Kumu Kahua Theatre Announces 42nd Season

Kumu Kahua Theatre, dedicated to producing works by Hawai‘i writers and about Hawai‘i's culture, announced their 42nd season at a press conference on Sunday, May 6th at 5:00 PM at their home on the corner Merchant and Bethel Streets.

On that day, a volunteer appreciation party took place at the theatre, and was punctuated with a season announcement press conference, giving the hard-working volunteers of Kumu Kahua Theatre front row seats for the much anticipated announcement. The volunteer party was an invitation-only event, but all members of the press and general public were invited to the press conference.

Managing Director, Donna Blanchard, began the press conference by welcoming and thanking the guests for being there to celebrate 42 years of the unique theatre Kumu Kahua brings to Hawai'i.

Artistic Director, Harry Wong III, then spoke briefly about the selection process of each play. He then read the title of each as Board President, Jason Kanda, read descriptions of each script. Donna Blanchard then showed the logos that have been created by artist, Ryan Higa, for each production.

Approximately 70 people were in attendance.

42nd Season
2012-2013

One Comedy of Erras
A World Premiere
By Taurie Kinoshita
Shakespeare’s rollicking farce, local-style
August 30-September 30, 2012
“Because you have da same blood, you tink you related. You tink dat’s wat makes you you?”
twin brothers, separated at birth — one raised on the Mainland, the other in Hawai‘i — accidentally cross paths in downtown Honolulu. As their friends mistake one for the other, the slapstick and insults fly, and chaos ensues. The result is a true comedy of errors, a Shakespearean romp told with a pidgin flair.
In the tradition of Twelf Nite o WATEVA! comes Taurie Kinoshita’s deft and dizzying farce about all the pilikia of local life.

Fishing for Wives
A World Premiere
By Edward Sakamoto
Comic confusion over a picture-bride mix-up
November 8 – December 9, 2012

“She comes here to marry a poor fisherman with no future. Something fishy here.”
It’s 1913 and two Big Island fishermen realize they have women problems. Lonely and bored with catching fish, Nishi sends for a picture bride from Japan, but sneaks a photo of his handsome friend Aoki in his place. The bride arrives and falls in love — with the wrong man — setting off a comic battle of the sexes.
Our most prolific playwright and the author of It’s All Relative and Aloha Las Vegas, Edward Sakamoto finds laughter and warmth in this loving portrait of historic Hawai‘i.
A Cage of Fireflies
A World Premiere
By Daniel Akiyama
A piercing kitchen-sink drama
January 24 – February 24, 2013

“When I was little I used to think to myself, ‘That's what the human heart looks like.’”

Three elderly sisters of the kibei generation — sent as children to be raised in Okinawa, then returned to live and work in Hawai‘i — are at the heart of Daniel Akiyama’s new play.
Two of the sisters confine themselves to their small Honolulu apartment, enacting the rituals of daily life as they cling to a dream of returning to Okinawa. The third, charged with running the family’s orchid nursery, has inherited a title that is not hers. As long-hidden hopes and regrets surface, the sisters discover what is both selfish and selfless in their love for each other.
All That Remains
A World Premiere
By Mona Z. Smith
A ghostly World War II epic
March 28 – April 28, 2013

“We are at the very beginning of our warrior play, our military drama, our soldier’s story: the lies, the hatred, the betrayal.”
In this sweeping epic of World War II, the ghosts of 442nd and 100th Battalion soldiers return. Telling a story of loyalty and betrayal, courage and cowardice, they re-create an act of violence that torments both the living and the dead.
Using an experimental style drawing from Japanese Noh theatre, Mona Z. Smith’s All That Remains offers a challenging, controversial look at the heroism and despair of war.
Sound and Beauty
Two One-Act Plays
By David Henry Hwang

Two haunting dramas about dark attractions
July 18 – August 4, 2013

“This house — my loneliness is etched into its walls.”

The dark corners of human attraction are explored in David Henry Hwang’s Sound and Beauty, two one-act plays performed together in a full evening of theatre. In “The Sound of a Voice,” a samurai encounters a mysterious woman in a lonely cottage, and begins to suspect her powers are not of this world. In “The House of Sleeping Beauties,” a modern-day writer seeks out an exclusive brothel where the girls all share a haunting trait.