On the Scene with Gregory Dunn

Gregory Dunn came to Hawaii in 1993 to open the first Barnes & Noble store in ­Kahala Mall. When the cost of doing business in Hawaii prevented the chain from opening stores on the neighbor islands as planned, Dunn decided to stay.

Since then, he was recruited by Nike to oversee the Nike Town project in Waikiki, worked with the YMCA on the renovation of the Atherton YMCA and served as executive director of the Hawaii Nature Center.

In September 2017, Dunn, 51, became president and CEO of the Hawaii Theatre Center.

In addition to his busy career demands, he’s learned how to play the ukulele.

JOHN BERGER: What was the strategy in coming in without the usual public fanfare?

GREGORY DUNN: We purposely did not announce it to give myself and the board an opportunity to engage with various stakeholders both inside the theater and outside the theater, and in the community, to get a clear understanding of the challenges that the theater was facing, and then formulate a strategy on how to better engage all of the stakeholders and meet their needs.

JB: What are some of the challenges?

GD: Parking certainly is a factor. One of the things we noticed is that when we would have a show we would see surge pricing where certain garages might charge up to $25 for event parking. By being able to provide flat-rate parking to our patrons for $8 at 1132 Bishop that provides the patrons certainty, they know where they’re going to park. Another nice thing is that the Bishop Street garage is on Bishop Street so you avoid all the one-way streets in Chinatown and the street closures when an event happens to coincide with First Friday.

JB: What are the other things you’re working on?

GD: Have you ever seen the movie, “The Money Pit,” with Tom Hanks? The theater opened in 1922 so you’ve already started with a structure that has significant age to it (and) when the theater was renovated in 1996 some things weren’t in need of renovation — but now that’s 20 years ago. When you have a building that’s almost four stories tall and takes up the better part of a city block, it’s a multiplier effect. The theater needs a surplus of nearly a million dollars a year over the cost of operating the theater just to fund the depreciation, and repair and maintenance on the facility.

We’re not subsidized by the government in a way that underwrites our operations, so it is more expensive to attend a show at the Hawaii Theatre and it is more expensive for a promoter to put on a show at the Hawaii Theatre, because we have a much greater (financial) need in terms of supporting the physical plant and the facility.

JB: Hawaii Theatre is well-known as a site for concerts, hula events, pageants, stage plays and musicals. What’s next?

GD: To provide entertainment for multiple segments of the marketplace. In the first weekend in November we’ve secured Mandy Patinkin who will be doing a Broadway revue that he’s bringing in, and then during Valentine’s Day we’re secured Bernadette Peters to also come in and do a Broadway revue. Hopefully the symphony and the opera will be able to perform on (our) stage again. We’ve received grants from the Atherton Family Foundation to help underwrite those performances. (Note: Tickets for Patinkin go on sale Monday. A date for Peters’ ticket sales has yet to be announced.)

JB: What is your favorite technical fact about the theater?

GD: My favorite place to have meetings is to sit in the back row right beneath the projection booth in the upper balcony. Because the theater was designed as an acoustically correct facility before amplification you can sit there and hear conversations that are happening onstage that are not amplified. The reason is that if you look in the ceiling, there’s this big beautiful dome that’s gilded and gorgeous. That dome is there to capture the sound from the stage and reflect it back down into the entire theater so you can hear people onstage.

JB: What is something that might surprise people who only know you as president and CEO of HTC?

GD: One is that I performed as a member of the music group that supported Carolee Nishi’s Hula Hui o Kapunahala when they performed with Jim Nabors in one of his early “Merry Christmas With Friends & Nabors” Christmas specials. Another is that I grew up in Marshall, Mich., which has the unique distinction of having a historic property called the Honolulu House, which was built by a man who had lived in Hawaii. And that my paternal grandmother — her maiden name was Elizabeth Christina Frear — had relatives who were in Hawaii and sent back pictures and letters. Hawaii always appealed to me and the question I always had (on my mind) was how come that line of the family got to go to Hawaii and we had to stay in Michigan?

JB: What do you like to do when you’re not working?

GD: I love to go paint, and I love ceramics. I had four years of ceramics in college, and one thing I miss is having the time to dedicate to doing more visual arts. From an outdoor activities standpoint I enjoy surfing and sailing. And I enjoy music. I love to go to concerts and plays and theater. I just got back from the mainland. I popped over for a quick trip to see Taylor Swift in concert and it was a phenomenal concert.

One of the joys of going to see how other venues handle performances is that you learn things about how they operate, and how they’re presenting these various performers and acts or even stage plays. You also learn what we may be able to implement or improve on here.

JB: What would you like to be doing five years from now — or where would you like the theater to be five years from now?

GD: I’d like to see every person — at least on Oahu — having visited the Hawaii Theater and been able to enjoy it. It always amazes me when we have kamaaina who say, “Where is that? I’ve never been there.” Or if we have a show and they come in for the first time (and) they’re surprised and shocked at the grandeur of the theater.

JB: Where did you get the idea of using Hawaii Theatre Center tickets as your personal business card?

GD: As more people are buying tickets online and fewer people are using traditional tickets, this is a good way to use some of that ticket stock.

JB: How has the job of being president and CEO changed since the decision was made in the late-1980s to restore the Hawaii Theatre instead of destroying it?

GD: Initially there was a lot of focus on raising the money to get the theater operational — Sarah (Richards) and Bob Midkiff raised $32 million to open the theater in 1996. It’s now our duty to take the theater to the next level, build upon the work that Sarah and all the staff who have devoted their lives to the theater over the years have done, build a much firmer base for the theater into the future, and integrate it more into the surrounding community and into the lives of everyone on the island. It’s incredibly gratifying to be the next steward of the theater and ensure that it’s here for future generations.

Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.