National Touring Play THE LEGEND OF KO'OLAU to Return to Hawaii

The new national touring play The Legend Of Ko'olau returns to Hawaii for one night only on Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Honolulu Museum Of Arts' Doris Duke Theatre.

Selected for creation grant funding by the National Performance Network of New Orleans, the one-man play about a legendary Hawaiian cowboy recently played to a sold-out audience at the Sacramento City College's Performing Arts Theatre in April and has been to the David Henry Hwang in Los Angeles and La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, California.

At the invitation of the state of Hawaii, a special performance was done at the Kalaupapa National Park on Molokai before former Hansen's Disease patients and their families.

The story of the Hawaiian cowboy Kaluaiko'olau has been written about by the late novelist Jack London and by 2010 United States Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin. For the first time, it features this historic figure telling the story in a theatrical drama that has received high praise from critics.

Berkeley poet/radio commentator Jack Foley wrote: "Last night Adelle and I saw a remarkable one-man play, The Legend of Ko'olau. Written by Gary T. Kubota, it's the story of the "Hawaiian outlaw cowboy," Kaluaiko'olau and his resistance to political and moral forces he gradually comes to understand are eroding not only himself but the entire Hawaiian people.

A compassionate man who has worked with lepers, Kaluaiko'olau becomes a leper himself. The play documents his struggle to maintain his sense of dignity and his armed refusal to be treated in the inhumane way that lepers were treated. With his wife and young son he becomes an emblem of resistance-a "legend." But to put it that way is leave out the many humanizing touches playwright Kubota has given the man-his multiple conflicting allegiances, his anger, his humor, his guilt about a murder he felt compelled to commit, his conflicts about religion, his deep love for his wife and son."

Actor Moronai Kanekoa has appeared on TV shows "Scorpion" and "Castle" and recently completed a starring role in the film "Kuleana." Director Monte Scott Perez has toured nationally with the late actor Jack Klugman who starred in TV roles as Quincy and The Odd Couple.

More information and tickets are available at legendofkoolau.com or Theatre Box Office by calling (808) 532-6097.

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