Hilo Community Players Celebrate 75th Year

In honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Hilo Community Players, the University of Hawai’i at Hilo Performing Arts Department is presenting The Spoon River Project, a collaboration between UH Hilo and Hawai`i Island’s oldest community theater organization.

Showtimes are for one weekend only: Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Nov. 7-9), 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 10, 2 p.m., at the UH-Hilo Performing Arts Center.

UH-Hilo Professor Jackie Pualani Johnson has welcomed community director Jake McPherson to co-direct the adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters’ free-form poems. McPherson served as president of the Players and has appeared as an actor at UH-Hilo and in numerous Players’ productions.

The play focuses on the departed residents of the post-Civil war community Spoon River, who speak from the grave, examining life and their longing for what might have been.

Actors include UH-Hilo students and veteran community performers: Juli Dobbs, James Elliott, Erin Gallagher, Le’a Gleason, Dick Hershberger, Willyam Hudson, Sharon Justice, Pedro Ka`awaloa, John Marcus Love, Randal McEndree, Catherine McPherson, Lewis Moore, Jin Piper, Brian Wild, Denyse Woo-Ockerman, and Corey Yester.

Musical direction will be by Christopher Tomich, who fulfills his senior project for a degree in Performing Arts, Music Concentration.

The show was adapted into script form by Tom Andolora, a composer and voice teacher in New York City.

Open Seating tickets are $12 general, $7 discount and $5 UH students (with valid ID) and children 17 and under. Call 932-7490 or order online at artscenter.uhh.hawaii.edu.