Honolulu Theatre For Youth

Always entertaining, often educational, never disappointing! Every show has a novel perspective enjoyable on multiple levels. Season tickets are the best bet because you can freely exchange them for different dates (and the doors open to you for up front seating before the rest of the crowd).

My friend and I truly love going to see live theater, and scour events pages looking for opportunities to see something new. When she approached me about a Bollywood interpretation of Robin Hood, we both figured sure… why not and got out tickets, both not knowing what to expect.
Here’s what to expect…
The theater itself is open seating. You arrive and an usher will help you find seats so you can be seated with your party.
Although they sell snacks outside, food and drinks are prohibited in the theater with the exception of bottled water.
The theater is nicely decorated, but there is no actual set per say, just an overall themed set for the show.
Given that this is a theater for youth the show is definitely geared for children. To my surprise, there is a LOT of audience participation in the show to include dancing, singing, and multiple children in the audience were even brought up onto the stage to participate throughout the show.
I don’t have children of my own, but I do highly recommend this theater and its productions for families, especially ones with younger children. Its definitely an enjoyable production, and you could tell every child in the audience was having a good time as were the adults who took them.
The Honolulu Theater for Youth along with their partner organizations also has ensured that children from all over Oahu have an opportunity to attend shows at this theater, so you paying for a ticket and taking your child to an event here, continues to ensure other children can continue to enjoy the arts in Honolulu.

Honolulu Theatre For Youth
HTY does a great job of giving modern life to classic stories. Just like making Momotoro in animé form with makeup and paintings that give a breathe and feel that were just awesome for any comic book fan.
The classic Momotoro story, with the Peach Boy protecting his family from the ogres, but HTY was able to perform in a live action animé style, the highlight of this was the fast forward of action stage combat and then super super super!!! Well done reverse mode that still has me amazed! Did I say it was super? It was live action stage combat at it’s finest!
I went to school with the 2 teachers that had James Beliush and other famous Second City trope actors that taught stage combat as a new class because of James and his antics. They would be proud of all of HYT abilities for stage combat.

Tenney Theater at St. Andrews Priory on the corner of Beretania & Queen Emma St — entrance is on the Beretania St. side of the theater just diamond head of the church. Normally you can see like a camp tent pop up so that you can get tickets or info before the shows.
Tenney Theater is really small– much like a European theater — close and snug for a real audience instead of a movie theater where you don’t want anyone sitting next to you. Be ready to give up a seat for your kid if a tall adult sits in-​front of you– the seats are small. There is an up close group of season ticket holders– that is really the best seats in the house– you can see all of the facial expressions.
HYT also does shows for schools– I saw them on Molokai when I was teaching. They have a message and try to teach in their shows. Also they are just now starting to work with Head Start preschool age children. All of the shows are age appropriate– so just ask what it is geared for and you can be pretty sure that your children will love it.
I highly recommend visiting any showing that HYT does.

I am a fan! I loved Korean Cinderella, went as part of a class trip. My 5 y/​o and her classmates enjoyed it as well! I was singing along, dancing, and smiling the whole time. We will definitely go again. Great Family Fun!!!

Been here to watch Momotaro. It’s a smaller theater and you don’t get assigned seating unless you are a season member. But it didn’t matter much to me because the show was easy to follow, entertaining, and friggen hiliarious. Definitely a place where all ages can enjoy!

I cannot say enough about how amazing this theater and these actors are!
I have been fortunate enough to attend on three separate occasions with each of my three children. My first show was Momotaro, which I saw with my 7 year old daughter, and was very impressed.
I then saw Five Chinese Brothers with my 5 year old son. He was invited onto the stage to participate, which made an already wonderful performance even more special.
My last visit was with my 9 year old son to see Christmas Talk Story, which almost brought me to tears on more than one occasion.
If you never take the opportunity to see these terrific actors portray these inspirational stories, you will have severely missed out!!!

Unilocal 31 Day Challenge Review ¹²⁄₃₁
As a child, I loved going to watch HTY plays. I always thought the plays were interesting, engaging, and shared a good message.
Now as a teacher, I’m planning field trips for my students to watch HTY plays. There was one play I didn’t really care for (it was an obake play), but for the most part, HTY has excellent productions.
The best play I’ve seen so far was «The Swim Club,» which was put on 2 years ago. The story was based on the life of a swim coach in Hilo. The students all loved the play. «The Lion Dancer» last year was good as well and featured some of the same actors as «The Swim Club.».
This year, we’ll be watching Jeff Gere’s «Spooky Stories,» so I’m hoping that it’ll be interesting.

