The Naylor Theatre, the ‘Jewel of Wailuku,’ is this philanthropist’s latest gift to Maui

Susan Naylor wanted to find a way to give back after the Maui community helped her get through the tragic loss of her two sons.

So, after years of philanthropy through a foundation named for her son Will, Naylor pledged $1 million in 2022 to help the Maui Academy of Performing Arts build a permanent home in Wailuku.

The project to develop the 12,000-square-foot, $15 million facility out of the former Dollar General Store space at 2027 Main Street began in 2016, and Naylor’s donation helped spur other citizens to donate as well.

“It was really unheard of for us,” said Carolyn Wright, the academy’s executive director. “As a nonprofit in the past, most people who give money gave anywhere between say $100 up to maybe $10,000.

“For somebody to come along and demonstrate so much faith in this project and just believe in the value of this theater for this community, it was really transformational for us in our capital campaign. … Susan’s gift inspired other donors to give to the capital campaign that made the theatre possible.”

The debut production, nine performances of Cabaret, was held Nov. 14-30. But Jan. 7 was the formal opening, in which it officially was named The Naylor Theatre in honor of the family of Naylor, a philanthropist from San Antonio, Texas, who spends about half of her time on Maui.

“It happens to have my family name on it,” Naylor said. “But it belongs to the community. And I’m excited to see what all goes on there.”

At the formal opening last week, Naylor’s hourlong documentary “Will Do” was shown for the first time on Maui. It is about the life of her son Will Naylor Smith, who died in a traffic accident in Ukumehame on June 3, 2007, at the age of 8.

“That made it a very special blessing for the theatre,” she said.

That tragedy drove Naylor to start The Will Smith Foundation. Many of the people in attendance for the opening of The Naylor were drawn by her philanthropy here over the past two decades. Naylor estimates she has given more than $50 million over the years, most of it in Texas, but more than $4 million to organizations on Maui.

This will be the first permanent home for the Maui Academy of Performing Arts, which began in 1974 as the Maui Youth Theater. It was founded by former Baldwin High School teacher Linda Takita as an after-school drama program for keiki, soon blossoming into a bustling academy benefitting thousands of Maui families. In 1990, the organization changed its name to Maui Academy of Performing Arts.

Wright estimates about 10,000 children in Maui County now are served by the academy, mostly through performing artists going to schools throughout the islands. 

On the formal opening night, Naylor was greeted by several notable Maui performers, including reggae star Marty Dread; Maui brother-sister duo Eric Gilliom and Amy Hānaialiʻi Gilliom, who sing and act; Branscombe Richmond, a veteran actor who appeared in Jason Momoa’s Chief of War; along with singers Debra Vial of Texas, and Bryan Lewis from Ohio. The Gillioms, Lewis and Vial all sang.

The Maui Youth Theatre had lived at St. Anthony High School and the Pu’unene Play House that is now torn down, and it was without a home for several long stretches, Eric Gilliom said.

“Well, it is as meaningful as it can possibly get for us who grew up with the Maui Youth Theatre before it became MAPA,” the 62-year-old Eric Gilliom said before he performed with his sister. “The Maui Youth Theatre never had a permanent home. … This is a long time coming.”

The “incredible space” provides a real black box theater, which is a square or rectangle with black walls and a black, flat floor. The simplicity allows the space to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction.

The Naylor Theatre can have stage presence from any of the three walls behind the lobby area and it is also big enough to hold theatre in the round seating. It also features an expansive lobby, a green room, a scene shop where the sets are built, storage space and two rehearsal studios.

For Maui and the State of Hawaiʻi, “the flexibility of the space is unparalleled,” Eric Gilliom said. “This will become the Jewel of Wailuku.”

Government agencies contributed $10 million: $350,000 from Maui County, $1.1 million from the state, and approximately $8.5 million from the federal government, according to Wright. The rest of the money came from public donors like Naylor, who gave the largest amount from the private sector.

Wright said The Naylor Theatre project still needs $200,000 to complete the $15 million funding goal.

The academy’s next production, The Revolutionists, will feature 14 shows from Feb. 6-22, and be held in the 84-seat theatre in the round seating. It will be followed by Disney’s Frozen, a Broadway musical set to run April 17 to May 10 with 175 seats available per show.

The Naylor Theatre also will be a key venue for the inaugural Wailuku Film Festival that is set for June 18-21, said Maui Film Commissioner Brian Kohne.

The screening of “Will Do” was a dress rehearsal of sorts. “We got to feel the room and now we can have more realistic conversations about what we’re planning for June,” Kohne said.

Gilliom said he has a show he wants to produce in the theater.

“This has been 75 years in the making,” Gilliom said. “I’m excited for everyone on the island who is really going to enjoy this space. … This wouldn’t have happened without Susan and her incredibly generous donation. … This will live on in infamy.”

Naylor described the space as “my family’s theater. And by family, I mean ‘ohana, extended family.”

Some of the “family” members in attendance for the opening were Lawrence Kauha‘aha‘a, a retired Maui Police Department officer who spent time with Naylor and her older son Charlie at Maui Memorial Medical Center after the accident that claimed Will’s life; Vinnie Linares, a retired English professor at the University of Hawai‘i Maui College; and Mike McCormick, whose sister Maureen McCormick of “Brady Bunch” fame is one of Naylor’s closest friends; and Barry Kawakami of the Wave of Harmony Foundation.

Will’s death was the catalyst for much of Naylor’s philanthropy over the last two decades. One of the first big projects Naylor funded on Maui was the Will Smith Imua Discovery Garden located not far up Main Street towards ‘Īao Valley from The Naylor Theatre. It is a nature-based therapeutic and educational space run by Imua Family Services.

After Charlie died of an opioid overdose in 2016 at the age of 28, Kauha‘aha‘a helped Naylor start the Charlie Naylor Recovery Center through nonprofit group Mental Health Kokua at 133 Market Street in Wailuku. Charlie Naylor lived in Wailuku for a few years as a teenager and befriended several houseless people, many whom had addiction issues.

Kauha‘aha‘a said The Naylor Theatre is just the latest in a long line of philanthropic work Susan Naylor has done in Wailuku over the two decades since her youngest son died. That work became even more profound after Charlie Naylor passed away nine years later.

“She’s just amazing because that’s what she always does,” Kauha‘aha‘a said. “I could see right then and there (in 2007) she was going to do whatever she could to help. And it’s only increasing. It’s only got bigger.”