 back to Think Tech. This is Community Matters, and it does, and we know learn the history of Hawaii at Oahu Cemetery. There's a lot to learn at Oahu Cemetery with the Mission Houses Museum. Director of Education Mike Smola, who joins us, and an actor who participates in the Buku Dinner Program at Oahu Cemetery. Kahana, welcome to you both. Thank you for having us, Jay. So, Mike, you know, you do a lot at Mission Houses Museum, but let's start with the Puku Dinner Program, which I have attended for some years now and seen you and met you there and other people from the museum. Can you describe that program? Because that program is unique. It's, as we say, sweet, generous, and very important. Absolutely. The best short description I have is it's dinner theater but in a cemetery. So, what we do is we research five people who are either buried there or nearby, real historical people, and then we do primary document research and develop 20-minute scripts. Then we hire actors like Kahana to portray those people in period-appropriate costume and to give the 20-minute monologue as the person. It comes with a nice, heavy Buku Bento dinner, a couple of drinks, and then the five actors themselves. It's fabulous. I've been there. What's interesting, and I want to cover it with you now, is this is to start the accurate because you go to great pains to learn about how things were at the time of the lives and deaths of the individuals who were buried in Oahu Cemetery. Can you talk about your research and how you integrate that into the program? Absolutely. I spend a lot of times in various archives here on the Oahu. Sometimes I even have to get stuff from other institutions, say on the continent, for example. But we try, I emphasize with our script writer, our current script writer is Rasa Fornie, to incorporate as much as she can from the primary documents into the script themselves. I think that's one of the things that really makes this program unique is that we try really hard not to put words in the people's mouths because most of the time we actually do have their own words. We incorporate those into the scripts as much as possible. Sometimes those words are endearing and sometimes they reflect a certain amount of entity. It's always interesting to meet two of the decedents in the cemetery where you cover the relationship between two dead people who had an animated relationship while they were alive. Can you talk about those quote conversations and quote? Absolutely. I mean one of the important things to remember is that during these presentations we are presenting that person's story from their point of view. And sometimes you get conflicting stories if there's someone else involved in those stories and sometimes they match up together. But I think that's something that's really neat that allows us to have these conversations about different points of view on things that were going on at the time. Kahana has one of these in her current script as Emma Nakawina from our last show, Rediscovering History, about the history of libraries, archives and museums here in Hawaii. Maybe you want to speak a little bit to that, Kahana? Yeah. Kahana, or should we call you Kahana or Emma? Either. Either way. Your way. Who is your character? Who is your character? Who is Mike referring to? The character I portrayed was Emma Metcalfe Becley Nakawina. Actually I should say Emma Kahana, or Emma Metcalfe Becley Nakawina, and she lived through five, at least, to five monarchs and then into the provisional republic and territorial of Hawaii. So I have so many questions of you. This is a real treat to be able to interview somebody who was an actor in the program. No kidding. And by the way, just a footnote is that if you go to the program, which is every summer, you get a chance to see Mike in person and ask him questions. You get a chance to see the actors in person and ask them questions. And it's really a treat to be able to get inside their heads about how this is being produced. So Kahana, Emma, what have you? Can you talk about how you get inside the character that you're portraying? In general, how I prepare for my characters is to study the script and get a sense of what the storyline is and what the setting is and try to understand what the motives and environment that those motives live in are for my character. So in the case of Emma Nakawina, because she was a historical figure and that she occupied a very important position in history, I was fortunate because I had already been familiar with her. She had influenced me in my study of Hawaiian history and Hawaiian culture. So I was already familiar with her. And so my preparation has been doing a lot of work studying the political and cultural and historical background of Hawaii. At that point in time, I can place her life within that broader context and understand who she was in that time and place. So your preparation goes beyond just addressing a script and forming a script. You're doing your own research. So let me ask you, why was Emma important in Hawaiian history? Emma, she exists as a cultural bridge. She was raised in a time when the people around her still were directly descended from within their generation. The people who trained her we lived under the kapu system or were one generation out. And she was brought into what she was educated at O'ahu College, now Punahou school. And then because her father was Haule, Teofu was Metcash, he was the first dagiratai professional in Hawaii. And he was also the first, not territory, the first surveyor of the kingdom during the mahele. So she was able to attend Punahou school and obtain a Western education, as well as being trained under Kau'ike O'ui, or Kamehameha III, to learn water right and land use protocols. And she continued that education through training, I'm sorry, through Alexander Nihonini under Kamehameha IV. And then she's brought into the port and functions as a commissioner for private wage and water rights, helping