​Kumu Kahua Theatre Readies New Season, Featuring Dynamic Premieres and the Return of an Epic Trilogy

Kumu Kahua Theatre has announced its 53rd Season slate, debuting four new plays and bringing back a trilogy to wrap up the season with a twist. Curated by Kumu Kahua's Artistic Director, Harry Wong III, programming for the 2023 - 2024 season showcases diverse works exploring current controversies, historic happenings, and imaginative realms from some of the most exciting voices in Hawaiʻi playwrighting. Each play will also feature a talented local cast, with further announcements forthcoming. The season will kick off at the historic downtown Honolulu theatre starting Thursday, August 17.

“What an exciting spread of productions we have planned for audiences to experience, with new original works gracing the stage as well as a tried-and-true classic,” said Wong. “This season's plays will challenge us, move us, and celebrate our vibrant community.”

Kumu Kahua Theatre's 53rd Season lineup will include:

 

Mendokusai by Eric Stack          

August 17 - September 17, 2023          

After losing his mother during the 2018 lava flow, Kūkunu has disconnected from culture and community, and taken refuge in a new marriage. However, his daughter's dangerous position at the forefront of the TMT controversy forces him to intervene, setting in motion a series of events which not all will survive. Through this crisis, we learn that someone who is “broken” may not be able to love in an ordinary way; but may instead love in a most extraordinary way.

 

Stack is a playwright from Kea'au, Hawai'i, where he also teaches at Kamehameha High School. Many of his works have particular focus on the island of Molokai. He is the author of Mū, Vitae, Brought to Bear, and Kūpe'e (winner of the 2019 Kumu Kahua Playwriting Contest). He has also written the book and lyrics for the Hawaiian operas, Hā'upu, Kū I Ka Mana, and The Battle of Kuamo'o. His monologue Hae Upside-Down was produced for The Reset Theatre Coalition  series.

 

Haoleland by Anthony Michael Oliver

November 2 - December 3, 2023

When a wealthy Native Hawaiian developer proposes creating a theme park exploring the influences of Caucasians in Hawaiʻi, the multi-ethnic Board of Commissioners debates the ramifications of such a proposal, and its members are forced to confront shared complicity in a complicated island history. The final decision isn't easy for any of them.

 

Oliver is the author of twenty-one plays, two of which have won the University of Hawaii Drama Department/Kumu Kahua Theatre playwriting contest's Hawai'i Prize. Originally from the Bronx, he wound up aboard a Pearl Harbor submarine in 1965, courtesy of the Vietnam War. On the G.I. Bill, he earned a BA in History and a Master of Library Studies at University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. It was while working for the State, and listening to tales from his wife and her family and neighbors, that Olivier felt he had learned enough to write Haoleland.

Aitu Fafine by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl

January 25 - February 25, 2024

Famed writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his family become infatuated with two fascinating ʻafakasi visitors who come to stay at their home in Vailima, Sāmoa. To a backdrop of dreams, literary musings and ghost stories, relationships evolve and collide resulting in serious life-changing confrontations. The delicate strands of the play weave together like a fine mat as Tusitala and his companions move through the uncharted realms of the vā.

 

Several of Kneubuhl's plays have been produced by Kumu Kahua, including Ola Nā Iwi, Fanny and Belle, and The Conversion of Kaʻahumanu. The Holiday of Rain was specially commissioned by the theatre. Hawai'i Nei, a collection of three plays, was published by the University of Hawai'i Press, and several of her works have toured America, Britain, the Pacific, and Asia. She also served as producer/writer for the TV series Biography Hawai'i. Kneubuhl was born in Honolulu and is of Hawaiian and Samoan ancestry. She was recognized with the Hawaiʻi Award for Literature—the highest honor the State of Hawai'i bestows on a writer.

 

Beretania Snapshots by Sean-Joseph Choo  

March 28 - April 28, 2024

With the help of her imaginary dragon friend, Connie navigates the twists and turns of young love, her parents' perplexing relationship, her tangled extended family, and loss -- first of her grandfather, and later her grandmother. Like a book of old family photos, Beretania Snapshots is chock-full of nostalgic references to plays and people from Honolulu's recent past, and reminds us to treasure one another before the memories fade.

