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Contrary to popular opinion, there are not three wondrous tales told during Honolulu Theatre for Youth's current staging of "Wondrous Tales of Old Japan," but rather four. And while the fourth is largely obscured from the audience, it's a drama no less suspenseful or spectacular than the story of a fisherman transported to an undersea world or the derring-do of a peach boy as he battles a ferocious blue ogre. Costume changes keep
kabuki livelyBackstage chaos becomes an unseen,
ancillary drama in HTY's clever productionBy Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com"We call it controlled chaos," said Casey Cameron, HTY's costume director, an apt description of the backstage drama that's been unfolding at St. Andrew's Cathedral's Tenney Theater during the past few weeks. The kabuki action onstage has been thrilling the kids, while adults, namely Cameron, are equally fascinated by the maelstrom occurring just behind the curtain.
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"We have ripped costumes that would be normally unrippable because there's such a panic to get things on," she said. The ensemble of five actors is forced to navigate 25 to 30 costume changes during a show that runs little more than an hour. It's a feat accomplishable only via layering."Cynthia See (one of the actors) appears as a turtle at one point, but under that she has her costume for the old woman, and under that she has her costume for the narrator. She just peels one off, puts a hat on, goes back on, comes off, peels that one off ..."
Sure it's crazy, but how else could writer-director David Furumoto, a native son now living and teaching at the University of Wisconsin, take young audiences on such a whirlwind trip without unduly taxing the attention spans of children?
"Wondrous Tales," which began life in a production by the Minneapolis Children's Theater, marries a kabuki approach to a few much-loved children's stories -- "Urashimoto," "Yuki Onna" and "Momotaro" -- the result being a trio of fabulous fables.
Presented by the Honolulu Theater for Youth 'Wondrous Tales of Old Japan'
When: 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and March 2
Where: Tenney Theater, St. Andrew's Cathedral
Cost: $10 adults; $7.50 for teens and $5 for children 3-12
Call: 839-9885
Not including the "Tale of the Frantic Fasteners" backstage, where good does indeed triumph over evil, this time thanks to Velcro and zippers.
"David and I did kabuki when we were at (the University of Hawaii) together, where everything is tied around and wrapped with himo," Cameron said of the graceful affairs far removed from the fur-flying chaos of present-day HTY. "They've cheated a lot by putting in snaps and Velcro" -- they being the Minneapolis folks whose costumes HTY rented -- "and these huge hooks, what we call 'whopper poppers,' with snaps the size of quarters."
It's doubtful that the "Wondrous Tales" cast -- which also includes Monica Cho, Squire Coldwell, Shen Sugai and Junior Tesoro -- thinks of it as cheating, especially as the actors are often forced to change their makeup and costumes at once. In the second piece, for instance, Cho "comes on as the demon Snow Woman, then metamorphosizes from that into the sweet, loving wife, and then back to the Snow Woman again," a triple treat that includes a coup de theatre of sorts, the second transition performed onstage with the help of two stagehands and a giant white sheet.
And as if they hadn't enough to worry about, the cast isn't supposed to get the clothes dirty.
"Many costumes are so intricate that there's no way to clean them, so the actors wear T-shirts, they wear special collars over their T-shirts, and they wear special Japanese underwear."
So let's see if we've got this straight. The turtle costume goes over the old woman costume, which goes over the narrator costume, which goes over the collar, which goes over the T-shirt, which goes over the special underwear.
"We just hope they don't sweat a lot," laughed Cameron.
Is she kidding?
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