 That's the best day for us. Okay, we're back, we're live, we're here on Community Matters with a very special discussion about a special and unique program that you need to know about. And if you don't know about it, you better take notes because you've got to go back and put on a calendar and go there next year. I want to overwhelm these guys so that they have more people coming around than they could possibly imagine. Mike Smolder, he's the curator of public programs at the Hawaiian Mission Houses, okay, which is the Hawaiian Mission House Museum. And Will Hotwell, he is the director of this program, this special program called Cemetery Poo Poo Theatre. And this year, the subtitle is At Your Service. I keep wanting to say, I've worked with Sovis, but let's say At Your Service, right? And it has all kinds, it's laden with all kinds of secondary meaning. And just in short, you know, this takes place in a cemetery, and you have never had as much fun in a cemetery, as you will with these guys, really, they enjoy making people enjoy themselves in the cemetery. And that's consistent with the way it was in the 19th century, all about the 19th century. Right, yeah, in the 19th century, the idea that cemeteries are creepy or scary place is a very 20th century thing. So in the 19th century, cemeteries were meant to be park-like atmospheres where families could gather with their dearly departed and swap family stories. They would hold picnics at the different grave sites. And this is kind of a theatrical extension of that, if you will. It is the greatest, and I envy you so much, Will, to be able to direct these, in this case, wherever year it is, it's five characters out of the 19th century who are buried right there, and who emerge from their graves to talk to you. Well, Mike does the research, and he gives it to a writer, the writer, and then he fact-checks it and whatnot, and then when we get the final draft, then we start hiring auditioning actors, and then professional actors, and you saw them, they're very good, right? Oh, they were great, they were great. And I do have my favorites, I'm going to tell you. Well, you know, they speak to everybody, and they all have different favorites. They're all different favorites, and you know, and you like some for some reason, and you, and this is, and I was going to say this later, but I'll say it now because it impresses me so much, you go to one side of the cemetery and you hear one decedent character, and he talks about, and this happened just two weeks ago when we were there, I think it was the closing night, and he talked about a character that he had dealt with in his life in the 19th century, and then you go to the other side of the cemetery, and you get another character, and that character is talking about how he dealt with the first character. So there's relationships, it was a small community, and you begin to, and I'm sure you're into this, you begin to get the feeling that it was a small community of people knew each other, and it was a special, kind of luscious, delicious Hawaii. Absolutely, I mean, that's something that's really important is that some of these people did know each other during their lifetimes, and they interacted with each other, and we really try to bring that out in the scripts, that way the scripts are self-referential, you know, they reference each other's people and the activities that they were both involved in. So I'll ask you some questions, you know, there's always a sort of an aftermath discussion in these programs, and we all sit in the, with the mortuary. The chapel. The chapel, yeah. It's so interesting. I've never had so much fun in a chapel, and we ask these guys questions about how they put it together, and the characters come in costume, of course, and they answer questions, this is really another great part of the program that you do that. So I guess what I would ask you is the same kind of question I would ask you, I did ask you a couple of weeks ago. Why these characters? Why not some other characters? So at your service was really about people who were engaged in public and civil service, or royal service. So Alexander Cartwright, who's, of course, famous for baseball, relating to rules of modern baseball, unbeknownst to most people, he was Honolulu's first official fire chief. Jane Cooper Park was the marshal of the Hawaiian Kingdom for almost 35 years. Mabel Smythe was the first native Hawaiian public health nurse, and we're very undertold story. Your favorite. My favorite. Lucy Peabody, who was a lady in waiting to Kuinama, and also re-founded the Ahahuikahu Manu Society. And then the last one was Curtis Yalkea, who served in a number of roles in the royal government and territorial government. All these names have a kind of familiarity, because they're all, you know, they're through the community. You see them here and there. Mabel Smythe in Queens Hospital. Curtis, how he, you know, he sounds like somebody you know. Well, you know his great-great grandson, right? The