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The Actors' Group

The Actors' Group, or TAG, as it is often referred to, is a community theatre located in Honolulu, Hawaii. Established in 1993 originally as a group where actors would meet and practice their craft with each other by working on scene study, it evolved into an avant-garde performing arts group, and then over the years transformed into a successful community theatre known for its quality stage productions that are produced in an intimate setting.

History

Eric Nemoto And The Founding Of TAG

Eric Nemoto, the founder of The Actors' Group, a successful community theatre in Honolulu, Hawaii, aka TAG

TAG was founded by Eric Nemoto in 1993. Nemoto, a career college administrator at the time but also a devoted actor, had been taking acting classes since 1988 from Dick Kindelon, an acting teacher, who taught his weekly class, the Honolulu Film Actors Workshop, every Wednesday night. In the fall of 1993, quite unexpectedly, Kindelon announced he was retiring. Nemoto originally attempted to get Kindelon to continue teaching by offering to help him administer the class. But Kindelon was set on his decision and given that Nemoto was arguably his most devoted student, gave him his three boxes of movie scripts that he used for class, suggesting that the actors could meet on their own with Nemoto leading the group. Desperately wanting his weekly habit of devoting time to study acting to continue, Nemoto contacted a number of Kindelon's students and asked them if they wanted to continue meeting. The response from all was an enthusiastic yes, but the initial turn out was disappointing. At its inaugural meeting, on a Wednesday night in November of 1993, set in a rented room at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), only one actor, Jerry Hile, showed up to meet Nemoto. Disappointed, Nemoto suggested that he and Hile read one movie scene together just to say they kept the faith, which they did. But also being an realist, Nemoto said that if the following week did not bring any more actors, then he would abandon the effort. But at the next week's gathering, a dozen of Kindelon's ex-students showed. This first "class" (and all to follow), emulated Kindelon's basic teaching format, in that Nemoto would distribute scripts to actors, who would rehearse outside of the room, and then return to do their scenes. Hile brought a video camera with a monitor for playback purposes (as Kindelon used to do), and Nemoto would lead the feedback on each performed scene with other actors free to chime in. After the evening of scene study was complete for the first class, Nemoto suggested that the class needed a name. He approached the chalkboard and wrote "The Actors Group" (no possessive apostrophe originally, as this would come later). When asked why he chose that name, Nemoto responded with a prophetic reason, "Because the acronym, TAG, will be famous one day."

The Move To Yellow Brick Studio

TAG would continue at UHM for close to a year. Attending actors would chip in a nominal monthly fee to assist with the rental of the space as well as to build up a reserve so that the group could hire a local acting teacher to hold a monthly seminar for its actors to attend. Among the teachers who taught the monthly TAG seminars at UHM included the return of Dick Kindelon for one session, a number of sessions by casting director Garrison True, and a session led by an actor trained on the New York stage and in Los Angeles films, Dave Winston-Barge, who would go on to play an influential role in the group's evolution. During the summer of 1994, two TAG actors, Leigh Ann Kinghorn and Leilani Langhoff, met Jon Brekke and Mike Powell, owners of Yellow Brick Studio, Inc., a video and film production company, whose offices were situated in a two story building that had once been used as an ice-making facility. As Brekke and Powell had their offices on the second floor, they felt that the first floor, which included an open unused space, could be used as a meeting area for rent to help with their monthly expenses. They suggested to Kinghorn and Langhoff that the area could be used for TAG's scene study sessions, who in turn relayed their desire to Nemoto, who agreed to move the meeting sessions to Brekke's and Powell's site located at 625 Keawe Street, in an industrial area of Honolulu known as Kaka'ako. For the next year the weekly TAG scene study sessions gained in popularity and at its highest peak reached 30 actors a night wherein the sessions, beginning at 7 p.m., sometimes did not get done until near midnight. The teachers that participated in its monthly guest seminars included Paul Gleason, Keone Young, Genie Joseph, Kimo Kahoano, and Richard MacPherson. TAG's increasing popularity would lead to potential changes. Kinghorn and Langhoff, who along with Nemoto, had been handling all of the burgeoning administrative duties to keep the group sessions going, as aspiring actors desired to move to Los Angeles to pursue their acting opportunities. Given the impending departure of two of its most active participants, while Nemoto vowed to keep the group going, TAG faced an uncertain future.

