Kaʻū News Briefs, Monday, March 6, 2023

A PERMIT HAS BEEN ISSUED BY THE COUNTY TO TEAR DOWN NĀ'ĀLEHU THEATRE.The non-residential Public Works demolition permit PW.B2022-002127 is to "Demolish existing Nā'ālehu Theater structure in entirety. Cut/cap/plug all utilities."

The old projection room and classroom at Nā'ālehu Theatre. See Abandoned USA

     However, in 2011, developers of a proposed Nani Kahuku `Aina resort on more than 16,000 acres makai of Ocean View (including Pohue Bay) said they had a lease on Nā'ālehu Theatre. As they aimed for government to approve their resort, they proposed a board of local residents to oversee Na`alehu Theatre. They said they would pay to restore the theater as part of their community involvement. When the development plans for Nani Kahuku `Aina were put on hold, the restoration planning for Nā'ālehu Theatre paused as well. 

    However, Pohue Bay and surrounding lands were purchased for conservation and annexed to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

    The 2017 Hawai'i Tribune Herald story about Nā'ālehu Theatre reported that the theater building went up in 1925, constructed by the Hutchinson Sugar Company and that its 10,237 square feet contained three separate sections. The story said the theater property was owned by 300 Corporation, a division of the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation. The parent foundation is a nonprofit and major landowner in Hawai`i.  At the time, Weinberg also owned Pahala, which has since been sold to the Olson Trust and Nā'ālehu shopping centers, which has since been sold to Duane Kurisu.

NĀ MELE PANIOLO, SONGS OF THE HAWAIIAN COWBOY is the title of the 103rd annual Kamehameha Schools Song Contest to be broadcast live this Friday, March 10 on K5. The pre-show begins at 7 p.m. with competition at 7:30 p.m. Encore presentations will Friday, March 17 at 7 p.m. on KGMB, Saturday March 18 at 2 p.m. on KHNL and Friday, March 24 at 7 p.m. on KGMB.

    The Kamehameha Schools website explains:

    The Song Contest is unique to Kamehameha – a tradition that has involved all students in musical competition for one hundred and three years. Miss Laura Brown, Director of Music at Kamehameha from 1926-1947, stated that "the objectives of the song contest are to build up the repertoire of the best in Hawaiian music for the cultural heritage of any student who attends Kamehameha; to develop leadership, cooperation and good class spirit; and to give students the use of their singing voices and to give them pleasure in singing as a means of expression."

    The first song contest for male students was held at the School for Boys in 1921. A cup named for George Alanson Andrus, a former director of music at Kamehameha School for Boys whose life inspired the idea of an annual song contest, was offered as an incentive in the competition.
    1922 marked the first year that both the Kamehameha boys and girls held song contests. Mrs. E. G. Scoville, a visitor to the Islands from Watertown, Connecticut, was so impressed with the singing of the Kamehameha girls that she donated the New England Mothers’ Cup for the School for Girls competition.
    In 1967, an additional trophy was offered by the Trustees in honor of Charles Edward King, an 1891 graduate of the School for Boys. The trophy is awarded to the class winning the combined class competition.
    The Louise Aoe McGregor Award, named for a member of the first graduating class of the School for Girls in 1897, was first presented in 1972. It recognizes the student director who has made the most significant contribution to the class in organizational ability, leadership, assistance to others, and persistence.    

    The Richard Lyman, Jr. ‘Ōlelo Makuahine (Mother Language) Award recognizes excellence in the use of the Hawaiian language within a song. Mr. Lyman, a Kamehameha Schools Trustee from 1959 to 1988, was keenly interested in the preservation of Hawaiian language and culture.
    The Helen Desha Beamer Award recognizes the best musical performance. Donated by the Kamehameha Alumni Association, the award honors the substantial contributions of Helen Desha Beamer to the lexicon of Hawaiian music. Helen Desha Beamer was a 1900 graduate of the Kamehameha School for Girls.
    In the early years, the girls’ song contest was held in front of the Assembly Hall, and the boys’ was held in front of Bishop Hall. When the School for Girls campus on Kapālama Heights was completed in 1931, separate contests for boys and girls were held in the auditorium. In 1952, the first combined contest of the School for Girls and School for Boys Senior Division took place in Kekūhaupi‘o, the newly constructed fieldhouse. The song contest moved to the Neal Blaisdell Center in 1964 and has been attended by capacity crowds there ever since. A highlight of the evening is the Hō‘ike, a show to entertain and inform the audience while the judges’ score sheets are tallied. The Hō‘ike is an exhibition of the beauty of Hawaiian mele and hula.