Two New Summer Playwriting Workshops from Kumu Kahua Theatre Starting This Saturday

After the success of Tali Ariav's playwriting class in 2016, Kumu Kahua Theatre is proud to announce they will be producing two new summer playwriting courses, both taught by Tali.

About the Classes

Playwriting 1:

This course provides an introduction to the craft of playwriting. Student work consists of developing the fundamentals of writing for the stage, playwriting structure, creating characters, and writing dialogue. Coursework includes in-class writing, regular writing assignments, and the reading of plays. Students will explore their own theatrical voices while engaging with the voices of others in the class and through readings. Conventions of theater through Aristotle's six parts of drama (plot, character, dialogue, music, spectacle and theme) will be discussed and evaluated. Playwriting and class exercises will focus on experimenting and pushing outside students' comfort zones and their preconceived ideas of theatrical writing. Assignments will include short writing exercises, revisions and refinement of student theatrical writing; presentations and discussion; and a final 10-minute play worthy of performance onstage.

Playwriting 2:

The course will focus upon the understanding of scenes, dramatic structures, and their contribution to the structure of an entire play. Readings of plays and dramatic writing exercises will be utilized in a workshop format.

The primary focus of this course is the writing of a one-act play or a full-length play; this will be our final project. Through take-home writing exercises, the examination of existing texts, and giving and receiving constructive feedback, each writer will take his or her writing to a new level of complexity, theatricality and meaning. The first part of the course will consist of examining the structure of a scene. In order to write a whole play, all of its parts must be solid. We will begin by looking at techniques for writing strong, dramatic scenes.

About the Instructor

Tali Ariav is an adjunct professor at the Hawaii Pacific University and taught Playwriting and Acting at the University of Guam. She earned two Masters of Fine Arts degrees, in Literary Translation and in Playwriting, from the Playwriting Workshop at the University of Iowa. She was born and raised in Israel; she speaks, writes and reads English, Hebrew and Arabic. Tali was one of the founding members of Orto-Da, an award-winning street theatre group. Their 1999 performance of "Meta-Rabin," an original, collaboratively written and performed street theatre work, won First Prize at the Akko Theatre Festival in Israel, followed by earning First Prize for Street Theatre at the Chalon dans la Rue Festival in Chalon, France. In Guam Tali was a guest host for several sessions of a political radio show, "Beyond the Fence," on Guam's Public Radio station, KPRG. Her guest sessions focused on local artistic issues in Guam. In the spring of 2016, Tali was an invited guest playwright at Fordham University. She has specific interests in advancing political theatre and the voice of the indigenous playwright-in Tali's case, the voices of maturing playwrights in the Western Pacific.

For more information and to register, contact Kumu Kahua Theatre at 808-536-4222 or email KumuKahuaTheatreOM@gmail.com.

Kumu Kahua productions are supported in part by The Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawai'i and by the National Endowment for the Arts. Also paid for in part The Hawai'i Tourism Authority, The Hawai'i Community Foundation, McInerny Foundation (Bank of Hawai'i, Trustee); Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) Charitable Foundation, The Atherton Foundation and Hawaiian Electric Company; The Star-Advertiser and other foundations, businesses and patrons.

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