transfer traditional practices into this age of Western influence and transition into a Western form of government. In between, she also worked as a historian and a teacher, essentially, preserving the knowledge of the Hawaiian culture and then transferring it out to other people. Notably, she wrote in O'lelo America in English, rather than in O'lelo Hawaii. And nobody's actually interviewed her why she did that, but her... We're interviewing you now, so... Yeah, so my take on it is that she wrote in English because her audience was just the English reading, you know, Kamehameha people of Hawaii, or people on the continent, or from around the world. She was also writing, potentially, to Kamehameha III, who were going to grow up disconnected from their language. And because what she inserts in her stories are values and principles and morals that are distinctly Hawaiian. And she asserts the value of a Hawaiian way of thinking and a way of understanding in her writing. And in doing so, she's writing for those Kamehameha of ultimately our generation, of our time, you know, 100 years later. Yeah, so when you're talking about her education, her life, the dynamics in her life, how things changed, the environment in which she lived historically, and what she gave, what she provided to the state, to the people, to the royalty at the time. So I'm like, you know, why did you... why did you choose Emma as one of your characters for this particular program? Right, so we were delving into the history museums and libraries and archives in Hawaii. And Emma has a quite a unique distinction in that, is that she was appointed the the curatrix, the female form of curator of the Hawaiian National Museum, which existed at the Iolani Halle, and predates Bishop Museum, actually. And according to my own research, she is quite possibly the first female curator of a national museum in the world, which is quite a unique distinction, especially in the 1800s when national museums were coming into bow. And we're the big thing to promote patriotism and nationalism in different countries. And interesting, so that's why I chose her, also gives us sort of a history of attempts at interpreting the history of Hawaii and its cultural objects and things to a wider audience before we get into the modern museum era. One interesting thing to notice that the collections of that national museum were eventually absorbed by Bishop Museum. So then in a sense, it still exists? Absolutely, in a sense, yes. So what other individuals, what other stories did you include in the five? I say five because I know that the people who attend the dinner moved from one area in the cemetery to another area. And in each place, there's a little tent set up. And you are addressed by people like Hannah Hall, who will tell you their story. It's really a wonderful experience because you're right there with them. And they emerge from behind a grain stone and say, well, wow, it's almost, it's a real person. And you get to know their life story and you walk away feeling very enriched. So who else did you select for this particular theme? And I suppose I should ask you why this theme? Because every year you have a different theme that you're evolving as the research evolves around Hawaiian history. Right. I think it was important to highlight our historical and cultural institutions here in Hawaii and how they came to be and why and how they came to exist. So for example, another person we do is Edna Allen, who founded, who was a territorial librarian and got the money from Andrew Carnegie to build the, to build the modern state library building here on King Street, just about a block away from us here at Mission Houses. She also got the idea to county libraries and to set up the state library system as we know it today. And we're the only state that operates in a statewide library system like that. So Edna set up something really unique here in the United States. We also chose Charles Reed Bishop for founding Bishop Museum. And him and Emma have a bit of a history there that we dive into in the scripts. And then we also did Robert Crichton Wiley, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for 20 years from 1845 to 1865. And he was really kind of the first one to try to pull together something resembling the Kingdom Archives. He asked the governors and many of the Hialeke to bring their existing papers to him and he began cataloging them, filing them away, and it really amassing what became the, you know, eventually the Kingdom Archives and then the modern Hawaii State Archives. And then we also did George R. Carter, who was governor after Sanford Dole. And he, he's a Judd descendant and Captain Joseph Oliver Carter's descendant. He is the one who, his collection of Hawaii Ana was unmatched at the time in the early 20th century. One of the lines from his script is he found a catalog from the book selling Mecca of London and said, found one particular note that one volume was so exceedingly where it was not in Governor Carter's library because he had to amass so much. But his, his, his Hawaii Ana collection eventually became the basis for the Mission House's archives here. So we felt it was also important to address our archives as a repository for historical documents and things like that. I'm also like to note that many of the scripts this year also mentioned the Hawaiian Historical Society, which was refounded in 1892. Mr. Bishop was part of that as well. Emma was the first female member of that as well and an early subscriber to the Historical Society. And then so we, and then also the precursor to those libraries, which is the Honolulu Library and Reading Room Association, originally founded in the 1870s with a few kind of starts and fits before that. But you know, so it's kind of really interesting to see how these, you know, really important community repositories and community spaces team to be. Well, it's part of the, the whole process there and the development