The Arrival Of Dave Winston Barge

But at literally the going away party for Kinghorn and Langhoff, one of the invited guests, acting teacher Winston Barge, came up with the creative proposition that would fundamentally change TAG. He offered that if the group desired, he could direct the actors in a stage production. The TAG actors present, many who professed an eagerness to do more than just meet for scene study, decided to take Winston-Barge up on his idea, and Kinghorn and Langhoff canceled their trip. Winston Barge's method for creating a play would be termed by many as "acting without a net," in that one of the first things he would do is ask the participants who were going to be in the play what their schedules were like, and upon getting their availability, set the dates when the play would occur, usually six to seven weeks in the future, without having even developing it. He then would have the actors participate in a variety of improvisational exercises that would inspire him to suggest character roles for each of the actors. After this he would have each actor write an imaginary back story between their character and each other character that was established. These back stories would be read aloud during a group read through and given to Winston Barge, who would then sift through the writings to find common themes, which he would then use to create the play. This process would be used to create the first five stage plays that were directed by Winston Barge, including Dances For Two, which opened on March 25th, 1995, and was a series of separate scene vignettes, which starred Shannon Mauck, Bernadette Garcia, Audrey Stanzler, Mark Brekke, Leigh Ann Kinghorn, Eric Nemoto, Jennifer Kang, Leilani Langhoff, Beverly Kai, and Lena Kaneshiro. Dances For Two became the very first play ever produced by TAG, and was followed by The Neighborhood (1995), Letters To Cleo (1996), Trapped (1997), and On The Verge (1998).

While these initial plays were always interesting and even avant-garde, the new production company operated in relative obscurity. The Yellow Brick Studio was a very small performance enclave which, at best, could hold possibly 36 audience members (on risers that were not constructed until 1997), and during these early years, a large crowd was considered whenever there were more people watching in the audience than there were performing on stage. But as the group persevered, milestones were accomplished that helped to bring notice to the new theater kid on the block. Kaneshiro obtained the group's first television exposure when one of the local television stations, KHNL, did a feature story on the production of Letters To Cleo on its nightly news. Trapped gained the group's first review, and a positive one at that, when theater critic Joseph Rozmiarek, of the Honolulu Advertiser, who likened TAG to something you’d likely see in arts district of Chicago rather than in some back road in Honolulu, and who coined the phrase that TAG was like penicillin mold, in that it just managed to show up out of nowhere to do a show. During these early years saw the departure and arrival of a number of influential actors. TAG regular Leilani Langhoff moved to Guam, while new actors Dorothy Mane, Dorothy Stamp, Freddie Stamp, Sam Polson, and Mike Mazzola, would arrive to perform in the plays of Winston-Barge. But upon the closing of On The Verge, Winston-Barge professed a desire to pursue a long-time personal dream of taking a year off to travel the world, which he subsequently did. His departure would leave TAG at the crosswords once more as regulars Leigh Ann Kinghorn, Lena Kaneshiro, and Dorothy Mane also decided to pursue other creative opportunities. It left TAG founder, Eric Nemoto, at that point, as literally the only regular member of TAG.

