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 On April 14, 1820, the brig Thaddeus anchored a short distance off the shore of Honolulu. Missionaries Hiram Bingham and Samuel Ruggles were the first to step ashore seeking accommodations. 

Two hundred years later, on April 14, 2020, a small band of actors gathered together to participate in a Zoomed reading of missionary descendant Marion Lyman Mersereauʻs community-specific play, "Open Your Hearts Wide ."  Fellow missionary descendants, who call themselves "cousins," listened and provided feedback.

 A short year later, a movie, instead of a play, was streamed online, thanks to a world pandemic called Covid-19.

The Community Collaborative Way OYHW was Written
 

     Playwright and Missionary descendent Marion Lyman-Mersereau spent 2 years asking fellow descendants one simple question in preparation for the bicentennial of the arrival o the Thaddeus in 1820 through a series of "Story Circles." That question was, "What is it like to be a descendant, and what do you think of your ancestors?" 

     Marion turned the answers she received into the first draft of "Open Your Hearts Wide" last spring. PlayBuilders believes it is important to get the community's permission before going into production. Hence, we invited the community to listen to a play reading and invited them to fill out a google survey form, letting us know their thoughts and ideas about the play. Marion then took those ideas and wrote a second draft. 

      At this time, we still hoped that we would be able to create a live production, but Covid-19 had different plans, and so for the first time in PlayBuilders history, we decided to make a movie! We hired Jeff Orig of Orig Entertainment and turned Marion's play into a screenplay by co-directors Mark Branner and Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczack with input by co-director Kumu Vicky Holt Takamine. 

     We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those descendants (or cousins as they call one another) for generously sharing their stories with us.

    The Synopsis 
 

Kimo and Malia have very different opinions regarding early Protestant Missionaries to Hawai‘i. Kimo thinks they were selfless heroes who did wonderful things for the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and its people. Malia thinks they were entirely self-serving and acquisitive people bent on manipulating and profiting off them and their land. While passing by the cemetery at Kawaiahaʻo Church, Kimo and Malia hear a beautiful voice emanating from the Hawaiian Missionary Houses Historic Site and Archives. They follow the voice and meet a friendly “Docent” who invites them to go on a tour. While being shown around the old buildings and quiet grounds, they continue to argue. But ghosts of both the early missionaries and the Ali'i appear and show and tell Kimo and Malia more than they ever imagined. The Docent helps them to zoom with missionary descendants to hear more, and even Siri and Alexia chime in from time to time. Perhaps history is not as black and white as they thought it was, but is actually much more colorful and complex?

The movie features 27 local actors and 19 real-life missionary descendants.

Mahalo nui loa to the Following.

"Open Your Hearts Wide" by Marion Lyman-Mersereau was made possible in part through generous grants from the Cooke Foundation Limited, The Atherton Foundation, and the National Endowment for the ARTS.  To find out more about how the National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. 

PlayBuildersʻ community partners for this project are Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, (missionhouses.org) and the PAʻI Foundation (paifoundation.org)

Mahalo nui loa to Kumu Kahua Theatre, and The University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa for their kokua. We are currently working to make "Open Your Hearts Wide Available" to Hawaii schools though special programing. For more information check under past projects at the top of the page.  

About PLAYBUILDERS OF Hawai'i  http:// playbuilders.org

We think it is important to understand what kind of theater we are  before watching one of our plays or now that Covid has changed our reality, films. We are what is known as a community-based, applied, or community-specific theatre.  Our mission is to gather and share real stories that resonate with, empower, and connect the many culturally rich and diverse communities in Hawai'i. 

To write our plays, we conduct several to a dozen story circles in which community members share their stories with us. We then shape those stories into a live production or screenplays and invite community members to perform alongside our professional actors, thereby participating in the telling of their own stories.

PlayBuilders is celebrating our 10th birthday. Over the years, we have developed and produced productions for the residential communities of Wahiawa, Waipahu, and Chinatown, as well as special interest groups such as Honolulu's and Leeward Community College's LGBTQA+ communities, Oahu's houseless community, Hawaii's former foster youth, sexual assault survivors, and domestic violence survivors.  

It takes 2 to 3 years to create just one of these plays. We consider what we do a way of giving back to this beautiful place we call home. If you have any suggestions or questions about this project, please feel free to reach out me.

Aloha Pūmehana,
Terri Madden
Founder Executive Director
PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theater Company

[email protected]