Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press Announce The Winner of The September 2022 Go Try PlayWrite Contest

The September Go Try PlayWrite winner is SH Kukana Murakoshi for her play Makemake ʻEkolu. The September Prompt was: In honor of Halloween. Write a scene, 10 pages maximum, of a group of kids where one of them receives a magic piece of candy that once eaten grants her or him three wishes.

SH Kukana Murakoshi is a writer and performer born and raised in `Aiea in the sovereign country of Hawai`i. SH won the Best Play and Audience Favorite awards for her play, Shame Shame, in the Playbuilders of Hawai`i 2020 competition. Shame Shame was directed by Will Ha`o, who also won for Best Director with Karen Kaulana and Ku`ulei Shafee who won the Best Ensemble acting award. Other playwriting work by SH Kukana has been produced internationally with notable performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, the Edmonton Fringe in Canada, the Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis, and at La Mama ETC, United Solo Fest and the Frigid Fest in New York City. Performance credits include Broadway: Connie Wong in A Chorus Line, a Royal Wife/Dog in The King & I. Hilo: Merry Monarch Hula Festival. Honolulu: UH Mānoa Kennedy Lab Theatre with Hā Hā Hawai`i, the show. TV: Magnum P.I., and PBSʻ In Performance at the White House. Suzen holds an MFA in acting and playwriting from the New School for Drama in NYC, a BA in Drama and Theatre from the UH Mānoa, and an AA in Hawaiian Studies from Windward Community College. SH Kukana has taught at New York University, with the NYC Kids Project, the 52nd Street Project in NYC Hellʻs Kitchen, Mānoa Valley Theatre, UH Mānoa Kennedy Theatre, Mid-Pacific Institute, at the Kapolei Detention Center and facilitated a workshop at Kuhio Park Towers in Kalihi. She founded and became the Artistic Director of the Hawai`i Public Theatre in 2020.
 
Each month Kumu Kahua Theatre co-sponsors this playwriting contest with Bamboo Ridge Press in their combined effort to nurture local playwrights and authors. The monthly Judges are theatre practitioners from the Hawaii theatre community. All plays submitted are read by Kumu Kahua Theatre Artistic Director, Harry Wong III.
 
Kumu Kahua Theatre is now accepting entries for the October 2022 Go Try PlayWrite Contest. The prompt for the month of September is: A Thanksgiving situation. Write a scene, 10 pages maximum, about a fight over food that masks strongly held political differences. For example, here in Hawai'i, one person brings Zippy's Chili with meat and another brings Zippy's Chili without meat, and the ensuing argument masks a fight over whether or not the Honolulu Rail is a good thing.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT
 
Contest Rules: Each entrant must write a 5-page monologue and/or a 10-page scene based on monthly requirements. Each month a new prompt will be chosen by Kumu Kahua Theatre's Artistic Director. The prompt will be given on or by the 1st of the month and the due date will always be the last day of the month.  All entries must be written in traditional play format; instructions on this format can be found here: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/script-formats courtesy of the Dramatists Guild.
 
There will be one winner each month. Scripts will be submitted to the judges anonymously. Winners will receive $100.00 and a subscription to Bamboo Ridge Press.
 Look for further future projects using scripts submitted for this contest - coming soon!
 

Kumu Kahua productions are supported in part by the NME Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Island Insurance Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan of 2021, McInerny Foundation (Bank of Hawaii, Trustee); The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawaiʻi, The AAPI Community Fund, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaiian Electric Company, Alexander & Baldwin, The John R Halligan Charitable Fund, Spectrum/Charter Communications, Vacations Hawaiʻi, ABC Stores, the Gloria Kosasa Gainsley Fund, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, The Kim Coco Fund for Justice of the Iwamoto Family Foundation, Edric Sakamoto, Ron and Rachel Heller, and other foundations, businesses, and loyal patrons.

 

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