wrestler. Yeah, right, right. I remember now. Yeah. Civic auditorium. Yeah. So yeah, the same wrestling. Yeah, absolutely. So these particular five, there's a lot of considerations that are going into who we're going to portray. Number one is relation to the theme. Number two is there enough research to build a 20-minute monologue from. Another thing is actually the spacing within the cemetery. Because you don't want too much sound bleed. You want to make sure that they're far enough away from each other for that kind of thing. Also, you want to make sure that it's easy to move around the cemetery. Yeah. And make sure that the people coming can, you know, go easily from sites, from grave site to grave site. Yeah. So the chairs, maybe 20 of them are sewn. 20 of them underneath a 10-by-10 pop-up top. Yeah. And as the sun sets, you know, the lights go on. Right. You turn the lights on. I saw you do that. Yeah. Myself and bearing our operations. Okay. And then the character who's sitting with his or her back to you, his or her gravestone, will stand up at the appropriate time, turn around, face the group, and do this bit. And the bit is transfixing because it's in costume. Let's talk about direction. Yeah. How do you achieve this level of what do you call it, acting kind of connection? Well, the key is to find the right people, you know. So it's really easy to direct them. And all you have to do is just give them a few pointers here and there, and they just take off. They just take off with it, you know. And I get to rehearse with them individually. So it's sort of easy that way, you know. It's not like everybody has to come all at once. We have an initial table read. Everybody gets to hear everybody, and then we have the dress rehearsal where everybody gets to see everybody else but prior to that, I meet with them individually over at the Mission House. You know, we just rehearse. I mean, there's just a great group of people. Except for one. And he talks about it now. Who was it? The first one we saw, down at the far end to the left. Marshall Park. Marshall Park, yeah. The sheriff. Yeah, the sheriff. Yeah, Marshall, yeah. Marshall of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He said he recorded it, and then he listened to the recording of his own voice because he was on a trip or something, and he couldn't be in the group. I rehearsed with him before he left. And he arrived the day of the first show. A couple of hours before the first show. I just told him, don't you miss your flight? They'll show up. They were all great. How do you find them? Well, I know the acting community. And so I know who can fit what character. But we have auditions. People can come and audition. And they're not the same every year. They're different people. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's a wealth of performers in Hawaii, the local community of acting scene. But not everybody's right for a certain role. So it just so happened that every year we just, I don't know, we just luck out. We do. I remember last year there was a woman. Oh, gee. And she was a Hawaiian, native Hawaiian woman. Really was. But the character really was too. Yeah. She was so strident, so passionate. My God, you know, to be in the presence of this actor, you know, she totally found her groove. Yeah. And they all do really in their own way. Yeah. Yeah. That was Emma Navahee portrayed by Kahana Ho. Yes. And, you know, Emma Navahee was a very strong patriot. Hawaiian patriot. Yes. And was very involved with a lot of the Hawaiian patriotic movements after the overthrow and things like that. And that was something that we wanted to bring out. Yeah. Last year it was. She also read the newspaper. Yeah. Last year it was called Yesterday's Newspapers. Yes. Yes. It was all about newspapers. Yeah. And Hawaii had so many newspapers, Hawaiian newspapers. And we were like the most literate nation in the world. And it was a whole study of language and writing and publication. Absolutely. And it was another time. We don't have that now. Yeah. What happened? What happened? Yeah. It was part of the culture in the 19th century. Absolutely. Absolutely. Newspapers played such an important role. The reasons we chose the theme of newspapers and calling it Yesterday's Newspapers. I mean, Kawee Kea'uuli, coming with a third, his goal was literacy. Yeah. And he succeeded. Yeah. Absolutely. And you saw that period. I mean, in all the years I've been there, you saw that period from what, 1820 to 1840 or 50, where the nation is built. It becomes a global phenomenon. Right. And it's built on education and literacy. Yes, it is. Yeah. And the thing about it is that people don't really know about this. Furthermore, tell me if I'm wrong now. Okay. But you're still a student. Always. Every year you're delving into different things. Every year you're finding stuff out. Absolutely. You didn't know the year before. I get stunned. