On Thursday, March 15, playwright Daniel A. Kelin, II comes to campus to perform his one-actor play, Shipwreck’d on the Body Beautiful, or the Tats Dancing Man, as part of WCC’s ongoing Out Loud in the Library! series. The event will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the library.
Out Loud in the Library! is a literary and music event that celebrates the rich intersection of words and music by local artists. It is also meant to inspire and encourage students to find their own creative voices through writing, reading, poetry, music and spoken word.
Kelin has directed, acted in and written plays performed in Asia, the Pacific and across the U.S. He has had fellowships with Theatre for Young Audiences/USA and the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. He was the founding director of Cabaret Tiki, a playwright collective dedicated to writing and producing plays of five pages or fewer.
The central character and narrator in Shipwreck’d is James F. O’Connell, or J.O., a one-time sailor turned vaudeville/circus performer who travels the country exhibiting his exotic painted body and enticing his audience with bits of song and dance from Ireland and Pohnpei. J.O. relays his adventures of being shipwrecked on the Micronesian island of Pohnpei or ‘Bonabee’ as he calls it.
His story is that of an outsider trying to fit into a culture that he finds both strange and amazing.
Kelin has written another work set in Micronesia, … and the people spoke music, which earned two Rockefeller grants for development and toured to its place of origin, the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The Honolulu Theatre for Youth has produced many of Kelin’s plays, including Keiko and Louie: Best Best Friends (Mostly).
For more information about Kelin’s visit, contact English instructor and Out Loud in the Library! coordinator Susan St. John at 236-9226 or susankcl@hawaii.edu.
he central character and narrator in Shipwreck’d is James F. O’Connell, or J.O., a one-time sailor turned vaudeville/circus performer who travels the country exhibiting his exotic painted body and enticing his audience with bits of song and dance from Ireland and Pohnpei.
J.O. relays his adventures of being shipwrecked on the Pacific Island of Pohnpei or ‘Bonabee’ as he calls it. His story is that of an outsider trying to fit into a culture that he finds both strange and amazing.
Kelin has written another work set in Micronesia, … and the people spoke music, which earned two Rockefeller grants for development and toured to its place of origin, the Marshall Islands.
The Honolulu Theatre for Youth has also produced many of Kelin’s plays, including Keiko and Louie: Best Best Friends (Mostly).
For more information about Kelin’s visit, contact English instructor and Out Loud in the Library! coordinator Susan St. John at 236-9226 or susankcl@hawaii.edu.
by Ka ‘Ohana, News Staff
