Youth Troupe to Perform Broadway Favorites at Kahilu Theatre

Kahilu Youth Troupe. Courtesy photo.

Members of the Kahilu Youth Troupe will perform favorite selections from previous Youth Troupe concerts and musicals on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 13 and 14, at 7 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.

The selected Broadway production favorites will include “Sondheim and Friends,” “Broadway in Hawai‘i,” “Back to Broadway,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Godspell,” “Grease” and “13 the Musical.”

The Kahilu Youth Troupe was formed in 2009 after theater students from a number of schools in West Hawai‘i met in a Waimea Community Theater production of “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” The students enjoyed working together and wanted to continue—thus the troupe was born in 2011.

For the upcoming Kahilu concert, original troupe members—some of whom have gone on to earn Master’s Degrees in theatre and are pursuing careers in the arts—will be performing with current high school troupe members.

Beth Bornstein Dunnington will lead the production. She is a stage director, performer, acting teacher and writer who moved to Hawai‘i from New York in 2007. She teaches Acting and Musical Theater as part of the Kahilu Performing Arts Classes (KPAC) educational program and uses these classes as a training ground for the Youth Troupe.

“Best of Broadway in Hawai‘i” musical director Paul Gregg is an original troupe member. Hawai‘i Performing Arts Festival artistic director Val Underwood is vocal coach.

The cast of performers will include: Noelani Anderson, Becca Barrett, Grace Bostock, Leilani Bostock, Simon Dunlap, Marena Dunnington, Stacee Firestone, Lucky Friend, Daniel Gregg, Paul Gregg, Ryan Hooley, Melissa Lynn Threlfall, and Grace Todd.

Tickets for both performances are available for purchase online at kahilutheatre.org for $20, $25 and $35, by calling (808) 885-6868, or in person at the Kahilu Theatre Box Office located at 67-1186 Lindsey Road in Waimea.