HTY’s new
artistic director
aims high

He heads to Hawaii
with immediate goals
for the youth theater

COURTESY HTY Eric Johnson takes over Monday as artistic director for Honolulu Theatre for Youth.

Eric Johnson is somewhere just beyond Illinois, driving west from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles on his way to Hawaii -- where on Monday he becomes Honolulu Theatre for Youth's new artistic director.

"Driving ... lets me say a long goodbye to the mainland," said Johnson, 34, who just resigned as artistic associate at the Pennsylvania's Fulton Opera House. "Fifteen hours a day on the road gives me lots of time to think about my goals for HTY."

The North Carolina-born Johnson, besides his part-time Fulton Opera House job, freelanced for theater productions in New York, Los Angeles and in Europe as well as teaching last year at Franklin & Marshall College in Philadelphia.

He is a winner of the NEA/TCG Early Career Award for Directing as well as the international Princess Grace award for Promising Young Artists. He specializes in integrating digital media into live performance and used these techniques in works for the Fulton Opera House and the Mark Taper Forum, among others.

Johnson's only visit to Hawaii was in March to interview for the HTY job, although his interest in the organization emerged last year.

It was at a national conference for youth theater -- New Visions/New Voices at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. -- that Johnson saw HTY's 50th-anniversary production, "Nothing is the Same," directed by former artistic director Mark Lutwak.

The play tells of three boys and a girl living in Wahiawa during the Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Oahu and is based on oral histories taken with elders in Wahiawa. The event changes their lives and their relationships with each other.

"Everyone at the conference thought it was so fantastic," Johnson said. "We all really took notice of HTY."

Johnson was so intrigued that he visited HTY's Web site to learn more about the organization, including employment opportunities.

He has three primary goals for HTY. One has already happened -- HTY is getting a "permanent, temporary home" next season at Tenney Theatre on the grounds of St. Andrew's Cathedral.

In seasons past, HTY has played at a new venue for every show. Now HTY officials can work to lock in a home for its administration, drama education and performance.

"It's important to have one place that the public can identify with and come to see shows and take classes." Johnson said.

Goal No. 2: To continue working with new writers on original scripts. "More than 50 percent of HTY's (shows) are original stories and that will continue."

His third goal, which is more indicative of Johnson's background, is "to connect to non-theatrical collaborators."

"HTY already is interested in this," he said. "I had a theater company -- Blue Shift Theatre Ensemble -- which did a lot of things with people outside of theater -- that included a chef, cartoonist, a sportswriter.

"I'm very interested in bringing non-theatrical elements into the theater and create a space where we can collaborate."

One of the obstacles of working in Hawaii is also its strength, Johnson said.

"There are so many voices and stories in Hawaii to be brought together," he said. "How do you do something meaningful and across the board ... elevating each group into real celebration?"

Johnson has a simple formula: "I will be doing a lot of listening."