If you want something, ask for it.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Theatre and Dance department this year figured out that standing in line, waiting your turn and not asking for something they weren’t going to give you would no longer work as a lobbying strategy.

The internationally recognized program is operating on the same budget it got in 1987, according to Paul Mitri, department chairman.

The problem was that the UH administration set the budget and decided what was important and how the money would be spent, said Rep. Isaac Choy, House Higher Education Committee chairman.

“The way they work the budget is to sprinkle the money down, instead of it coming up from requests by the departments,” Choy said in an interview.

What happened this year was new. The drama and dance department, which has one of the finest Asian theater programs in the country including kabuki and Beijing opera, went outside of the UH bureaucracy, and had its own request sent to the Legislature asking for money.

The plan was started by a drama student and legislative veteran, Dennis Ihara, who was told by Mitri that the department had no more money for paper for copying, that it was unable to pay for graduate students or student help, or even pay the light bill.

Ihara went to Rep. Ken Ito, chairman of the Culture and Arts Committee, who talked to Choy and the pair met UH faculty members.

“I was pretty shocked to find the department was getting shortchanged. They had cut after cut and (were) never restored,” Ito said.

The crusty former Kalani High School shop teacher was sold on the program when he learned of the awards won and the productions produced while the budget was being cut.

“They are very entrepreneurial. They clean the theater themselves; one faculty member even cleaned toilets. They are so motivated. I never saw faculty like this. I guess it is the motto ‘The show must go on,’” Ito said, adding, “You know I had tears in my eyes.”

Choy, a CPA, is not much of a softy, although he came away from the meeting with new respect for the UH program with its 17-member faculty.

“When you teach English and history, you don’t have much access to outside money; it is not like pulling in research grants. These guys are on the front line of teaching, but they are like the end of the food chain,” Choy said, vowing that he wanted the situation changed.

Both representatives said there was off-the-record opposition from the university.

“The administration said you will never get this through. They pushed back,” Choy said.

At the end of the session, however, the show did go on. The state budget was adjusted to add $350,000 for theater and dance programs.

Mitri acknowledged the new budget may be just a one-act play. The appropriation is one-time only and observers figure the UH administration will not like the freelance, entrepreneurial spirit of the theater and dance folks copied by all UH departments.

As Mitri said, “We teach our students to be resilient and do so much with so little.”

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com