Plenary Speakers: 9:00am -10:30am
Emilya Cachapero
Lucy Burns
Leslie Ishii
Break Out Sessions: 10:30am - 12:00pm
Mainstage: Kānaka Maoli, facilitated by Jackie Pualani Johnson
LAB Theater: Local Asian American, facilitated by Ova Saopeng
Room 101: Asian American Diaspora, facilitated by Leslie Ishii
Studio: Pacific Islander, facilitated by Misa Tupou
Men’s Dressing Room: Allies and Supporters, facilitated by Eric Johnson
Upper Lanai: Open Space
Lobby: Open Space
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS & FACILITATORS
Emilya Cachapero (she/her/siya) is the director of Theatre Communications Group’s Grantmaking Programs, has been active in the global arts community for more than 40 years and oversees TCG’s grant programs, professional development programs, international programs and selected special projects. For 11 years she was a member of the Executive Board and Council of International Theatre Institute (ITI) Worldwide and was a US National Commissioner to UNESCO from 2002 – 2008. Ms. Cachapero has facilitated workshops and trainings for groups that include the Norwegian Consulate, Grantmakers in the Arts, Chorus America, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, the Weissberg Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. She was instrumental in creating the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and was its founding producer for the first two years of the program. Ms. Cachapero is a published poet who received her Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University and an honorary M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theater. She is an alumna of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute and artEquity National Facilitator Training.
Lucy Burns is a dramaturg, and also an associate professor in the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA.
Leslie Ishii, Artistic Director, Perseverance Theatre (PT), has directed nationally at
PT, Pangea World Theatre, East West Players; Artists At Play; UC, Irvine; USC;
CSLA; Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF): API 2x2 Lab New Works Residency,
Founder/Co-Producer, Dramaturgy, FAIR Assistant Director Program Recipient
and co- facilitation of OSF’s E/D/I/A Initiative with artEquity; Native Voices
Theatre: Dramaturgy and where she began, Northwest Asian American Theatre.
(Actor) PT and Penumbra/Theatre Mu Co-Production; El Teatro Campesino;
Southcoast Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Northwest Asian
American Theatre; Broadway, and more regional theatre and Film/Tv credits upon
request.
(National) Professional Non-Profit Theatre Coalition: Website/Coalition
Subcommittee Co-Chair, advocating for Federal Relief support; Consortium of
Asian American Theatres & Artists: Board President and CAATA hosts the National
BIPOC Theatre Networks Coalition/Commons for the sustainability of artists and
theatres of color (Founder); National New Play Network: Board Member, Strategic
Planning Co-Chair; artEquity, original core faculty of anti-racism/anti-bias/JEDIA
training for the transformation of US arts and culture organizations.
(Affiliations & Awards) United States Artist Fellow, 2022; SDCF Zelda Fichandler
Directors Award Finalist, 2021; New England Foundation for the Arts: Theatre
Capacity Building Grant and Grant Panelist; Los Angeles Women’s Theatre
Integrity Award; NEA Grant Panelist; National Theatre Conference: PT
membership; Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Union E/D/I Standout
Moments, 2016, 2017; Founder/Director, National BIPOC Theatre
Coalition/Commons, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation National Theatre Grant
Recipient; James P. Shannon Leadership Institute; Los Angeles County Teachers
Making A Difference Award; Union membership: SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA
Jackie Pualani Johnson, Professor Emerita, was born and raised in Hilo, Hawai’i, and earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Theatre from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she toured with the Colorado Caravan in the 1970s. In 1978, she founded the Hilo Community Players’ Shakespeare in the Park, celebrating 47 years in Kalākaua Park in 2024, and Kid Shakes, the accompanying family offering. She retired from the Performing Arts Department at the University of Hawai`i at Hilo in 2017, after 38 years as a drama professor and department chair, where she directed musicals, classics, and contemporary Western and Ethnic theatre. Her recent writing, directing, and performance projects have focused on the living history of Hawaiian aliʻi during the monarchy period and the immigration cultures that sought a better life in Hawaiʻi. These projects help illuminate her mixed heritage of Hawaiian, Portuguese, Norwegian, German, and Chinese. She remains active in retirement, adapting children’s books into a musical, writing another about early union history, and working with Native Hawaiian youth in performing arts programs. A wise saying from the Hawaiian perspective guides her career:‘Aʻohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau hoʻokahi. One can learn from many sources.
Ova Saopeng is co-artistic director, producer and theater maker with Los Angeles based TeAda Productions. Born in Savannakhet, Laos, and raised in Hawaii he received a B.A. in Theater from University of Southern California. He is a Lao’d and Proud refugee artist passionate about elevating the refugee and immigrant experience onto the American stage. With his partner, Leilani Chan, Founding Artistic Director of TeAda Productions, the creative duo have collaborated and created Refugee Nation, Global Taxi Driver, Masters of the Currents and Nothing Micro About Micronesia, these devised ensemble based plays provide perspectives from global refugee and immigrant communities. He is an experienced teaching artist, facilitating workshops and creating performances with youth and adults from all over the world. He has toured colleges, universities, and primary schools promoting equity, diversity and inclusion empowering audiences through the power of the theater arts. Film credits include Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean:World’s End, Go to Sleep: A Lao Ghost Story, Burmese Refugee, WarSol, Believe. More info at www.teada.org or follow him on IG: og_ova
Misa Tupou is a graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School. In theatre, he adapted the poem Ola’s Son by Lisa Kanaʻe into a devised theatre show that toured Hawaiʻi and Aotearoa New Zealand. His short play Intrusion explored the gold mining world of a Chinese gold miner. As a mask physical theatre practitioner he collaborated with Monkey Waterfall on a theatre and filmmaking piece. With filmmaking, he wrote and directed One Night, Not I and most recently My Brother. In education, he taught Creative Drama at UH Mānoa and Beginning Acting at Kapiʻolani Community College and Leeward Community College. He has guest lectured at UH on the topic, Pacific Islanders in Theatre and Film in Aotearoa New Zealand. For the Department of Education he taught a mask performance component for their Art Mobile program. He has worked with T-Shirt Theatre as an acting teacher and most recently taught company actors of TeAda Productions. Misa co-founded and directed the Oʻahu Fringe Festival and was a co-founder of the Aotearoa New Zealand Film Festival. He has acted on various theatre and film productions in New Zealand and Hawaiʻi.
Eric Johnson is the Artistic Director of Honolulu Theatre for Youth, where he is honored to lead an ensemble of professional theatrical artists creating new work celebrating the diverse cultures and dynamic stories of Hawaiʻi. His work has toured nationally and internationally winning numerous awards and recognition, ranging from a Helen Hayes Award for Anime Momotaro to a Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and three Emmy Awards for HTY’s television show, The HIWay.
As a freelance director Johnson’s credits include La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Center Theatre Group, Childsplay, Imagination Stage and the Kennedy Center New Visions/New Voices Festival. He is a proud alumnus of the TCG/NEA Early Career Directors Program and the Princess Grace Fellowship.