Nothing better than spending an afternoon sitting with kids while they watch HTY perform. The joy pouring from the audience is reflected back to them from the stage, where the actors do everything in their power to entertain, but also to teach.
The first time I took my son to an HTY performance was in October, 2004. We saw «The Kona Town Musicians» and we enjoyed it enough to know we would want to return as regular audience members.
Fast forward to 2012, and so many laughs later. The stories told in the plays are mostly simple fables, all centered around what is morally and ethically correct. The kids will laugh (so will the adults!) while they learn the correct paths to take in life.
My favorite HTY play so far has been «Animé Momotoro» if you were lucky enough to be a part of the audience you will probably agree. The classic Momotoro story was there, with the Peach Boy heading off to protect his family from the ogres, but HTY was able to perform in a live action animé style, complete with sound effects and slow motion fight scenes. It was a delight, and my only regret was that I saw it the weekend it closed, so I did not get the chance to see it a second time.
This year’s season looks so good that I took the jump and bought us season tickets. A few of the shows are aimed at a younger crowd, but I tell my son that if I’m not too old, neither is he!
58^th Season–
Five Chinese Brothers (August 24 — September 22)
Spooky (October 12– October 27)
Christmas Talk Story (November 23 — December 22)
Musubi Man (February 23 — March 9)
Rap’s Hawaii (January 11 — 26)
Call it Courage (February 15 — March 9)
Charlotte’s Web (April 5 — May 11)
Most of the performances are on Saturday at 4:30, and run about an hour, with no intermission.

Tickets to these shows would make GREAT xmas or bday PRESENTS for the family who has kids! Give the special kids in your life an experience they’ll remember!
Compared to years past, this season looks like an AWESOME line up: Five Chinese Brothers, Spooky, Christmas Talk Story, Rap’s Hawaii, Call it Courage, Musubi Man and Charlotte’s Web.
«The Five Chinese Brothers» (Saturdays @ 4:30pm Aug 25 — Sept 29) was hilarious and kept the kids (and adults) engaged for the following reasons:
1. It’s one hour long (yay!)
2. No intermissions. (perfect!)
3. They picked 4 kids from the audience to be 4 of the brothers. (You never know how the kids will react, and the actors are able to improvise quite nicely… our little actors were very funny and great performers!)
4. The show involves the entire audience for the sound effects (quite entertaining)
5. The actors really know how to play to the kids. My son was laughing like a hyena during some of the scenes.
(not so) Quick Tips:
1. Enter from Beretania St., and park ($ 2) wherever you can find an empty space. The spaces are tiny and everyone drives double wide minivans.
2. The entrance is on the Beretania St. side of the theater.
3. Get there early, especially if you don’t have reserved seating. The show started at 4:30 but by 4:10 there weren’t many seats left for the sold out show.
4. Make sure your entire party gets there early. They were forcing people to give up the seats they were reserving by around 4:20.
5. Bring a pillow if you have a little little one, the slope of the theater isn’t that great and if a taller person sits in front of your child, it’s hard to see. I saw boosters up front but I don’t know how many are available.
7. Bring your own snacks and eat beforehand.
8. Bring your camera in case your child gets picked to go up (for the entire show!) or for after the show when the kids can take pics with the actors.
Location: Tenney Theater at St. Andrews Priory on the corner of Beretania & Queen Emma St. (Enter through the Beretania St. driveway, $ 2 parking)
Tickets: $ 20 adults (19 – 59), $ 10 child (3 – 18), $ 15 senior (60+), but you get a price break if you buy season tickets for all the performances.
On stage workshop: on September 22 @ 2:30pm, HTY will hold a one hour long workshop where kids can get on stage, peek backstage, and work with some of the actors from the show. How cool is that?!
Anyway, we would love tickets to any of the shows from this season, hint hint…

This was my first go at the theater. The little one has been here before but the first for me. I wanted to see the Lion Dancer, especially since it was close to Chinese new year. The place was hard to find. The door is actually on the Beretania side of the building and the entrance is in the corner of the little building. We got our tickets at the door. It was a full house. Seats were nice. The show started on time. It was great. It wasn’t too long and the little guy was interested all the way. The facility was clean and I’d like to go back again.
G

Our son’s grandparents are theatre aficionados so it’s no surprise that a love for the theatre has been passed down to the littlest member of the family.
We recently saw Apollo to the Moon at HTY and even attended the pre-​show workshop. Not only was our son excited to meet the lead actor, he even got to learn acting techniques and perfect his expressions. He couldn’t stop talking about it all even after the show ended.
I saw HTY performances as a kid, but always in the schools. I can’t believe that this was my first time to Tenney Theatre. I like the fact that we have a quaint little theatre amongst the hustle and bustle of Downtown Honolulu.
Can’t wait for the next production!

My 70 students paid $ 5 each to see «The Three Year Swim Club,» performed live in my classroom and my social studies’ partner’s classroom this morning. I met the four actors in our parking lot at 7 a.m., to have them set up their props for an 8:45 a.m. performance. Some of my students were still paying for their admission fee this morning, after their payment check was already cut. One student had her payment delivered to the school during the play.
I have seen about seven of their school tour performances over the last eight years of my career.