Dando Kluever, an Iowa native who was the artistic director of Kumu Kahua Theatre in the 1980s, died Sept. 7, 2006 in Orlando, Fla. He was 54.

His Hawai'i theater colleagues, recalling Kluever's acting, directing and prodigious participation in works reflecting on real-life local issues, will hold a celebration of his life at 10:30 a.m. March 10 at Kumu Kahua Theatre.

"He became a close friend whose ideals of worthwhile theater were very close to my own," said Dennis Carroll, a University of Hawai'i theater professor who was one of the pioneers of Kumu Kahua, a theater group that produces plays exclusively about Island people and lifestyles.

"He directed 15 productions of Kumu Kahua," said Carroll. "Most of these productions were of 'local plays,' for which he had an extraordinary affinity, though he was born in Iowa. It was in that capacity that I most closely connected with his work."

Kluever was Kumu Kahua artistic director from 1986 to 1989 and a board member from 1971 to 1990. He arrived from Iowa to earn his bachelor's degree in theater at UH-Manoa.

Kluever's support of local-style theater helped Kumu Kahua become the major outlet for locally written works "in an era when they were often pooh-poohed and sneered at by 'theater people' in Hawai'i," said Carroll.

"Dando ... the very name signifies a mercurial personality, charming and mettlesome, both on and off stage," said Terence Knapp, UH emeritus professor of theater.

Dwight Martin, managing director of Manoa Valley Theatre, where Kluever also acted and directed (receiving a Po'okela Award for his role in "The Fifth of July"), called him "a passionate theater professional with great talents as an actor and director."

UH theater director Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczek said Kluever "was also active in theater projects largely unheard of outside the communities they served. For instance, he was one of three teachers of acting and improvisational playwriting at the Hawai'i State Prison in 1975 and '76."

After he left Hawai'i, Kluever continued to act, teach and tour. From 1990 to 1995, he was an assistant professor of theater at Georgia Southern University.

He is survived by sisters Lora Leonard and Jerri Harding, brother Chris, two nephews and two nieces.

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.