of Hawaii under the monarchy. There was a real stress on education. There was a real stress on schools and libraries and, and those were fine days, I have to say. And you are immersed in that. And I imagine that over the years, your study has made you, you know, more sensitive to exactly what themes you should do going forward as it becomes more and more nuanced as you do, have you more and more under your belt? Am I right? Well, yeah, I would say, I would say so. You know, it gets, it gets interesting when it comes time to start to start putting together the next year's program, figure out what things we're going to do, who we're going to, who we're going to portray. I'd also like to note, by the way, in this, on this theme of libraries and archives that this month, October is National Archives Month. And so this is to high also highlighting, you know, archives around the country as well, this month, this particular month. So I mean, it is really interesting. And we try to, you know, give many different points of view into this. And where the, the portrayals that people were portraying actually had relationships, we try to bring that out in the scripts as well, because it helps, I think, unify the program and really bring in that, you know, these were people who knew each other, they interacted with each other, not always in the most friendly of ways. And, you know, because they were real people. And we tried to bring that sense of a whole cell to these portrayals in the scripts themselves. I'm thinking of a program we did a few years ago, which was so interesting. One guy, one end of the cemetery. And he was complaining that another guy had, was a dishonest businessman, and had, had, had cheated him in some way. Okay, then we, we, we marched down to the other end of the cemetery. And that very person stands up and tells us, no, no, no, it was the first guy who cheated me. And then he shooed me. And he was really an unpleasant individual. Right. Oh, son to it. Absolutely. And that's really, I think one of the things that's really unique as well, is that by using this, you know, these individual perspectives were able to get at these nuances and, and different points of view on, on the historical events of these people's day. Yeah, that's great stuff. And you know, I didn't know, but I guess, you know, there's a natural affinity and natural connection between what you're doing in this program and the Mission Houses Museum itself. You are an extension of that, or it is an extension of you, however. So what's, what's your, what's your next theme, Mike? I need to know. Very curious. Can you, can you talk about it? Actually, you've hit me at just the, usually the first week of November, is when I start thinking about the next June's program. But we will be hosting, we plan to be up with the Wahu Cemetery again, the second, third, the last three weekends of June. I'm in contact with our partners at the Wahu Cemetery about confirming some dates. But we do plan to be those last three weekends. And I haven't quite gotten to the theme next for next year yet, Jay. Okay. You'll have to watch the Mission Houses website, missionhouses.org in order to, in order to get a sense of what it's going to be. And I'll be there for sure. So, Kahana, I, I want to know, I want to talk to you about being an actor. Because, you know, there's something really special about them taking a character and living through that character. And I imagine it's great fun to have the comfort of a script and your research. And then you get up there in front of these, these groups of roughly 20 people a shot. And they come five times and hear you out. And you're looking them right in the eye. You, you are you and they are them. And you, you connect. What's, what's the experience like? Did you have a good time? Yeah, I mean, I, I really loved acting. And it's, it's what gives me life. And cemetery poop with theater is a very specific type of theater. And the way the scripts are written. There are moments that you very consciously break the fourth wall, just written into the script. So in those moments, I'm able to really engage with the audience in a very, very real way. So in the case of, of, of my characters for cemetery, the theater, she is speaking directly to the audience. Then she has come back from the past and is retelling her like story to, to the audience. So it's an opportunity. It is very much about engaging with the audience in very real time. It's probably you that she's dead. Not at all. And in fact, the, the first time I did cemetery football theater was another monologue for Emma Nakulina. And it was, I think the, the most intimidating thing for me it is that I'm bringing to light a person who I deeply, deeply, deeply respect. And she has, as I said earlier, she's helped shape who I am. Actually, I'll put my computer outside next to my colo because I started growing colo and native wine plants in part because of the influence that Emma has had on my life. And, you know, I think she would have been happy to see that I am making use of the water to bring light. And so, you know, I think that it is, it is the responsibility. Well, it's also an emotional experience, isn't it? I mean, for example, she knows something good for the community or something that makes her proud or happy. It makes you feel good for the community and it makes you feel proud and happy. And, and this, and Mike, this has happened to me a number of times. Sometimes there are tragedies. You know, if you lived in the 19th century, the early 20th century, people are talking about hard times and they're talking about their personal tragedies and tragedies in the community. I imagine if you're acting a character who has been there, historically been there, lived through that and sometimes not lived long enough really, you're feeling it. You're feeling the tragedy and you, aside from whether you can emote that to the audiences that listen, you probably have an emotional