Carl and I just came back from seeing the opening performance of Honolulu Theatre for Youth’s production of “Apollo: To the Moon,” a play about a scientist who has dreams of joining the Apollo space program. It was especially meaningful since today was the 25th anniversary of the Challenger space tragedy. It was written by Mary Hall Surface and directed by Kevin Reese, daughter-in-law and son of the late David Reese, a former LCH chorister and Compline Choir member. Mary Hall and Kevin have presented over 1600 performances of this play!

David Reese worked for NASA for 30 years before retiring to Hawaii in 1982. He was a faithful member of the LCH choirs until his passing in 2005, for which the Compline Choir sang for his funeral, and I played the organ for part of the service. Tonight’s play was dedicated to David’s memory, and to his wife, Mary Reese, “the world’s best host.” We in fact had dinner with Mary and Kevin last weekend.

Like many other choral organizations, the LCH Choir is made up of people from all walks of life, occupations and persuasions. David was a former NASA engineer — but we can currently count teachers of all kinds, nurses, a librarian, an attorney, two former flight attendants, a retired art historian, and a couple of accountants, (one of them being Carl Crosier), to name some of the professions our choristers have in addition to faithfully rehearsing and singing for the Sunday services.

I would highly recommend this excellent production, which plays in Tenney Theatre on Saturdays from January 29 through February 19, at 4:30 pm. As written in the program, “May this play inspire everyone in the audience to embrace the power of a dream and to look to the stars for hope and possibility.” We have certainly lived out our dreams through the music program at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu.