In a spacious community room atop a Makiki high rise, a dozen chairs face three music stands. Actor, director and Kailua Onstage Arts theater owner Kevin Keaveney and veteran actors Brandon Karrer and Brooke Channon stride to the stands. Conversation among the stylish women seated at the venue comes to a hush.
The month before, a similar scenario played out, but at a breezy patio overlooking a Kahala golf course.
Convening monthly at each other’s homes to feast for a short hour on theatrical readings by outstanding local actors has been a ritual for this group since 1960, when a group of like-minded women began gathering informally. Their interest held fast over those founding months, and they began calling themselves simply the Ladies Drama Group.
Somewhat along the lines of a speakeasy, once upon a time an outsider only found out about the group by private invitation from an existing member. The members, mostly retirees and widows, took turns hosting the group in their elegant homes, complete with a pupu potluck. During these six decades, membership numbers have fluctuated, loosely peaking at a healthy roster of about 25.
To invigorate their numbers (hear ye, ladies with sizeable meeting rooms), the group is inviting women with an interest in the performing arts to attend an upcoming performance. The next scheduled reading takes place on Jan. 2.
Twenty RSVPs will be accepted for the January event, and attendance is free; those who opt to join the group contribute $100 annually to fund the stagings. If more than 20 would-be patrons are interested, invites will be extended to future readings.
JANUARY’S THEATRICAL reading will be “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” featuring community theater stalwarts Berkley Spivey (last seen in “The Christians” at Hawaii Pacific University) and Danielle Zalopany (last seen in “We the Invisibles” at Kailua Onstage Arts).
“The play explores physical and emotional scars, and intimacy,” says director Keaveney, who’s been program coordinator for the group over the past three years. “It charts the life of a boy and girl ages 8 up to their mid-30s, and how their different injuries – both external and internal – draw them together and also push them apart.”
As with some of his other selections over the past year, he plans to eventually produce the play at his Kailua theater (where he’s directing “Men on Boats,” opening Jan. 17).
“This group is a great barometer,” adds Keaveney. “I use it as a bellwether when I’m planning a show for KOA. I figure if the ladies like it, it’s going to be OK for a general audience.”
Keaveney said he’s been impressed by how receptive the Group’s audience members have been, even with gritty material such as the play “A Steady Rain,” a hard-hitting drama that focuses on two Chicago policemen who inadvertently return a Vietnamese boy to a murderer — a plot similar to a real-life event involving Jeffrey Dahmer. The play had a reading with the Ladies Group before being produced earlier this year at Kailua Onstage Arts.
The women make up an unusual theatrical audience as they customarily do not come from a theater background, nor are they typical stage connoisseurs.
“We’re not part of the bigger theater community, but this program has helped get more people to go to more live theater,” said Ginny Meade, the group’s president for the past six years. “I think 1960s members were a little more involved in the community theater scene than we are now.”
They also staunchly support the arts by remaining one of the rare theatrical organizations on the island that pays their actors, and they also provide lunch for each.
Pages from the group’s archives list Lucille Brenneman as founding program coordinator. She was a University of Hawaii drama professor at the time who began meeting regularly with a handful of storytellers, playwrights and fellow thespians to do readings and discuss stage works.
During the course of that first decade, the group grew — and rather than solely drawing their entertainment from their members, they began inviting outsiders to read or perform theatrical pieces.
The list of past performers reads like a hall of fame nod to some of Hawaii’s most esteemed actors. Renowned Shakespearian, the late Terence Knapp was strongly involved in helping the niche group grow and flourish.
The genre presented at the readings has been subject to the discretion of the program director, currently Keaveney, and before him Lisa Barnes, who took the banner from Elitae Tatafu. Every variety of dramatic arts has been presented, branching to include lectures, poetry, comedy skits, musical numbers and sonnets.
Genres vary from sci fi to comedy, and from period to contemporary works. The faithful gatherers have been treated to works by Anton Chekov and Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote to Ray Bradbury, Monty Python and Neil Simon. The group has also witnessed lectures on Irish literature, a discussion on Shakespeare’s female characters and other wide-ranging topics.
When Meade took the presidential reins on her second meeting with the group – inheriting them from longtime president Eppy Kerr – she did so for the love of theater.
“I’ve always been taken with theater,” she says. “And I also want to further other people’s interest.
“I think it’s time for us to grow a little and welcome in some new members,” she said. “If you enjoy an intimate setting with a dramatic reading followed by a group discussion, this could be for you.”
“GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES”
Presented by the Ladies Drama Group
>> Where: Location tba; venue changes monthly
>> When: Jan. 2
>> Cost: $100 annually, monthly performances
>> Info: gmeade@hawaii.rr.com