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some of this stuff, it is a chance for me to keep learning. And this outside of the story we tell at Hawaiian Mission Houses. I mean, people that come to the show, the local people say, I never knew this. Exactly. That's why it's such a treat. You know, it's like you go into the cemetery and things are quiet. Okay, look back on the skyline of all that development and big city stuff. Right. Not a mile away, but you're in this kind of island of introspection. Right. And you can, all of a sudden you understand what it was before the cityscape. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. It becomes real personal, you know? Yeah. This whole, the evening becomes very personal. Yeah. So how do you direct them? I mean, I'm really interested because we're all actors in our own way, you know what I mean? Right, right, right. So no act. So when you get the script, you can look at it and then you do some research outside research and all the actors who get hired. Your own research. You do their own research. You need that depth to direct them. Right, yeah. And then you just go according to what they bring to the table and you can flesh out more stuff. Are you telling me that they're party, they're party to the development of the script? I mean, if they want to change something, can they change it? They cannot change a script. No. All right. Because that's, yeah, because I work with, I work with our script writer Zachary Woods. Quite frequent. You know, we go back and forth. We usually go through about four drafts, three or four drafts per script. And there's five scripts. And it's polished. It's polished. Zach's become very good. He's even acted in these before. He's come from, he lives in Milwaukee. And he's come out and acted in the show. It strikes me that these scripts are really well done. They're poetry. And every word has a moment. And every word is emotionally laden. And I guess your job would be to get them to express that emotion. Right. And just give them the confidence, too. I mean, there's, this is how difficult it is. Not anybody can do this. Because I had two people in mind for two different characters. And I said, you don't even have to audition. This is you. This is how the character is you. That's great. When I gave them the script, 11 pages, they're like, I cannot do this. It's too difficult. I cannot do this. Too difficult? Yeah. Now, that doesn't do long-form monologues. It's a very difficult thing. Right. It always surmises me how they remember. Yeah. How many pages did you say? 11. 11. That's a lot of script. Yeah. I mean, it's 18 to 20 minutes of material. Yeah. Every one of them is like a short one act. Yeah. One person, one act play. It is. And there's so much material. And not every actor can do that. I mean, if you think about the normal play, you know, there's cues. You're interacting with other people. And you can take your cue if you lose your place from your fellow actors. That's not the case with this. It's just you in the cemetery, you know, doing, you in the audience. So I tell the actors, this is your living room. That's how comfortable you have to be. So everything is just very easy. You know, Karen Calana, who played Lucy Peabody. Lucy Peabody. Her, her, her... She was very good. She was great. I mean, a lot of people liked her. But her, her fear was, she goes back in memory, right? Memory to the Rook House, in Quinella's Rook House. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was, that was her, that was her, she was very, very scared about... Which Queen she was talking about, because she interacts with Queen Liliuul Kalani, as well as Queen Emma. Coming out of memory. Going back, going back to Queen Emma. Yeah. Memories of Queen Emma. I mean, that's one of the things I actually had to work with Zack on, as I was reading the first couple of drafts of the script. So it's like, we need to make sure absolutely clear which Queen we're talking about when. Right, right, right. Because that's one of the things that I ended up having getting confused about as we were going through the, you know, the review process. Well, it's dense material. Yeah. And they have to be able to deliver it in a way that you get it, you know. And they carry it away. And the great thing about, well, I can speak for this five actors, they just, just, just wanted to just, just go for it, you know. I mean, whereas, I mean, some of the people who I offered the two roles for, they're such great actors, but they got scared. And you know what? Luckily, we got two other people to take their parts. I think they would, they were better. Yeah. And they just relish it, you know. Yeah, I mean, yes, you have a benefit of having somebody next to you to bounce it off and give you cues and all of that. But I suppose the experience of the actor is different, more internal, more introspective when you're a one man band. Yeah. And you've got to leave that role and integrate all this information into your mind right now. And what also happens to with the actor is that they have so much respect for the person they portray so that they actually, I