When the Army transferred her father to Hawaii in 1973, Terri Large was 18, just out of high school, and still living with her parents. She decided to come with them, and she pursued her interest in theater at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

In 1974 she met Dan Madden. Two years later they got married. Dan and Terri Madden celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary June 5.

Although Madden and her husband built successful full-time careers in real estate, she’s enjoyed a parallel career in theater as an actor, director, playwright and stagehand. In 2011 she founded PlayBuilders of Hawai’i Theatre Company, a community-based group of experienced actors and directors that goes outside traditional theater circles and into island neighborhoods to create plays with members of those communities about local life in Hawaii.

Madden, 65, is back “onstage” today through June 28 portraying community service volunteer and women’s suffrage advocate Ethel Smith Baldwin (1879-1967) in Cemetery Pupu Theatre’s’ virtual production of “Woman’s Triumph: Celebrating 100 years of the 19th Amendment.” For ticket, information visit missionhouses.org.

What is the biggest difference in playing to a camera for a virtual performance instead of to a live audience at Oahu Cemetery?

There’s a communication (between actor and audience) that goes on in live theater, and I can tell if I’m doing well or not doing well based on the energy I’m getting back from the audience. Playing to a camera, I won’t know how well it looks until after the editors and the director do their work.

The playbill notes mention that Ethel Smith Baldwin founded the Maui Women’s Suffrage Association and was also active with the Maui Women’s Clubs, the League of Women Voters, and various community relief and social service organizations. What was it about her life and contributions to Hawaii that most appealed to you?

She was a remarkable woman. She lost two sons, and instead of closing herself up in her home and grieving she took that grief and she used to it to energize herself for the community. She really had a special place in her heart for women and children, and did everything she could to make their lives better. She wanted to empower women, and she wanted them to be educated about how the government worked so that they would be knowledgeable voters when that time came.

On a personal note, congratulations on your 44th anniversary. Many people spend a lifetime looking for the equivalent of what you and your husband share. Any tips or secrets?

Live, love, laugh, disagree, separate, come back together and forgive. Repeat the cycle over and over again.

What’s your next big project?

I’m working with playwright Marion Lyman-Mersereau and Hawaiian Mission Houses on a play with and for missionary descendents. The first company of missionaries arrived in 1820. Two hundred years later, what do the descendants of the original missionaries think about it given what we know now about how things have turned out? And what do they think about what other people think about the missionaries? We’ve created an audio play that will be posted on the Hawaiian Mission Houses website where missionary descendants can watch it and let us know what they think. Then Marion will rewrite it based on their comments. Hopefully, in November, we will produce a live production.