Mike Mazzola Rescues TAG

As fortune would have it, rather than it being the end of The Actors Group, Nemoto would then find a new partner to keep TAG alive. Mike Mazzola, who had acted in Winston-Barge's last TAG play, On The Verge, enthusiastically accepted the role and prophetically assured Nemoto that TAG's best years were ahead of it. Mazzola, who as a young man grew up in and around a community theater, became TAG's inspirational leader and set about organizing a number of activities that opened the door to new actors. His leadership attracted back the participation of Sam Polson and Dorothy Stamp who would become TAG regulars. While TAG had always returned to holding its weekly scene study sessions in between the plays directed by Winston-Barge, Mazzola arranged an acting workshop by Hollywood actor and former star of television's Battlestar Gallactica, Richard Hatch. The workshop drew over 20 participants and helped to keep TAG producing creative activities. Next he arranged for a showcase of scenes for which he recruited the father of Mike Powell, Brad Powell, who was known to be a very good choreographer of musicals. The Yellow Brick Studio saw a packed house as Powell directed the night's showcase of scenes into a great success. After that, Mazzola urged Nemoto to write a play so that the group could continue its momentum.

The result was The Committee Responsible For Exposing The Reverend Terry Jamestown, a crime drama with touches of sardonic humor which became TAG's first "pre-written" play to be produced, which was directed by Jon Brekke. It also featured the first stage extensive stage design for a TAG play given all of Winston-Barge's plays were staged in primarily a black box setting. The Committee turned into a phenomenal success with packed houses and a closing Sunday set of performances which drew 45 to a matinee performance, and 55 to the closing show at night. The total of 100 remains a TAG record for a one day audience attendance. TAG's popularity was increased largely due to Mazzola inviting the Honolulu Star Bulletin's theater critic, John Berger, to not only watch the play, but to visit hours before curtain to get to know the theater and its actors. Berger went on to write an extensive article about TAG which brought the theater more into the public eye. Mazzola followed "The Committee" with another original play, Trees, also written by Nemoto. The play, about a woman protesting the cutting of Douglas Firs in Oregon, starred Dorothy Stamp, and featured a set of over a dozen pine tree tops which Mazzola collected from a number of households who were discarding their Christmas trees after the holidays. Trees plays to mixed reviews but manages to keep TAG rolling with another successful production. It also became significant in that it garnered the group its first featured article in the Honolulu Magazine, which was arranged by Mazzola. Trees would be Mazzola's swan song with TAG. Nearly two years of giving his blood, sweat, and tears to TAG had left him exhausted and of need to get back to "having a life." The Mazzola era was brief but so incredibly vital. The vision that Nemoto had originally started was all but over before Mazzola took over the reins, and as he said he would do, he took the group to bigger and better times. Still, Mazzola's departure put Nemoto into another all too familiar position of having to recalibrate TAG once again.

Brad Powell And The Transformation Of TAG

Into this transition phase would come TAG's most influential participant. Brad Powell, who first became associated with TAG through its “Actors Showcase” produced the previous year, started to become more involved with the group. His involvement was due in part to a couple of personal requests. The first is made by his son, Mike (who continued to lease out the building on his own after Brekke decided to go his separate way), who asked his dad to help lend direction to the group so “they can pay their rent.” Powell steps in to direct the next play, which on the recommendation of Sam Polson (who personally knew the playwright), is “Code Of The West,” a play by Mark Geist, which is a comedy about Joshua Norton of San Francisco, who once claimed to be the Emperor of America. This production is the next TAG first, as it is the very first production performed by TAG that is not an original play written by any of its members. In the staging of the play, Willy Curran, a handy man extraordinaire, manages to construct and secure added lighting bars that are subsequently used with confidence throughout the rest of TAG’s time in the Keawe Street location. Curran also stars as one of the leads and is accompanied by Dorothy Stamp, and Sam Polson. “Code” is another play of mixed reviews, but like with all preceding it, it keeps TAG chugging along and in the public eye.

