Storybook Theatre

Preservation in the News:  Storybook Theatre in Hanapepe, Kauai, is operated out of a renovated a nationally registered historic site ravaged by Hurricane Iniki in 1992– the Sun Ke Heong/Obatake Building. It has become a centerpiece of ongoing neighborhood revitalization and an exemplary model of a community facility serving young people and their families. www.storybook.org Storybook theatre honors Isles' purveyor of peace By Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi POSTED: 1:30 a.m. HST, Oct 11, 2015 PHOTO COURTESY ROBERT ZELKOVSKY The Storybook Theatre’s television set, site of many performances. For 36 years the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii has proved that the best stories not only entertain, but also open minds, set moral standards, prove the power of creative thinking and inspire listeners to reach for the stars. The theater has its own wonderful story to tell. It begins with Mark Jeffers, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., who earned a master's degree in education with an early childhood focus from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1978. The following year, he co-founded the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii with Anna Viggiano, a UH graduate student in theatre. "We thought presenting good stories to children -- stories with messages about core values and how to contribute to communities in positive ways -- was a great pursuit," said Jeffers, who has been the theater's executive director since its inception. "Along with other education and theater graduates, we wrote and performed plays for schools throughout Hawaii. All the productions shared important lessons about, for example, kindness, honesty and humility." Viggiano left Storybook Theatre after a few years, and Jeffers incorporated it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1987, two years before he moved to Kauai. From 1990 to 1995, [...]