Beth Dunnington moved from NYC to Waimea in 2007. She’s a stage director and acting teacher for HPAF, and served as Director of the HPAF Preteen Singers program for six seasons. Beth directed HPAF’s productions of The Last Five Years, Big Island Broadway, and Company starring Justin John Moniz, as well as a number of Young Artist and cabaret concerts. In 2021, she directed the opening concert of the HPAF season, “Stars of Tomorrow, which performed both live at the Kahilu Theatre and on Kahilu TV.
As a performer, she played the role of The Witch in HPAF’s Into The Woods and Madame Armfeldt in their A Little Night Music. She starred in Que Sueñes Con Las Angelitas at Jazz at Lincoln Center– a theatre-dance piece she wrote in collaboration with Prince Dance Theatre. Prior to that, Que Sueñes was performed at Kahilu, followed by a tour of the Hawaiian Islands. Some of Beth’s favorite opera roles include Papagena in The Magic Flute at Connecticut Grand Opera, directed by Broadway director Tom O’Horgan; Susan B. Anthony in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother Of Us All in Boston, directed by NY Times classical music critic, Tony Tommasini; Georgia O’Keefe in Nearby Faraway, opposite actor/singer J.K. Simmons, at the York Theatre in NYC; and Azuri in Romberg’s The Desert Song at the Papermill Playhouse. This summer, she played the role of Miss Trunchbull in Kahilu’s Matilda the Musical.
For Kahilu, she directed Sondheim & Friends, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a series of Broadway in Hawaii concerts, Grease, Godspell, 13 –The Musical, Spring Awakening, and West Side Story. She is currently directing the revue All Together Now, a Musical Theatre International “global event” taking place in theatres across the US and in 36 other countries on the weekend of November 12th-14th, 2021. This is a celebration of theatres reopening after Covid-19. Beth is the Director of the Kahilu Youth Troupe, the acting/musical theatre teacher for the Kahilu’s performing arts classes, and is a vice president on the Kahilu Board of Directors.
Beth is married to developer Steve Dunnington. Their children, Marena and Sean, are proud HPAF alumni. She is thrilled to return to HPAF for her tenth season as a faculty member. Beth is a long-time member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA.