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WHAT'S a theater company to do when it needs new material and can't find it? For Nelson Shreve, a fan of classic melodrama, the answer was simple: write 'em himself. Couple sails off
with Ahab after 25
years as ‘Players’
By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinThat's how Shreve got started writing new old-fashioned melodramas for the Lanikai Mortgage Players. His wife, director Lucille Shreve, says he has added at least 20 plays to the LMP repertoire and acted in several since they moved to Hawaii and joined the group in the mid-'70s. The couple will be taking a break from play production when the revival production of his 1984 opus, "Who Scuttled the Schooner, or, Captain Ahab Rides Again," concludes with its performances this weekend.
"I'd like to come back as a guest director sometime, but after 25 years and 50 shows it's time for a break," Lucille said.
The original Lanikai Mortgage Players come together in 1960 to help pay off the mortgage on the community-purchased Lanikai Park. Interest had waned and group was showing few signs of life when the couple arrived in the '70s. Nelson Shreve stepped in to create new melodramas. Lucille has served 25 years as the group's resident director.
"When Nelson decided to retire I said we should do one more (show) and what's your favorite? This is it."
She adds that the Captain Ahab in the show this weekend is definitely not Melville's whaler miraculously brought back to life. This Ahab is a 19th century skipper out of San Francisco who has had amnesia ever since someone blew up his ship. The amnesia causes Ahab to believe that he is George Washington or any number of other characters.The story also includes a hired hand with an important secret, three suffragettes who hate men, a singing Irish policeman and a beautiful heroine.
"I tell the new actors they can forget every thing they've learned at other theaters because in melodrama the gestures and emotions are always exaggerated."
Exaggeration is just one of traditional elements of the overwrought style of theater that flourished in the early years of the last century. A melodrama always has a hero and the hero always rescues the heroine and vanquishes the dastardly villain or villains. A happy ending is mandatory and the audience is encouraged to applaud the hero and hiss or boo the villain.
Shreve makes it clear that the Lanikai Mortgage Players are not shutting down even through she and her husband are taking a break and the titular mortgage was paid off years ago. Any money raised beyond production costs these days goes to help cover such community park costs as insurance and maintenance.
"Our next play will be the last two weekends in May and it will be directed by Walter McGoldrick, who plays Captain Ahab in this one."
"We stick to doing melodramas because we're the only theater in the island that does them. Quite often, groups will buy the house out and use it as a fund-raiser. We keep the ticket price at $5 so anyone can afford to come and bring their kids. There might be a few little suggestive remarks in some of the plays, but I've always said that anyone from a 5-year-old to a 90- year-old won't be offended."
On stage
What: Lanikai Mortgage Players present "Who Scuttled the Schooner, or, Captain Ahab Rides Again," by Nelson Shreve
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