THE TWITS – PRESS RELEASE
January 16, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 2013
Contact: Mele Pochereva, 808-262-8556, mppr@hawaii.rr.com
Bank of Hawaii OHANA! Series presents
THE TWITS, by Roald Dahl, adapted by David Wood
Playing at Hawaii Theatre on March 9 & 10
They’re a grotesque and spiteful couple, yet Mr. and Mrs. Twit are sure to get giggles out of young audiences as they play mean-spirited tricks on each other and then become the victims of a well-deserved practical joke themselves. Beneath the madcap surface of this deliciously subversive tale lurk lessons about bullying and the importance of treating living things with respect.
A classic dark comedy by one of the 20th century’s greatest children’s story-tellers, Roald Dahl’s The Twits was adapted for the stage by David Wood, and will come to life at the Hawaii Theatre as part of the Bank of Hawaii OHANA! Series.
Show times are 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 9; 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 10. Tickets are $5 – $10 and are available by calling the Hawaii Theatre Box Office at (808) 528-0506 or online at www.hawaiitheatre.com. Student matinees are offered on March 6, 7 & 8.
Guest director Stephanie Conching sets the story in the blowzy world of a sideshow, with singer/composer John Gruhler serving as narrator/ barker (on stilts!) for this rollicking show of singing, dancing and slapstick.
“We hope to offer an entry into that magical world that Roald Dahl has set to words,” Conching explains. “Our audiences will be pulled into the Dahl story with costumes and sets inspired by carnival sideshows and the artwork of Quentin Blake. “
Trouble begins when the Twits devise a plan to capture harmless creatures, the Muggle-Wumps, from an exotic faraway tropical forest and organize them into a circus act. The charming Muggle-Wump family does their best to obey as the bumbling Twits try to teach them to stand on their heads. The Roly-Poly Bird, an exotic tropical forest fowl who “flies about” on skates, schemes to rescue the Muggle-Wumps by turning the Twits’ world upside down with the help of other birds who have escaped being caught by the Twits for a bird pie The audience gets in on the act, too!
Along with Gruhler, the talented cast includes Mark Branner as Mr. Twit and Patrice Scott as Mrs. Twit; Dan Kunkel as Papa Muggle-Wump and Angela Trieu as Mama Muggle-Wump; and Nicole Tessier as the Roly-Poly Bird.
Multiple award-winners Lloyd “Sandy” Riford, III; Andrew Alverado; and Lacy Hansen Rohlf; are designing sets/lights, props and costumes, respectively, and will be working in “storybook” style, to bring Quentin Blake’s inimitable illustrations vibrantly to life.
Three members of HTC’s Junior Ensemble will play the little Muggle-Wumps and members of the Hawaii Theatre Young Actors Ensemble will be puppeteers, not only operating the birds of the story, but actually becoming the critters of the rainforest—think Mummenschantz brand of puppet work, as our young actors transform into their puppets!
Hawaii Theatre Center’s educational programming is supported by ABC Stores, Bank of Hawaii Foundation, The Bretzlaff Foundation, Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, the City and County of Honolulu, Friends of Hawaii Charities, Thomas J. Long Foundation, Macy’s, McInerny Foundation, RM Towill Foundation, G.N Wilcox Trust, and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Hawaii State Legislature and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