mean, like Karen Kalona, she actually brings flowers. The, what was the flower? The geraniums. The geraniums. She bought geraniums to Lucif Hibati's grave, Cartwright. He bought the baseball to put it, I mean, they honor, they become your friends. Yeah. I mean, I've acted in several. William Kanuei, who's buried over at Kauai Hall Church. I always, whenever I do a show and I get fresh lay and whatnot, I always make sure that I bring, I give it to him. Yeah, and it seems to be a very, you know, almost spiritual experience for the actors as well. They feel a real connection to this person. Yeah. You know, these portrayals, because these were real people, you know, once upon a time. And there's so much respect for them. Yeah, absolutely. And to be able to tell their story. And they feel a great responsibility to do that and to do it well, which I think adds to the experience, not just the actor, but also the audience. And the fact that the, as in most cases anyway, the decedent is right there, you know, a few feet away. And it lends a special aura to the whole experience. Right. And sometimes we have descendants come to the show. Yes. Remember that lady who was there? All around. She was a sponsor. Yeah, right. She asked you questions. And wow, that was really a trip. Yeah, we've had her. Yeah, her grandparents ran Paloma Settlement at the time Mabel Smythe was there. And they sponsored Mabel. And they sponsored, they paid for Mabel's education in Boston. That was, yeah. Yeah. And then we had Yalkeha descendants come to the program as well. Yeah. Nakuina, that two years before. Right. Emma Nakuina. Yeah. Who on a trip? Her great-grandnys found out that we were doing her. So she just came to just see her, to see if we were going to, what we were doing. And she was so taken by it, she hugged the actress afterwards. And in the next week she bought the whole family. Oh yeah, there's like 14 of them. I can see that happening. Yeah. Because I tell all my friends they got to go down and see it. Yeah. And when we get back, I'm going to ask you, when we get back for this break, we have a break. Every June. Every June. Yeah. Okay. Well, how about June and January? I'm going to ask you that. We'll be right back for this short break. Hey, Aloha. Energy man here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters. This is the place to come to think about all things energy. We talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy in transportation, energy in maritime, energy in aviation. We have all kinds of things on our show. But we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii. Because it's my favorite thing. That's what I like to do. But we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii. That should be a big changer for Hawaii. And we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stand the Energy Man. And take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii. Aloha. Hello, everyone. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Desbang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. We are having such a good time today. This is my, my, I open a show today. Good good. Mike Smola and Will Howe from the Hawaiian Mission Houses. Yes. Otherwise known sometimes as the Mission House Museum. Formerly known. Formerly known. There you go. And we're talking about this fabulous show called Cemetery Pupu Theater. And if you haven't gone to see it this season, you got to go next season, next June, put an order in your calendar. What day in June came in? We don't have a, usually it's a, we're going to continue to do three weekends in June. This year was the first time we've done three weekends. We usually only do two, but we've sold out the four nights of shows the last two years. Yeah. So we had to the third weekend this year, which did very well. So we're excited to continue with three weekends. If I want to learn about it, where do I go? You go to www.missionhouses.org. Okay. And that's our, that's the Mission Houses website. And they'll have all of our stuff about our events. It is so precious in the sense that, you know, you, it is an experience. You never forget. You want to, you want to have more of it. You want to come back as often as you can. Everybody feels that way. Peter Ross, I got, you know, him, he was here yesterday. We talked about this show. Well, you know, this is his wife. Yeah. So there's something you can do about that. Yeah. Yeah. I said, Dina, what did you think of the acting at the Pupu Theater? What did she say? She said, you know how I feel about it. I wouldn't have been there unless the acting was great. Awesome. She runs Diamondhead Theater. Yeah, I know. She's, she's a regular. Yeah. She's been coming for several years. Good to see her there too. