The 2015 Acting Troupe, made up of students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, will be performing a collection of Chinese fables this month penned by a 98-year-old storyteller with roots in Kaʻū and Hilo. The Dragon Slayer and Other Timeless Tales of Wisdom is a delightful compendium of cautionary tales brought to life in a storytelling performance created especially for families and children, on stage November 20-22 at the UH Hilo Performing Arts Center.
About the author
Author Shiho Shinoda Nunes was born in 1917 to Japanese immigrant parents in the plantation village of Hilea, in the Kaʻū district of Hawaiʻi Island. Her family moved to Hilo in 1921. She received her baccalaureate degree and teaching diploma from UH Mānoa in 1939, and returned to Hilo to teach through 1959 when she returned to Honolulu. During her long career in education she served as program manager for the Hawaiʻi Department of Education and as assistant director of the Curriculum Research and Development Group at UH Mānoa, retiring in 1977. She now lives in Berkeley, California.
“My mother, who came from Japan, was a treasure house of stories,” writes Nunes on her website. “I grew up with her folk tales, told in her distinctive, yet universal, voice. Perhaps that foundation explains why I was drawn, at an early age, to the tales and myths of Hawaiʻi, an interest that widened in later years to include stories of other Asian cultures.”
Nunes was in her late seventies when she began to write. Her first book, The Shishu Ladies of Hilo: Japanese Embroidery in Hawaiʻi is a moving tribute to her parents and their students of Japanese embroidery. The budding author followed it with Chinese Fables: The Dragon Slayer and Other Timeless Tales of Wisdom, folk tales not unlike those told to her in childhood by her mother and the inspiration for the upcoming stage production of The Dragon Slayer and Other Timeless Tales of Wisdom.
The performance
The UH Hilo Acting Troupe will perform the tales amidst clever staging, where wit drives wisdom in hundreds-of-years-old yu-yen, or instructive tales. Jackie Pualani Johnson, professor of drama at UH Hilo and director of the production, saw The Dragon Slayer as ideal for staging and led the troupe in scripting the works for young children.
“Praise to the 2015 Acting Troupe for their dedication to learning the intricacies of bringing this storytelling performance to life!” says Johnson. “Our class met twice weekly ever since August. Time was taken to get to know each other and uncover the gifts each person would bring to the process. We wallowed in the imagery and clever lessons in the retelling of the age-old fables, talked about the characters, and the means to breathe immediacy into their portrayal.”
The troupe’s actors create stories, do gymnastics, serve as musicians and generally cavort through thirteenth-century China. Performing will be UH Hilo students Sarah Dunaway, Tiffany Erickson, Sky Flores, Yu Hamaoka, Willyam Hodson, Jay Kayhill, Elijah Livingston, Kekoa Morison, Lazareth Sye, Jianxing Tong, Ally Vercruyssen and Ulu Winchester-Sye. Several UH Hilo graduates are also returning for the performance—Alston Albarado and Jessica Takayama Swart, joined by astronomy major Emily Peavy.
Johnson notes the special fortune of having Tong, who is from Beijing. “Listen for the Mandarin he taught us and envision the rich culture that has ensued since emperors ruled and dragons lived in caves,” she says.
The acting troupe explored the process of scripting the stories via improvisation and group work before deeming them ready to be placed in their version of China, 700 years ago.
“A sprinkling of Beijing Opera was added to give the right flair, and thus The Dragon Slayer came to life,” says Johnson. “What a rewarding journey!”
Resident designer, Ariana Bassett created the scenery to capture the beauty of Chinese art and architecture, both in city and rural settings. Michael Marshall, UH Hilo professor of art, and his art students have contributed elements to the show, ranging from a dragon’s lair, to colorful Beijing-opera monkey king masks, and a shimmery bedstead.
Show details
Showings are on Friday and Saturday, November 20 and 21, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, November 22, at 2 p.m. at the UH Hilo Performing Arts Center.
Ticket prices
- $12 general admission
- $10 discount
- $5 children 17 and under and UH Hilo and Hawaiʻi CC students with valid student ID
To purchase tickets, call the Performing Arts Center Box Office at (808) 932-7490 or order online.
—By Susan Enright