 

A multi-ethnic artist from Honolulu, Choo's work as a playwright, composer, and actor have been featured both in the Hawaiian islands and the island known as Turtle Island. Commissioned by TheaterWorksUSA, Choo contributed his story crafting and music-making skills to TWUSA's Who Tells Your Story? series, featuring BIPOC songwriters creating new songs about BIPOC history makers. His short script Co-Habi-fʻn-Station was recently featured in Kumu Kahua's directing challenge “The Work” following its entry into the theatre's Go Try PlayWrite contest.

 

Kumu Kahua Theatre's final show of its 53rd Season line-up will be three complete productions: The Kāmau Trilogy. Written by noted Hawaiian playwright, sculptor, and actor Alani Apio from Ewa Beach on the island of O'ahu, the plays will make a moving return to the Kumu Kahua stage with a unique offering. Audiences can watch the productions on separate nights, or see them all back-to-back on Sundays for a theatrical immersion experience.  Each play also stands on its own:

 

Kāmau by Alani Apio

May 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27, 2024        

Exploring the concepts of aloha and kuleana (responsibility), Kāmau follows three cousins who were raised in their family's beach-side home and taught that they must care for the land to ensure the survival of their ʻohana. When their ancestral homestead is sold to build a hotel, the cousins' perspectives on kuleana put them at odds. Michael will not abandon his responsibility to the ʻāina, and refuses to leave. Left to provide for the family alone, Alika must choose between joining Michael's battle against the resort—at the expense of his niece, Stevie, and her mother, Lisa—or continuing to work for the very corporation that has displaced them.

 

Kāmau Aʻe by Alani Apio

May 31, June 7, 14, 21, 28, 2024         

Part two of the Kāmau trilogy picks up ten years later, as Michael is released from prison and returns immediately to occupy the beach that he was evicted from. He has become a member of a sovereignty group ('Ai Pōhaku) that has embraced his quest to retake his ancestral homestead. Alika is now the resort's manager: offering cultural tours and classes, providing hundreds of jobs for Native Hawaiians. The cousins' worldviews once again collide, and they are used as pawns against each other as larger forces vie for control of the place that was once their home.

 

Ua Pau by Alani Apio

June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 2024      

In this explosive finale to the Kāmau trilogy, past and present collide as Stevie returns home from college and uncovers hidden truths about her family. Devastated, she begins to experience and unravel the inter-generational trauma that haunts them all. Her struggle to release old ghosts and claim her place – and her kuleana – will determine whether she and her ʻohana survive intact, or at all.

 

Kāmau Trilogy        

June 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 2024

For the first time, the entire trilogy will be performed back-to back-to back each Sunday of the production run.

 

Kumu Kahua wraps up its sensational 52nd Season with Folks You Meet in Longs, by Lee Cataluna. Originally scheduled to run through June 25, 2023, due to overwhelming demand additional dates have been added for July 6, 7, and 8 at 7 p.m., and July 9 at 2 p.m. This show is completely sold out, including extensions, emphasizing the importance to purchase subscriptions and tickets early for this popular theatre.

 

Tickets to all shows are on sale now with evening and matinee performances available. Patrons are encouraged to reserve seats as soon as possible at www.kumukahua.org or by contacting the theatre box office at (808) 536-4441. Tickets prices range from $5-$25, with showtimes offered Thursdays-Sundays.

Audiences can additionally take advantage of the theatre's generous subscription plans. For Kumu Kahua's Season Subscribers, all three productions of the Kāmau Trilogy will be included within the subscription for the same, low price. Guests may also consider a donation that will enable others to experience the beauty of theatre with Kumu Kahua's Scholarship Subscriptions and Dennis Carroll Tickets.

While masks are no longer required at Kumu Kahua, the theatre is a mask-friendly venue and encourages everyone's continued awareness and malama. The nonprofit theatre has also invested in community safety, with dedicated security services provided during presentations and rehearsals.

  

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