First presented as a stage play at the University of Hawai'i Theatre in 1976, the teledrama "Damien" — with actor/professor Terence Knapp — is a monologue, delivered by Father Damien as a spirit watching his own funeral procession 50 years after his death.

Playwright Aldyth Morris said, "I was in Honolulu at the time his body was brought from Molokai. ... I saw the white ship in the harbor waiting to receive the koa casket into her hold. Then I went back in my reading to find out who Father Damien was. ... In a sense, the play is my route to confrontation with a saint."

Tomorrow: Elroy Kenneth Makia Malo was banished to Kalaupapa at the age of 12. He speaks of his fury when he hears others use the word "leper." Blind since age 30 as a result of the disease, Malo became a well-traveled, award-winning storyteller. He is 74 years old and resides in Honolulu and Kalaupapa.

Tuesday: Norbert Palea says an undiagnosed red area of his skin ("like a mosquito bite") got him banished to the settlement at age 5. After drugs were developed to control the disease, Palea went to college and became a fashion designer. Today at the age of 68 he is the youngest of the remaining Kalaupapa patients.

Wednesday: Clarence "Boogie" Kahilihiwa also landed in the settlement as a child and has been married for 30 years to Ivy, another Kalaupapa patient. Kahilihiwa says that — because people have just taken what they need — fishing off Kalaupapa is as good as it was many years ago.

Thursday: Meli Watanuki, 74, keeps an image of Damien on the dashboard of her pick-up truck. Today she is married to a government worker at Kalaupapa who has never had Hansen's disease. Watanuki speaks of abandonment and loss when she was diagnosed as a young mother.

• 8 p.m. Thursday: Immediately following “Long Story Short” from Kalaupapa, “Insights” on PBS Hawaii will explore the future of Kalaupapa. When the last patients pass away, will Kalaupapa become a national park? How will the village change? How would the National Park Service honor Father Damien? Should Kalaupapa be turned over to Hawaiian Homelands as proposed by some of the patients? Viewers will be able to participate in the live broadcast via Twitter, a live blog forum and by e-mail and phone calls.