Students, friends, and family gathered at the Loo Theatre on Thursday night for the opening night of the play “Things Go Wrong.” The play was written by Chaminade’s second-year communications major Garrett Hill. The performance was directed by Dr. Chris Patrinos.

“This was my first time attending a play in a while and I thought the cast did an amazing job,” said Mahealani Bryan, a first-year Biology major.

The play is about the Agosti family from New Jersey who plans a sunny blue-sky vacation in Hawai’i. Their vacation quickly gets flipped upside down when they arrive at an unideal stormy O’ahu. They are now forced to stay within the hotel walls and forced to spend time with one another as one action after another goes terribly wrong.

The start of this process dates back to the beginning of this year.

“I think they did great,” Patrinos said. “The process has been long and all of their contributions in helping create it is what makes the play super special, and in turn, they could do no wrong. At the end of the day, I couldn’t be any happier.”

Alex Hernandez, Hāli’a Carlbom, and Jasmine Cathcart are first-time performers who made their acting debut. Hernadez, a third-year psychology major, who is also an R.A and OSAL student coordinator, played the part of Axel Agosti, the oldest son in the family. Carlbom plays the part of Nalani Rodriguez, the front desk worker at the hotel. Cathcart plays the part of the King family’s mom, another family who is vacationing at the hotel. 

“Some of our actors, this is their first time acting,” Hill said. “These kids are such naturals and it’s so impressive watching them do this for the first time because you really think that they’ve been doing this professionally their whole lives.” 

The cast performed in front of a soldout crowd of about 30 seats. According to Hill, the audience really put the whole show together. The cast felt that it was the one aspect missing from rehearsals. 

“We think this is all funny and we have a good time but the audience decides it,” Hill said. “I knew there were some key moments that would get a lot of laughs and the audience was so wonderful. They really brought their own energy, which we were missing in rehearsals because the audience ultimately decides what is funny, what is heartbreaking, sentimental. And I think everything went to plan.” 

Opening night is over but the actors have just gotten started. There will be four more performances: Friday and Saturday nights (7 p.m.) and two on Sunday (4 p.m. and 7 p.m.). All showings are already sold out.

This process started back in February of this year as an idea that a student-driven play was what Patrinos’ and his students wanted to do. Hill came up with the idea for the play while living in the Hale Lokelani dorm, located at Chaminade University.  Hill thought of the idea of a family from New Jersey who comes to Hawai’i for a sunny outdoorsy vacation. Their plans quickly change as they arrive in a very rainy, gloomy O’ahu. He started to write and eventually finished his first play near the end of April 2022. They started rehearsals in October because they initially wanted to have the show in October. The show needed some revisions and that’s why the performances are happening now.

Due to Covid-19, this is the first live theater performance with an audience on campus in about two years. Patrinos said that having this play being a student-driven performance makes it really special.

“We could’ve went out and gotten a recognized play that everyone knew,” Patrinos said. “But the simple fact that it was written by a student with his friends and they invited other students to a production on campus makes it super important to getting folks who haven’t been to play in a while to have the experience and walk away saying ‘id like to see another one.'”