‘Lili’uokalani at Washington Place’ at UH-Hilo PAC

University of Hawai’i at Hilo’s Performing Arts Center. File photo by Tiffany Epping.

The University of Hawai’i at Hilo Humanities Division will sponsor a performance of “Lili’uokalani at Washington Place” on Jan. 16 at the university’s Performing Arts Center.

Professor Jackie Pualani Johnson will act in the one-woman show, surrounding Queen Lili’uokalani as she recalls mothering her three hanai children.

Na Leo Mele o Kamehameha will open the evening and Kamehameha-Hawai’i’s alumni choir, under the direction of Herb Mahelona, will also perform. Songs written by Queen Lili’uokalani, who was a composer and writer of poetic Hawaiian lyrics, will be shared.

Johnson wrote the Lili’uokalani at Washington Place script for a series of performances envisioned by Reverend Moki’hino of Hilo’s Holy Apostles Episcopal Church.

The series began with a one-woman show about Queen Emma, written by Johnson and performed by UH-Hilo Performing Arts graduate Denyse Woo Ockerman.

When the ‘Iolani Guild of Oahu suggested the theme for the second show, it was decided that the show would focus on Lili’uokalani and reveal the woman and mother behind the political figure that is often looked upon in Hawaiian history.

The alumni choir’s performance will assist in raising awareness of the 2016 Kamehameha student trip to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.