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome, awesome. So basically, you don't have to wait for June every year. Ah. Ah, yes. You can actually hire these working with mission houses. Yep. You can hire the actors to come to your civic group, your garden club meeting, you know, your Rotary Club meeting, whatever. And they can come to you and perform their, perform their monologues for you in costume. Yeah. We've had them go out and now they're going into schools. Now we're even taking the program into schools. Oh, that's fabulous. Yeah. We've had five performances in schools. Next week we're off to Maui, right? Yep. And next week we're off to Maui for the first time. We're taking this program off. All five. No. There's three. We're doing Samuel Kamakau, Annie Alexander, and Reverend William Richards. So on Friday night, July 20th, we'll be at the Baldwin House in Lahaina. And July 21st, we'll be at Makawau Cemetery. Where she's buried. Where Annie Alexander is buried. Oh, that's so perfect. So this is the first time the actress gets to actually perform at Annie's grave. Living history, living history. It is. And she's so stoked about it. It's so important. You realize the service you're doing. At your service. By bringing this alive. That's what artists do. At your service. Right. And that's what it is. It's about presenting history to the public in a way that they like and that makes it accessible to people who are non-scholars. It's not only education. It's culture in the deepest sense. And it's for people who are native Hawaiian too, who need to study this. It's for everyone. It's for everyone. And not everyone knows everything about history. There's a chance to learn just a little slice about it. A little slice of that history in a little bit different and deeper. And you pick the interest on their own. They go and look for more stuff. Absolutely. As you hear. Yeah. Every year we do this. I go, Mike, I never knew this. Just never. I mean, every year I learn something different. And so do the actors. They're like, I never knew. So let's talk about my experience two weeks ago. When I learned about how the royalty worked in the 19th century. Oh, boy. We all see it at such great distance. We never get inside the court. We see the dynamics of the people there and how, you know, the people. People like to romanticize, yeah? Of course. And that's not good. Right. But yeah, I mean, there's also, you know, not just the royalty themselves, but also the personal relationships. You know, the thing to remember is that the royalty all grew up together. They, you know, they went to school together. The chief children's school, you know, they grew up, you know, they lived together. And so it makes it, you know, for just like any other type of family, you know, there's a certain amount of dynamics that go on. Remember that old BBC show upstairs downstairs? Sure. Hawaii should do a thing about that. The royalty, the people and the people that worked who know all the secrets and whatnot. That's what it was like. That's what it was like for sure. Yeah. And this kind of dynamic, you know, you can go through your whole life and go to school and study Hawaiian history and never really find out about this. Because this is the, you know, they're interpreting it. It's not just that you're writing the script. And what Mike does too is interpretation. Some of the lines that are being spoken are their actual words. Mike lists it from their writing. From your research, you get the actual words. Yeah, and Zach's gotten really good at pulling things out of journals and letters and things they find in the research. And using, you know, he really does try to use their own words as much as possible. Why should we, you know, make up things, you know, make up words to tell a story, a particular story when we have their own word? Yeah. And I think that's the lens, even more authenticity to the experience. Where can I find the scripts? Can I find the scripts? You can call me. Mike Smoller. Right. Yeah, they're all in the file at the mission. We have like, what, over 40 characters? We have over 40 portrayals that we've developed over the last seven years. So we can hire a la carte, you know? Yeah. Or even a private show for your company or a group up at the cemetery. We've had Bank of Hawaii. Bank of Hawaii did a private show. I was Zuckerberg in my fancy place in Kauai. I bring them all over. They're the whole thing. Sure. There you go. Well, you know, as long as the budget is, you know... Right. And we are looking at trying to find other ways of getting these portrayals out to the public at different times and in different places. So we're starting to explore some other partnerships as well. Not just other islands, but to the mainland as well. Are you going to do these characters again? Do you think there's a chance that you always go forward and find new ones? Well, I think that's one of the draws to the program is that they are different every year. Yeah. There might be a chance for a reprisal of some of these earlier shows. Reprisal, I love that. Yeah. There might be a chance in the future to reprise some of the previous shows. I mean, there's interest from all different spectrum. You're like putting it in a theater. Yes. I would love to do it, to light it. Get the sound director