The grantor, Mary D. and Walter F. Frear Eleemosynary Trust, had awarded the Hawaii Theatre $52,000 last year to hire its first education director, Hester Kamin, to help create a program at the Hawaii Theatre for students in grades kindergarten through 12. The formation of the Hawaii Young Actors Ensemble, with Maryknoll School as a partner, enabled the theater organize an apprenticeship program to stage Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in May.

Youth classes will continue this summer, culminating in a July stage production, and an expansion of the apprenticeships with a planned April 2008 launch of a second Shakespeare play, "The Tempest."