reaction, no? Definitely. I know I do. And it's about knowing and being true to what your character's emotional response is to that setting. So whatever my personal emotional reaction is, I need to be able to understand what that's about and if that applies to my character, or is that just me? And if it's just me, then I don't, then I, then that's, we're outside. Yeah, but you can lead your audience. They're sitting there just a few feet away, like five feet away from where you're standing. And I can tell you, Mike, that I, that I do have emotional reactions to these, to these acting presentations. I remember the Charles Reed Bishop one right, right off hand, because he was a hopeless romantic, that guy. And he was so in love with his wife. He's just a remarkable kind of romance. And, you know, you don't necessarily see people who lived in those times as romantic, but he was. He cared deeply, and I felt it. Absolutely. I mean, a thing to remember is, you know, when we, especially we forget this when we talk about history and groups of people, like, you know, the missionaries or, you know, native lines or people as that we lump together, that, you know, that these were individuals, they had emotional lives just like we do today. And they, they had emotional responses. And, you know, affective learning is a really, I think, important tool in the museum repertoire to help connect people on a very, very basic human level to, to the past, into the people of the past. And using emotions like that and working those emotions into the scripts is something that, that we did from the very, very beginning. And it's not just the actors emotions or the portrayals emotions. It's also so that you as an audience member get to feel that along with them and have a better emotional understanding of what they went through. As you said, it's theater. And you, you do the research and the concept, conceptualization of the issues and historical environment, but you have a script writer. So how do you work together with the script writer? Because that's, that's the theater part. And you do want to evoke a response in your patrons, so to speak. How do you do that? And how much leeway do you give the script writer? Well, the current script writer, Rasa Fornie, I'm very fortunate in that she's actually acted in the program before. So she understands very well what is, what demands on the actor and what the audience is like for this program. I, I send her, actually, when I send her all the research, I send her very little guidance. And, and I want to see what she wants, what she's going to see versus what I see as a historian. And so, but once we get that first draft in, it's, we go back and forth quite a bit about what should be included and what shouldn't be and where edits have to be made, and where, you know, those emotional impact points are. You know, Kahana, I've always admired actors who can stand up there for, you know, an hour or two, or even 20 minutes and remember what to say. And some people you'll have to admit are better than others at memorizing a script that goes on for quite some time. And I'd like you to tell me whether you ever forget, how do you do that, first of all? And whether you ever forget some of the words and whether you ever ready for this? And Mike's not listening, so it's okay for you to answer me. And whether you ever change the words while you're standing there acting, he's not listening. So I'm not talking to it, this is all not talking to it because I don't want to jinx myself. So starting with, with memorization, you know, I guess I kind of fortunate in the sense that line memorization comes relatively easy for me. My strategy is a little unusual after I've read the script and studied the storyline and done, you know, and while I am doing my, my research, I'm placing the lines in the context of that. And, and then I start working my lines from the back to the front. Because for me, if I know what it does is it, I, it helps me understand where I'm driving for my, where, where, where the endpoint is. And it helped me develop continuity because when I first started acting, I would memorize from the front to the back. And it was so choppy, it was still horrendous. So I started working from the back to the front so that I would always know where I'm headed. That's a great idea. You know, we do that on ThinkTech for every show. We have what we call a takeaway. And the takeaway for this show is we need to know more about wine history. We need to study it up close and personal. And the Mapupu dinner, you know, program helps us do that. So that's our takeaway. And we work backward. I am working backward from that now. So, so, Mike, after every, you know, after every show, event, so to speak, you get all these five groups of people back in the auditorium, what do you call an auditorium? The chapel, thank you. And, you know, after a while, you don't think of it as a chapel, you think of it as an auditorium, a learning experience. And you sit down, all the actors, including Kahana, and you and what other, other people who participate in the scriptwriter. Right. And you take questions. Can you describe how that works? Oh, yeah, no, it's a very simple Q&A, really. You know, we have our theater director, Will Howell, who's usually up there, Peggy Crock, or a longtime costumer. Will and Peggy have been with us since the beginning, since we started this program 12, 13 years ago. And then myself and then the actors. And if the scriptwriter happens to be around, yes, you know, the scriptwriter will join us for the talk back session as well. But it's, you know, it's very simple. And a lot of the questions are the same types of questions you're asking us here on this show, actually. What's the process for developing? How long does it take? How do the actors do their thing? What kind of resources do you access, you know, for developing the scripts and what that process is? And so, you know, it's, you know, various, some