and stuff like that. Yeah. And then having dancers as ghosts coming in and out. Yeah. You wouldn't have the gravestones, but there are other things you could put into a theater. Absolutely. That would brighten it up. That would make it interesting. So let's talk about costumes for a minute. I mean, some of the costumes, I'm thinking, for example, Mabel Smythe, my favorite one. She has this fabulous nurses costume. And it was, you know, just look at her, and you were transported back to that time. Sam McCartright, his very special red. Yeah. Peggy made it from scratch. With the buttons. Right. The fireman's buttons. Right. Right. So the Mabel Smythe outfit is, so her script is set in 1915. And so I found a picture of a World War I nurses uniform. Perfect. And that's what Peggy based the costume on. Yeah. In Cartwright's shirt. He went to the museum. I went to the fire department museum in Kakaako at the Kakaako station. And they have one. From the period when Cartwright was fire chief. And I said, so I took a nice picture of it and sent it to Peggy Krock, the costumer. And she went, perfect. And then the one in the fire department doesn't have the bib that buttons on to the front of the shirt. Which she had. Which she had. Which she had. Yeah. I mean, that's what it would have been like. And so for designers, they really get off on stuff like that. Right. You just love it. And one of the other neat things about the costume is that depending upon the time period, we actually have photos of these people. And so. These real people. These actual people. So they can have photos. Oh, yeah. So she has an interesting chance to recreate some of these outfits and do these sort of period pieces. Based on real documented evidence of what they wore. And you know, she's such a talented designer. I mean, she got her schooling in New York City. And the funny thing is, she lived in New York at a different time than I lived in New York. We lived in the same building. Oh, wow. We know the same super and everybody. Wow. The same super. That's New York East for a superintendent of the building. The doorman and everything. Yeah. It shows you a depth of involvement in the New York scene. 25 years. Oh, that's a lot. Yeah. Well, and this is world-class stuff. This is world-class. When you guys are doing world-class, it's really not only is it valuable as entertainment and culture, but it is high quality stuff. And it's a contribution to, I hope, I'd like to think an emerging excellence we have in performing arts. Do you agree? Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't see doing anything but getting better. Yeah. Well, you know, everybody goes like, oh, this is the best one yet. And so next year, oh, this is the best one yet, you know? Yeah. And hopefully you can keep that string going. Yeah. All I can tell you is when Mabel Smythe, I don't know, what's the name of the character of the person? Sienna Axon. Yeah. She was, I happen to be in the first row. I mean, it's all changeable. You can go in the first row one time in the second row the other time. Right. Back row. Yeah. I mean, it's good from any row, but I was in the first row and I was this far away from her. And I was smitten. I was there. Right. I was there in her time and place. I understood where she was coming from. I understood her life. She emoted to me the whole enchilada. And I was transported by this actor, this character, this experience. Mm-hmm. And wow. And the others were great too, but she smote me. Yeah. I mean, there's so easy to, I mean, especially Sienna, I've worked with her before in the tempest. When we did the tempest, she played Ariel to Moses Good's Prospero. And she was just easy to, just so easy to direct. She just takes in whatever you give. And it's so funny. I said, you know, last name is Axon. Do you know Evie? Evie Axon? She goes, yeah, that's my aunt. Well, her aunt is married to my cousin. So no nepotism here. She has to do better, you know. But you know, she's, and then she had just, we just lucked out again because she had just come back from Saralor and she just graduated. And I said, are you interested in auditioning for this? And she came and Mike goes, you got the parole. Yeah, literally. She was studying acting, right? Yeah. As soon as she was done, we kind of looked at each other and went, okay, the job's yours. Yeah. Yeah. She's a good she was. The other one that I remember, especially, and I'll tell you why, was the fire chief. Oh, Alexander Cartwright. Cartwright, yeah. Mr. Baseball. Yeah. No, no, I'm sorry. Not the fire chief. The sheriff. Right. Marshall William Cooper Park. William Cooper Park. Yeah. Because he came, the character came from New Hampshire, as I remember. His accent. And he doesn't have a New Hampshire accent. No. But he learned to speak New Hampshire and he did speak New Hampshire. So we had the first table read about all the actors together for the first time. And we went in a row like this and when he came to his turn, he started and we all just like, what's going