By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Gregory Scott Harris and Stefanie Anderson star
in a scene from "Shear Madness."
Actors play roles in
By John Berger
real life situations
Special to the Star-BulletinActing skills enhance the ability to work with children. This is what two cast members of "Shear Madness," the politically incorrect comedy being presented by Manoa Valley Theatre, have discovered.
Dion Donahue, a child aide education assistant at Palolo Elementary by day, undercover cop Nick Rosetti in the play, also appears in costume at Palolo each Friday as Auntie Da Kine - a role he inherited when the original "auntie" chickened out. Acting also comes into play when he helps kids talk out their problems with school or family conflicts.
"They see me as an actor, as animated, as someone who likes to make jokes, I'm almost cartoon-like and that makes me less threatening and easier to approach. Not another serious adult," Donahue explains.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Dion Donahue as Dominic Rossetti, the detective, pries about
the alibi of Mrs. Eleanor Shubert, played by Linda Johnson.
Fellow cast member Gerald Anthony Kolbeck has had similar experiences. Kolbeck helps foreign-born students at a rural Oahu elementary school."Everything that promotes language development helps. The other day there were two students who didn't know what a skunk was. Acting out the word helped them work it out in an enjoyable way. The theater games we (cast members) do ... before rehearsals to help focus work very well with the kids there."
Cutting comedy
What: "Shear Madness"
John Berger has covered the local
entertainment scene since 1972.
