For 36 years the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii has proved that the best stories not only entertain, but also open minds, set moral standards, prove the power of creative thinking and inspire listeners to reach for the stars.

The theater has its own wonderful story to tell.

It begins with Mark Jeffers, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., who earned a master’s degree in education with an early childhood focus from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1978. The following year, he co-founded the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii with Anna Viggiano, a UH graduate student in theatre.

"We thought presenting good stories to children — stories with messages about core values and how to contribute to communities in positive ways — was a great pursuit," said Jeffers, who has been the theater’s executive director since its inception. "Along with other education and theater graduates, we wrote and performed plays for schools throughout Hawaii. All the productions shared important lessons about, for example, kindness, honesty and humility."

Viggiano left Storybook Theatre after a few years, and Jeffers incorporated it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1987, two years before he moved to Kauai.

From 1990 to 1995, when he was program director for Hui o Laka, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates the Kokee Natural History Museum, Storybook was, in his words, a "theater without walls."

He still worked on productions, including those revolving around his newfound interest in environmental issues and Hawaiian history. Collaborations with Marsha Erickson, then Hui o Laka’s executive director, resulted in several events with those themes. One, the Banana Poka Round-Up (banana poka is an invasive plant species), is still held annually at Kokee State Park.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki in 1992, Jeffers was active in efforts to restore historic buildings that had been badly damaged and faced demolition. One of those was the 1933 Obatake building in Hanapepe, which had housed a Chinese restaurant and stores run by families who were longtime residents of Hanapepe.

Nancy McMahon, then the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ archaeologist based on Kauai, took Jeffers to the site and suggested it would be a good home for the Storybook Theatre.

"At first that was hard to envision," he said. "The roof and a wall had been blown away, and the building was tilting way over to one side. My board of trustees was also hesitant about trying to resurrect it, but it was on the State Register of Historic Places, and after a lot of thought, we decided to move ahead and save it if we could."

Soon after the Storybook Theatre received right of entry in 1995, a benefactor donated $5,000 to stabilize the building. Grants and individual donations followed, along with a 55-year lease from DLNR. Volunteers pitched in to paint, nail boards, pour concrete and more.

Jeffers welcomed the first visitors to the new Storybook Theatre in January 2003. One of its highlights is the Spark M. Matsunaga International Children’s Garden for Peace, popularly known as Sparky’s Garden. It honors the World War II veteran and peace advocate who grew up in Hanapepe and represented Hawaii in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1976 and the U.S. Senate from 1977 until his death in 1990.

The lush garden features a larger-than-life bronze statue of Matsunaga, a performance stage, koi ponds and a gazebo for tea service.
President Jimmy Carter established the Commission on Proposals for the National Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution in 1978 with Matsunaga as its chairman.

Over the next year and a half, the commission met with citizens, educators, health care professionals and leaders of military, government, religious and ethnic organizations to study the theories and techniques of conflict resolution.

In its 1981 report it recommended the creation of a publicly funded entity that would "serve the American people and the federal government through the widest possible range of education and training … on the means to promote international peace and the resolution of conflicts among the nations and peoples of the world without recourse to violence." The United States Institute of Peace opened in Washington, D.C., five years later.

As Jeffers charts Storybook Theatre’s course, he often recalls Matsunaga’s wisdom: "If in our teaching we emphasize the life and work of our great contributors instead of our great destroyers, people will come to realize that moral courage is bravery of the highest type, and America will be called the Champion of Peace."

"That’s a compelling message because one of our biggest challenges is having the grit to dream beyond what seems like a future filled with turmoil," Jeffers said. "But if we think as children do — with receptiveness and uninhibited imagination — we can accomplish anything. The gift of imagination is the key to a better tomorrow."

Cheryl Chee-Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.