February 28, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Kauai Community College Performing Arts Theater
This performance has been completed.
Ko'olau: A True Story of Kaua'i
by Tom Lee
“A puppet show that treats the adults and kids
in the audience with equal maturity, it's a simple story told with heart,
patience, and boundless imagination.” —Russell M.
Kaplan, nytheatre.com
Ko'olau, designed and
directed by Tom Lee, is an intimate and inventive puppet performance
based on a now-legendary story of Hawai'i in the 1890s. The title
character, Kaluaiko'olau, hides with his wife and son in the Kalalau
Valley of Kauai as he tries to elude the sheriff's men and escape
deportation to a leper colony. The story captures both a fundamental
struggle for personal freedom and the triumph of unconditional love in
the most difficult circumstances. Lee addresses these powerful
themes with puppetry that evokes the poetry of the Hawaiian language and
the natural environment of the islands. His production utilizes raw,
handcarved puppets in the kuruma ningyo style (wheeled puppet theater of
Japan) and live shadow and video projection inspired by Hawaiian woodcut
carving. The performers are four puppeteers, two musicians, and
two projectionists who animate live shadow and video images onto a screen
at the back of the stage.
Tom Lee
Tom Lee has designed sets, puppets, and video animation for dance, theatre,
and new opera in New York and Europe; served as resident artist of the La MaMa
Experimental Theatre Club; and worked with companies in Siberia, Ukraine,
Poland, Italy, and Japan. He received a Jim Henson Foundation grant for his
puppet epic Hoplite Diary. Tom teaches puppetry and scenic design at
Sarah Lawrence College.
www.tomleeprojects.com
Review by Russell M. Kaplan, nytheatre.com
Review by Richard Hinojosa, nytheatre.com
Pricing
Adults $25 / Students $10
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