Today Elizabeth directs that theater program. It is acclaimed and unique, offering the only opportunity in the United States for students to lift the veil on art forms rarely studied in the West. Each year, students in the program get the chance to learn one of four different Asian theater forms, taking turns to produce and direct a fully staged production. Some years the productions will be “high art,” such as jingju or the equally elaborate Japanese kabuki. These productions require huge casts, gorgeous costumes, hours of makeup and, in some cases, headache-inducing headdresses. In alternate years the students learn simpler folk art forms: randai from Indonesia and kyogen from Japan. Randai takes the inspiration for its music and dance from a Sumatran form of government where everyone sits in a circle and seeks agreement on an issue; kyogen is comedic and features stock characters (the gullible peasant, the sly servant) in short playlets. The university’s next major production, a kyogen performance, will take place on campus at Kennedy Theatre from January 26 to February 4, 2007.

Elizabeth is not alone in her passion and reverence for Asian art; she is joined in the department by two other professors, both women, both equally adventurous: Kirstin Pauka and Julie Iezzi. For Kirstin, professor of South and Southeast Asian theater, the journey began when she was an undergraduate at the University of Giessen in Germany and she spotted a poster for UH. She won a grant to study in the Islands for two semesters—but that only whetted her appetite for more. After she graduated in Germany, she returned to UH and enrolled in the university’s doctoral program. She opted to study randai, which at that time was virtually unknown in the West. And just as Elizabeth has helped to popularize jingju, over the last decade Kirstin has played a pivotal role in bringing this colorful theater form to Western audiences.

Julie Iezzi discovered Japanese theater when she was a student in Tokyo, virtually penniless and working as an English-language teacher to finance her studies. It was her first time abroad and it taught her two things: that she hated teaching English and that she loved Japan and its language and music. She learned to play the shamisen, a three-stringed plucked instrument, and found herself drawn to Japanese theater music—its cinematic nature and the way it underscored mood and dialogue. Soon she began to be drawn toward performance, too, and she began studies that led to a Ph.D. in Japanese theater. She took work at a professional theater in Japan, writing guides to various dramatic forms, including kabuki. It gave her unlimited access to rehearsals and shows, an unusual opportunity for a foreigner—and one that allowed her to learn exactly how things were done. When Professor Brandon decided to retire, UH began looking for a replacement who would be able to mount kabuki productions—and the experience Julie had amassed during her five years in Japan made her an ideal candidate. She was hired in 2001.