. It opens May 18 and runs through June 18.
Kumu Kahua Theatre is an air-conditioned, intimate 100-seat performance space; to avoid disappointment, patrons should purchase tickets in advance. Performances are at 8pm Thursday through Saturday, and at 2pm on Sunday afternoons. Tickets can be purchased with a credit card by calling 536-4441, or by visiting our Box Office between 11am and 3pm Monday through Friday. Ticket prices range from $16 to $5. Tickets go on sale Monday, May 1. For more information about this and other productions, visit www.kumukahua.org.
Winner of the 2001 Kumu Kahua/UHM Theatre Department Play Contest Hawai‘i Prize, Another Heaven tells a story of Katsu Goto, owner of a general store and an honorable man who persistently tries to help the Japanese plantation workers stand up for their rights. But he runs up against the plantation’s cruel foreman “luna,” the short-tempered plantation owner, and a rival merchant. A passionate and relentless investigator from Honolulu shows up to uncover evidence that the local police prefer to leave buried. Eric Anderson’s Another Heaven explores the volatile issues of racial conflict, worker exploitation, greed and ambition in late nineteenth-century Hawai‘i, which still reverberate today.
Kumu Kahua board Vice President Sammie Choy will direct the play. The production team includes set design by Dan Gelbmann, costume design by Dusty Behner and light design by Gerald Kawaoka. The cast features Kumu veterans Laura Bach Buzzell, Shiro Kawai and Brent Yoshikami. Nina Buck, Will Hao, Frank Episale, and Josh Greenspoon will make their Kumu debut with Another Heaven.
Kumu Kahua productions are being supported by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts celebrating more than thirty years of culture and the arts in Hawai‘i (with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts); the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, Mufi Hannemann, Mayor; The Hawai‘i Community Foundation; The Hawai‘i Council of the Humanities; and Foundations, Businesses and Patrons.
