This production of \u201cAloha Las Vegas\u201d by Ed Sakamoto was notable for me for several reasons. First, I think it is Ed\u2019s best play, funny and timely, with characters who are true to what I think of as \u201clocal people,\u201d a terrific story, and a great ending. Second, I had a terrifc cast made up entirely of actors from Hawaii, one of whom was me, which is the third, and probably most important, notable reason. Here\u2019s why. <\/p>\n
I had acted under my own direction before this show but that was a sudden, last-minute thing, an actor dropping out right before previews. For \u201cAloha Las Vegas\u201d I had decided to cast myself from the beginning. I just thought that I was the best actor for the role. And fortunately I worked well with myself, and with the other actors. The rehearsal was a breeze for me as an actor, and also as a director, I was surprised to find. <\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t really known, or heard of, others who had done this kind of double duty, in my circle, at least, and I wondered before I started rehearsals if I had made a mistake, if I was going to have a problem with the acting, or the directing, or both, but, happily, none of that came to be. I think that I had such fun with my character in the play that it affected my directing. In a funny way it was as if the play directed itself, with a little help from me, from time to time. The actors picked up on that and they were all loose with their characters, and it was so much fun, and by that I mean the work was so good, all the way. The run was more of the same, one of the best times I\u2019ve had directing a play, and acting in a play. <\/p>\n
As fun and easy as it sounds, I think that that was a unique situation, a coming-together of many elements, and not something that can be easily repeated. I\u2019ve never done it again, acting\/directing. Once-in-a-lifetime. But I\u2019m glad I had that once. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This production of \u201cAloha Las Vegas\u201d by Ed Sakamoto was notable for me for several reasons. First, I think it is Ed\u2019s best play, funny and timely, with characters who are true to what I think of as \u201clocal people,\u201d a terrific story, and a great ending. Second, I had a terrifc cast made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1574060070:172"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n