Kumu Kahua Theatre Invites Audiences To Experience Six New Season Plays With One Special Subscription - In Time For The Holiday Season!

Taking in world class productions of plays by, for, and about people in Hawai‘i just became even more seamless with Kumu Kahua Theatre's special Season Subscribers offer. Furthering its commitment to making theatre accessible, Kumu Kahua invites audiences to take advantage of significant savings while experiencing six upcoming plays in the theatre's 53rd Season slate, offering three new and diverse works and the return of a powerful trilogy. For the first time, the trilogy will be available to see in its entirety back-to-back for a fully immersive event, or guests can opt to spread out their shows across separate evenings. Perfect for enjoying and sharing the gift of theatre, the six-play package is available to purchase for only $75, now through December 3, 2023.

 

The Kumu Kahua Theatre Season Subscriber offer coincides with the premiere of the first of the theatre's upcoming plays—Haoleland, by Anthony Michael Oliver. On stage at the historic downtown Honolulu theatre starting tomorrow, November 2, through December 3,  the play follows a wealthy Native Hawaiian developer who proposes creating a theme park exploring the influences of Caucasians in Hawaiʻi. When the multi-ethnic Board of Commissioners debates the ramifications of such a proposal, its members are forced to confront a complicated island history. Oliver is the author of twenty-one plays, two of which have won the University of Hawai‘i Drama Department/Kumu Kahua Theatre playwriting contest's prestigious Hawai‘i Prize.

After the run of thought-provoking Haoleland, the 53rd Season continues with more from Hawaii's vibrant playwriting scene. Historical drama, family dynamics, and fanciful worlds are all explored in the lineup:

 

Kicking off the new year, Aitu Fafine by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl runs 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 in this play set to a backdrop of dreams, literary musings and ghost stories. Several of Kneubuhl's plays have been produced by Kumu Kahua, including The Conversion of Kaʻahumanu and The Holiday of Rain (which was specially commissioned by the theatre). Kneubuhl has been 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 takes the stage March 28 - April 28, 2024. The play follows Connie, who with the help of her imaginary dragon friend, navigates the twists and turns of young love, her parents' perplexing relationship, a tangled extended family, and profound loss. A multi-ethnic artist from Honolulu, Choo's short script Co-Habi-fʻn-Station was featured in Kumu Kahua's directing challenge “The Work” following its entry into the theatre's Go Try PlayWrite contest.

 

The 53rd Season concludes with three complete productions in The Kāmau Trilogy. Written by Hawaiian playwright, sculptor and actor Alani Apio,  Kāmau, Kāmau Aʻe  and Ua Pau, bring audiences on a moving family journey that explores the concepts of aloha and kuleana. These three distinct, yet intimately connected plays, can be experienced across separate evenings, or back-to-back on Sundays (June 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 2024). 

 

The first play in the trilogy, Kāmau (May 30, June 6, 13, 20, 27, 2024), introduces audiences to three cousins 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. Kāmau Aʻe (May 31, June 7, 14, 21, 28, 2024) then picks up ten years later, when Michael—now a member of a sovereignty group that has embraced his quest to retake his ancestral homestead—is released from prison and returns to occupy the beach that he was evicted from. Alika is now the resort's manager, offering cultural tours and providing hundreds of jobs for Native Hawaiians. The cousins' worldviews again collide as larger forces vie for control of the place that was once their home.

 

The Kāmau trilogy concludes with the compelling Ua Pau (June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 2024).  Past and present collide as Stevie returns home from college and uncovers hidden truths about her family. Devastated, she begins to 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.

 

Patrons are encouraged to become a Kumu Kahua Theatre Season Subscriber now to experience all six plays and seven months of incredible theatre, with evening and matinee show times available. While the limited-time subscriber package price of $75 offers big savings for theatregoers, it simultaneously provides invaluable support for the ongoing work of the nonprofit theatre. Please visit www.kumukahua.org or contact the theatre box office at (808) 536-4441 to subscribe and learn more.   

Kumu Kahua productions are supported in part by the NME Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Island Insurance Foundation, The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawaiʻi, The AAPI Community Fund, The Richard Aadland Fund, The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Spectrum/Charter Communications, ABC Stores, the Gloria Kosasa Gainsley Fund, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, H. Hawaii Media, Simply Storage, The Kim Coco Fund for Justice of the Iwamoto Family Foundation, Vacations Hawaiʻi, Zippy's Restaurants, Highway Inn, Generations Magazine, CVS/Longs Drugs, HMSA, Hawaiian Electric, MonkeyPod, Edric Sakamoto, Ron and Rachel Heller, Leonard and Charlotte Chow, and other foundations, businesses, and loyal patrons.

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