on here? Awesome. And yeah, no, he is not from New Hampshire. Nor does he have the accent naturally. So yeah, he had to work on it. He had to work on that New Hampshire accent. We had a previous show when we did Footprints on the Land. Kevin Keveney portrayed Dr. Joseph Rock, who is Austrian. And to give you an idea of the the way these actors work sometimes, Kevin actually rewrote out the entire script phonetically in an Austrian accent. Right? So he can make sure they had the accent right in the whole script. You have usually your coaches. You're helping with that, right? Yeah, but I mean, and they all work differently. Yeah. So you can't treat them, it's like you have children. You cannot treat them all the same. They're all different, you know? Yeah. And it's like you have to do, you know, I also got to be like a psychiatrist. You guys are the consummate professionals in this area. But, you know, you get so nice. The great thing about all the people that we have acting, they're all basically really nice people. Yeah. So it's just so easy to do. And they make a great effort. I mean, to learn another dialect. For example, I never really fixed on the notion that in the 19th century with all these people coming to Hawaii Shores, they talked in different dialects. Oh, yeah. It was not just all American dialects. It was a bunch of things. Oh, yeah. And so when you hear it, then you realize that it wasn't just park, sheriff park. There's a lot of people in town who spoke that way. Right. And that sort of, that puts you there, puts you in the middle. And the other thing to remember is like earlier in the 19th century, like, you know, around the time the missionaries are coming, the American English is still very British. Yes. They still write honor with a U in it, you know, for example. Yes. So it's still, you know, American English is just becoming a thing. Yeah. I mean, you know, even today, I mean, if you go to another island, their pigeon is different from our pigeon. If you go from Honolulu to Waianae, the pigeon is different. And your work is sensitive to that very idea. Yeah. So when you go, you get the most accurate representation of what it might have been like with these characters in this time. Yeah. I mean, the best we can find in the research. It really is an incredible, incredible effort. Yeah. So let me ask you guys, how long is this going to last? I mean, how old are you, for example? And how much of the rest of your life are you going to put into it? And can I buy tickets for like 10 years in advance? What do you think? I don't know. Well, the program is not going away any time soon. Oh, no. All right. We're going to continue to do the program. It's actually one of our most successful at the Mission Houses. You know, people should go to the website because the Mission Houses has a whole season of activities. Oh, yeah. We do a lot of other programs besides Cemetery Theater. We have a music series. Concert series. I've seen some in Shakespeare as well. Yeah. Yeah. So in August, we're coming up now. Yeah. August 17, 18th, we've partnered up with Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, actually, this year to do a one weekend reprisal of the current show, which is all as well as it ends well. Directed by Tony Pisculli, who's not only director of the show, but director of the Shakespeare Festival. Yeah. He's one of the founders, and it's a whole female cast. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Something different. Yeah. That was their Sunday when they were rehearsing. Yeah. So yeah, it should be fun. I mean, I know half of the cast and so good people. Absolutely. It's going to be great. Absolutely. In August 4th, we have the next installment of our music series. We're going to have the entire Aseung Ohana come with full production musicians, guest musicians from Maui focusing on songs of Maui, Melio Maui, and their full production musicians, guest musicians. Hula. I mean, it's going to be a whole big show. Maui Mission House has an outdoor stage. Yeah. So it's beautiful. You know, you have the flora and what none, the white chairs on the lawn. Yeah. It's beautiful. Under the stars. Yeah. So missionhouses.org. Yeah. And we can come and see it. And I only have one more question for you guys because we're kind of out of time. Sure. You've been so excited and passionate about your work as we all should be. We should all be excited and passionate about it. But my question is, how do you really feel? After tired. After three weekends. Yeah, you're exhausted. But doing it is like, just like, you just get all pumped up, you know. All right. See that here. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it is such a, yeah. But to see the audience, you know, the Q&A afterwards, after the show, you know you did something really nice. Absolutely. Mike Smoller. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming today. Yeah. Thanks to Quara that she brought you along and you discovered this. Yeah. Thanks to Corri Amamoto, yeah. My classmate.