After “Code,” continuing to seek ways for keeping the TAG production schedule going, Brad Powell asks his good friends, acting coaches and husband and wife, Wayne and Fran Ward, to produce the next show. The Wards perform one of their staples, “America! A Patchwork Quilt,” and donate their time and efforts as a fundraising vehicle for TAG, a gesture that is greatly appreciated for these are the early days of TAG when the group has literally no money in its account. “Patchwork” was a wonderful program of expressions and impressions that offered “patches” of literary history which were adapted by Wayne and Fran and acted out accordingly. Sometime after this, Powell’s involvement is influenced by a second request, when Eric Nemoto, the de facto president of the group ever since the departure of Dave Winston Barge and the others, formally asks him to be TAG’s artistic director. Powell accepts, and the union proves to be a double win. Nemoto and TAG again gets someone experienced in theater to lead its productions, and Powell, until then primarily known to be one of Hawaii’s premiere choreographers, can now venture into directing dramas. Powell’s role would prove transformational as he would bring forth concepts that would facilitate the development of TAG into a viable, successful community theatre; such as creating the first TAG season of plays and assuring that scheduling future seasons become a regular process, insisting on the development of a board of directors, and joining the Hawaii State Theatre Council (HSTC), which made the group eligible to participate in HSTC’s “Po’okela Awards,” the annual awards for excellence in Hawaii stage productions.

Glengarry Glen Ross, Buried Child, And The Growth Of TAG

While TAG periodically had held meetings of those who had come to lead TAG, it was during this year that meetings of its official “board of directors” began to be held. Brad Powell, Eric Nemoto, Sam Polson, Dorothy Stamp, Mike Powell, and Patricia Gillespie, would become the first members of TAG's initial board of directors. For his first directorial effort as artistic director, Powell is asked by Eric Nemoto (on the suggestion of actor Steve Cedillos, who first acted with TAG in The Committee) to direct David Mamet’s real estate salesman drama, Glengarry Glen Ross. With this production TAG quickly evolves again, staging its first acknowledged mainstream play that has been produced on Broadway. Glengarry manages to garner rave reviews from theater critics John Berger and Joe Rozmiarek, and becomes the hit play which brings the group its greatest notoriety to date and serves to elevate the stature of the group beyond that of a mere creative curiosity. On a subsequent dare by Rozmiarek, Powell next stages Buried Child, the Sam Shepard drama that launched Shepard to national fame as a playwright. The play depicts the fragmentation of the American family within the context of disappointment, disillusionment, and the breakdown of traditional family structures and values, wherein incest is eventually revealed as a back story. "Buried Child" would star Sam Polson, who gives one of the great performances by anyone on a TAG stage, as family patriarch, Dodge, and attracts even further praise from the critics. With these two successful productions, Powell manages to hit back-to-back home runs for the group and this serves to stamp TAG as a legitimate theatre within the Hawaii performing arts community.

The First Season

As artistic director, Brad Powell establishes a process that is so basic to most theatres but is absolutely new for TAG. He establishes TAG’s first actual season of plays (up until this year every play previously produced had been the decision of TAG members a mere months before). First up in this inaugural season is An Evening Of One Acts: Ticket to the City & Balcony Scene,” both written by Donald Elser, the late father of new board member, Patricia Elser Gillespie, who also serves as co-producer and director. In producing the show, Gillespie, in turn, also institutes the first ever “open call” when casting the plays (again, up until this show, every available role in a TAG play was assigned to an actor already affiliated with the group). This production also featured yet another TAG first; brand new chairs that were coordinated in terms of type and color. Prior to this production, what was used to fill TAG’s risers were an odd assortment of mismatched chairs that ran the gamut of old, odd, small, and of course, totally uncomfortable. But just prior to the opening of Two One Acts, Eric Nemoto’s sister-in-law, who worked for the hotel Hale Koa, advised him that the hotel is holding a sale of its banquet room chairs for $5 apiece. Nemoto goes to the hotel and purchases 40 chairs for TAG. In retrospect, the purchase is absolutely huge for the little theatre. For the audience experience has been vastly improved, and these chairs would go on to be used for TAG's remainder of its stay at Yellow Brick Studio.

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