Inside HILife: On the Scene

‘Joy Luck’ at DHT

John Berger / jberger@starbulletin.com

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Vincent Green, assistant technical director for Diamond Head Theatre, wore Chinese attire to the opening-night cast party for DHT’s production of “The Joy Luck Club” last Friday at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro in Kakaako.

Cast members Jennifer En Ya Yee, left, Aya Ohara, Kathryn Mariko Lee and Julia Nakamura also chose Chinese fashions for the party, while Elissa Dulce bucked the trend and went casual.

Pick up a copy of HILife in Friday’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin to read the rest of this story.

Inside HILife: “Joy Luck Club”

Third time still a charm in play

‘THE JOY LUCK CLUB’ » Where: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave. » When: 8 p.m. Jan. 29; continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 14; also 8 p.m. Feb. 3 and 3 p.m. Feb. 6 and 13 » Cost: $12 to $42 (discounts available) » Info: 733-0274 or www.hsblinks.com/1mvrt

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Although no show is ever completely “ready” for opening night, tonight’s debut of Diamond Head Theatre’s production of “The Joy Luck Club” can hardly come soon enough for Elisa Dulce.

Better known perhaps for her work as a television actress — you’ve seen her in “Hawaii Five-0,” “Magnum P.I.,” “Jake and the Fatman” and “Baywatch Hawaii” — she’s looking forward to opening night for several reasons.

“It’s a beautiful story, and I think all of us on stage have a passion to (act); and when you have this wonderful play and a brilliant director, the creativity just flows, and you’re fortunate to be here as a team,” Dulce said last week by telephone after a late-night rehearsal.

The show, “Joy Luck” for short, is playwright Susan Kim’s adaptation of Amy Tan’s best-selling novel about the experiences of four Chinese women in the 20th century and their problematic relationships with their Chinese-American daughters.

The daughters generally have no idea how bad things were in China and know little, if anything, about the horrendous hardships their mothers had to overcome. The mothers, meanwhile, worry about the Americanization of their daughters.

Dulce plays An Mei Hsu, with Kathryn Mariko Lee as her daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan. The other mother/daughter pairs are Denise Aiko Chinen (Lindo Jong) and Aya Ohara (Waverly Jong), Karen Kuioka Hironaga (Suyuan Woo) and Jennifer Yee (Jing Mei Woo), and Blossom Lam Hoffman (Ying Ying St. Clair) and Julia Nakamoto (Lena St. Clair).

Pick up a copy of HILife in Friday’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin to read the rest of this story.