KUMU KAHUA THEATRE

Current and upcoming play schedule.
For more information about the theatre, visit the Kumu Kahua website.

Photos by Firebird Photography

Dates:
January 14-17, 21-24, 28-31 2010
February 4-6, 11-14 2010

American Sign Language Performance Available Upon Request
Please contact Kumu Kahua at Box Office Phone: (808) 536-4441 Email:
kumukahuatheatre@hawaiiantel.net

House Lights & Prolonged Sunlight by Eric Yokomori

In a one-act play (House Lights) and six short plays under one title, (Prolonged Sunlight), playwright Yokomori explores the human condition via dramatic surrealism and theater of the absurd. Intense aberrant behavior is the norm as characters confront one another in strange situations. In one of the short plays, Joey tells Crystal that he possesses a magic rock into which he has placed all of his love, and no one can take it away from him. Crystal finds her own rock, and the battle begins. In another, an author attempts to convince a children's book publisher to buy his x-rated manuscript. In another, a bizarre cocaine deal goes bad. In House Lights, Saul Peacock, an actor whose credits are merely those of a perennial extra ("It's the hardest role to play, really. You never draw attention to yourself."), is invited to dinner at the dysfunctional Roget household and gives them all a lesson in the difference between illusion and reality.

THIS SHOW CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE
AND ADULT SITUATIONS

Dates:
March 18-21, 25-28 2010
April 1-3, 8-11, 15-18 2010

American Sign Language Interpretation Performance Available Upon Request
Please contact Kumu Kahua at Box Office Phone: (808) 536-4441 Email:
kumukahuatheatre@hawaiiantel.net

Maui the Demigod
adapted by Gary L. Balfantz with oli & hula created by Kahoa Malalis

A narrative theatre adaptation of Steven Goldsberry's Maui the Demigod: An Epic Novel of Mythical Hawai`i, Balfantz's play was first produced by Kumu Kahua in 1991 and toured the islands in 1992. The play incorporates hula, chant and storytelling in bringing the many myths of Maui to the stage - including his miraculous birth, prank-filled childhood, and heroic deeds of manhood such as slowing down the pace of the sun and pulling an island from the depths of the sea. Characters in the play include Maui's older brothers Loke, Waena and Ki`i, his mother Hina, god of the ocean Kanaloa and the sun La. Many versions exist of the same stories because, as the Kupuna says, "Maui was a great man. There were many who said he did things that he did not do. Many liars whom we cannot blame for their wonderful lies."

Dates:
May 21-23, 27-30 2010
June 3-6, 10-13, 17-20 2010

American Sign Language Interpretation Performance Available Upon Request
Please contact Kumu Kahua at Box Office Phone: (808) 536-4441 Email:
kumukahuatheatre@hawaiiantel.net

The Hilo Massacre
by Tremayne Tamayose for the Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawai'i (now at West O'ahu)
for broadcast as part of the Center's Rice & Rose series on Hawai'i Public Television

Tamayose for the Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawai'i (now at West O'ahu) for broadcast as part of the Center's Rice & Roses series on Hawaii Public Televsion. On August 1, 1938, to express their solidarity with striking workers in Honolulu, more than 200 Big Island men and women belonging to different labor unions (including longshoremen, warehousemen, teamsters, garbage collectors, quarry workers and the ladies auxiliary) attempted peacefully to demonstrate against the arrival of a ship from Oahu. They were met by a force of over 70 police officers who tear-gassed, hosed and fired riot guns into the crowd. Fifty of the demonstrators were hospitalized. Based in part on research from labor historian William J. Puette's book The Hilo Massacre: Hawaii's Bloody Monday, Tremaine Tamayose's teleplay, originally produced for the PBS labor history series Rice and Roses, infuses historical events with personal stories of the workers, police and politicians. It is brought to the theatrical stage for the first time by Kumu Kahua Theatre.