HSF 2016

Special
discount
pricing!

This year, 2016, marks fifteen full seasons for the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival. We’ve done a lot in that time, including presenting the complete canon, all 38 of Shakespeare’s plays, many for the first time in Hawaii. Of all our accomplishments, though, we are perhaps proudest of the fact that we’ve been offering our productions in 3D since our inception. That’s full 3D. Every seat. Every show. No special glasses necessary.

Increasingly, though, we’ve been fielding inquiries from budget-minded theatre goers who don’t want to pay for 3D. So this year, in celebration of our 15th season, we’ll be offering some tickets at a special 2D discount. If you enjoy the 3D experience, nothing will change. If you prefer to watch in 2D, you’ll need to wear special 2D glasses.

Cinema, which utilizes a more primitive 3D technology than theatre, uses special glasses with polarized lenses to create a 3D image. Alternate frames of the film are shown from the perspective of your left and right eye, and polarized so that they can only be seen through the corresponding lens. We’ve taken that idea and turned it on its head. As a 2D-discount patron, you’ll wear special glasses with one lens completely blacked out, providing a monocular experience.

HSF co-founder and producer Tony Pisculli says that the 2D experience may also appeal to reluctant theatre-goers who prefer the less immersive, less engaging, more passive experience of watching traditional television and film.

This year’s line-up of directors is excited about the new direction. “It’s like watching reality television. On your iPhone,” says Taurie Kinoshita, a long-time HSF veteran who will direct The Witch of Edmonton for the upcoming season. “Shakespeare wrote the plays in 2D,” says returning director Jason Kanda, who will be helming Twelfth Night. “It’s important to honor that.”

Not everyone is on board with the decision to offer the discount. HSF co-founder R. Kevin Garcia Doyle says, “It’s a step in right direction, but not nearly far enough. We should hand out glasses that block both eyes. Zero-D.” And Harry Wong III, HSF co-founder, and Artistic Director of Kumu Kahua Theatre says, “Eh. Kumu stay 3D fo’ 45 years already but we never make big huhu about ‘em.”