Page 4 - MidWeek Kauai - Sep 14, 2022

4 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
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How do you celebrate 10 decades of excellence at Hawai‘i Theatre Center? Well, if you’re president and CEO Gregory Dunn, you do so by guaranteeing yet another year of blockbuster acts and events.
the notable favorite high-en- ergy Chinatown Chase. So, when the opportunity came about to lead Hawai‘i The- atre at the highest level, well, there’s no business like show business. His background with the Better Business Bu- reau equipped him to lead the nonprofit through an earned income strategy to make the
Hawai‘i Theatre Cen- ter president and CEO Gregory Dunn knows firsthand how easy it is to get lost in the grandeur of the 100-year-old auditorium.
place,” he recalls.
In the years since that per-
(Above left and right) Hawai‘i Theatre has been entertaining guests for 100 years from its historic Chinatown building. PHOTOS COURTESY HAWAI‘I THEATRE
swirled about how to flow with the shifting tides of stay- at-home streaming and the de- sire to fly the coop to faraway destinations once restrictions were lifted. The answer, ac- cording to Dunn, was simple:
“I remember perform- ing at one of the first Jim Nabors Christmas specials at the theater, standing on stage looking at this grand
formance, Dunn found him- self back at Hawai‘i Theatre again and again, but this time, as a spectator. He remembers attending numerous shows and participating in fundrais- ing efforts like the Sarah Mc- Lachlan benefit concert and community events, such as
organization more self-suffi- cient.
offer a wider variety of pro- gramming. In fact, it’s some- thing the theater has always done and continues to do.
Thanks to that shrewd fi- nancial plan, Hawai‘i The- atre’s program budget kept growing — that is, until the pandemic hit. Questions
Exciting shows coming up this month are a Napo-
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