{"id":316563,"date":"2026-08-08T03:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316563\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:42:09","slug":"%ca%bbthe-queens-will%ca%bb-premieres-in-honolulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316563\/","title":{"rendered":"\u02bbThe Queen\u2019s Will\u02bb premieres in Honolulu"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Playwright Sean T.C. O\u2019Malley, the inspiration for the play \u201cThe Queen\u2019s Will\u201d came out of a meeting with Prince Philip, the great-grandson of Robert Wilcox and Princess Theresa. O\u2019Malley had written a triology of plays about Wilcox, which led Prince Philip \u2014 who had been in the audience for \u201cWilcox\u2019s Shot\u201d \u2014 to suggest one focused on the 1918 trial in which Princess Theresa was accused of conspiracy to commit forgery of the will of Queen Lili\u2018uokalani.<\/p>\n

When they met for lunch, Prince Philip brought a thumbdrive of articles about Princess Theresa and the \u201ctrial of the century in 1918,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. When the playwright got home, he opened the thumbdrive and discovered more than 500 articles.<\/p>\n

Now, \u201cThe Queen\u2019s Will,\u201d a play inspired by that research, will have its world premiere at Kumu Kahua Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 20. It runs through Sunday, Sept. 20.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $28<\/a> for general admission, with discounts<\/a> for students, seniors, and Thursday shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was holding their breath about what was going to happen \u2014 and I shouldn’t reveal what happened \u2014\u00a0but the aftermath is pretty dramatic,\u201d O\u2019Malley said.<\/p>\n

\"PlaywrightPlaywright Sean T.C. O\u2019Malley wrote “The Queen’s Will,” which will have its world premiere at Kumu Kahua Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 20. (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre)<\/p>\n

The play is led by Director Reyn Afaga and Assistant Director Darryl Soriano. <\/p>\n

The story will come to life with just three actors: Hoku Gilbert as Princess Theresa, Reb Beau Allen as lawyer Lorrin Andrews \u2014 not to be confused with Lorrin Andrews Thurston, who was his cousin \u2014 and Maile Kapua\u02bbala as legal assistant Mary K. Jarrett, who pretends to be various witnesses, who are \u201cquite extraordinary in some cases,\u201d O\u2019Malley added.<\/p>\n

\""The“The Queen’s Will” stars Hoku Gilbert as Princess Theresa (seated in the front row), as well as Reb Beau Allen as lawyer Lorrin Andrews and Maile Kapua\u02bbala as legal assistant Mary K. Jarrett. (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre)<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley has written several historical plays, and this is his fourth to premiere at Kumu Kahua Theatre<\/a>, a 100-seat playhouse in the heart of Honolulu.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"KumuKumu Kahua Theatre (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre)<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this little theater,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cIt\u2019s heart is in the right place. The people that work there are wonderful, and it’s committed to Hawai\u02bbi’s stories by Hawai\u02bbi’s people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to reviewing files on the thumbdrive, O\u2019Malley did his own research, pulling hundreds more articles, including some from newspapers in \u02bb\u014clelo Hawai\u02bbi, as well as documents from state and law library archives, and the First Circuit Court records room, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half of the play is just about the princess and her lawyer and the legal assistant meeting the night before the closing arguments in the court case and reviewing what’s going on,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s not a courtroom drama. You’re not in court yourself, but it’s their interactions. They’re talking about how they got here, what happened in court, who was cheating, who was bribed \u2014 all the good meaty stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing the play went faster than the research. O\u2019Malley had traveled to be with one of his parents who was having a medical procedure and was in the hospital waiting room for a day when he decided to start writing. He wrote the first draft of act one in the span of about 10 hours, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came together within about a couple of months, and then Kumu Kahua talked to me about this early draft and commissioned me to finish it,\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cAnd so, from me deciding to write to this production has only been less than a year \u2014\u00a0which is extraordinary for a playwriting process.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, Sept. 4, there will be a talk story session after the show, where the cast, director and playwright will chat about the production with the community.<\/p>\n

For the latest news of Hawai\u2018i,\u00a0sign up\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for our free Daily Edition newsletter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Playwright Sean T.C. O\u2019Malley, the inspiration for the play \u201cThe Queen\u2019s Will\u201d came out of a meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[15745,267,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-316563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-hawaii","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}