people, some people have a very personal connection to these people. Sometimes in the audience, we have descendants of these people at the program and in the audience. Sometimes hearing this story, some of these stories about their ancestors for the first time. And that's always a very, very neat experience and unique experience to have that type of situation. That's great, you know, to be able to talk to the actors afterward like that. And it must be great for the actors to be engaged with the people who just watch them because you can see how they feel, right? The whole, the whole thing is to try to connect and hear you, you know, what these people were thinking and how they appreciated your character and presentation. You know, just at random, but I'm remembering one that affected me. A lot of them affect me. And she was a young woman who was into being a nurse. You remember this one? Yes, that'd be Mabel Smite, who was the first native Hawaiian public health nurse. Sometimes referred to as the Florence Nightingale of Hawaii. Yeah. In the early 20th century, she worked at Paloma Settlement, started the public health nursing program at UH in the 1920s or 30s. And so, yeah, she was, yeah, that was a very awesome one. I spent a lot of time at the Paloma Settlement Archives digging up stuff on how Paloma was ran and her role in it. She was Mabel Smite. The actress, you know, was the actress for that one. What was her name? Sienna Axon. Yeah. She actually also attended the Shakespeare School in London, actually, the Shakespeare Academy. They're based on her performance on our stage and the Tempest as well. And that's how we came to know her. And then we hired her to portray Mabel Smite. Well, the reason I mention it is that, and I'm sure you've had the same experience, Conor, you are the person that you act for. And the audience sees you as that person. And you're playing more than a role in a theater. You're actually taking them back. And you have a special presentation as that individual, such as the Mabel Smite one. I'm so impressed with that. I'm impressed at the time I sit in the crew under the canopy. And I'm well impressed when I go to see the aftershow in the chapel. It's great to be able to see you as an individual and connect the dots. So, Mike, you have a bunch of other programs. Mission Hasons Museum has a bunch of stuff that, even as close as a few days from now, so can you talk about all the other programs you do before next June, before the next, the Oahu cemetery program? Right. So here in October, October 20th, we are partnering up with the Hawaiian Historical Society to do a program called Archives on Court. So you get a glass of wine and a charcuterie. And we present on the history of some particular thing. Now, with it being October, we decided to go sort of the October Fest theme and sort of the alcohol history of Hawaii. We'll be this round. We're partnering with Kohana Rum and Hana Koha Brewing to get some extra special tastings and rum and beer tastings and wine tastings. In addition to the glass of wine, you get the very beginning of the program. So that's really interesting. That would be a really neat one. You know, alcohol history, I think, is something really unique here in Hawaii in particular. And then at the end of November, we also have our craft fair, the 52nd Annual Holiday Craft Fair, the oldest and finest on Oahu, as we like to say. We also host an event for the City Lights, the first Saturday of December, where you can view the parade from our grounds. And we have a couple of hours of family activities and things like that before the parade starts. And then we're also doing, we are also, that's that'll cover us through the end of the year. So I'm still planning out the 2024 calendar right now. Mike, do you like your job? I love my job. I know I really do. I mean, I've been here at Mission Allison for 15 years now, Jay. And, you know, my day, my every day is just as interesting as any other. Still 15 years later, fresh out of graduate, you know, as it was fresh out of graduate school. And we can tell, Mike, it's obvious. So Mike, will you ever take a role in the poo poo dinner? I did. I have before. Oh, was that right? Wow. I'm talking about it. Yeah, the very, very first one I acted in it. We partnered up with the Wagu Cemetery in Napoleon, the cemetery historian wrote the scripts. Will Oahu acted in that as well. Cecilia Fordham, Naila Fujeebob, and Jeff Geer, the storyteller, were the cast for that one. So I portrayed a shipwrecked sailor from 1870 who was in the rescue mission to rescue the ship and the crew of the USS Saginaw when they shipwrecked on Curia Tull. And so I did act in the very first one. And I do not have a plan to take any other roles. Okay, well, it's very hard to act in the program and manage the program at the same time. I'm glad I asked you. Yeah, if you somewhere back in the Mission House's Facebook page or our old newsletters or something, I'm pretty sure there's a picture of me in my sailor's outfit. So shipwrecked sailor, I'll never forget this conversation. Never. You and the Saginaw. So Kahana, is this a lifelong thing for you? Are you committed to a career of acting? Are you committed to a career of the Pupudir Museum at the Mission House's program? As long as they keep getting cast, I'll keep doing it. Okay, next June, my wife and I will be there. We'll be sitting in the front row. We will recognize you and we're going to give a little hand signal during your presentation, not to disrupt your presentation, but you should just give us a nod back that you remember. I love that it's in character. Yeah, of course. Find a place to do that within the character. Okay. Kahana, oh, Mike Smollett, thank you so much for coming down. This has been a great discussion. We really appreciate it and I hope we can do it again and I hope you guys last forever, at least until the 22nd century anyway. Indeed. Well, thank you so much for having us, Jay. Thank you.