Afternoon Plenary: 1:00pm - 1:30pm
How can Asian American Theaters Be Better Supporters of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander artists?
How can local theaters develop a larger artistic pool (actors, playwrights, directors)?
Break Out Sessions: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Mainstage: Playwrights & Dramaturgs, facilitated by Victoria Nālani Kneubuhl
LAB Theater: Actors, facilitated by Joshua “Baba” Kamoani‘ala Tavares
Room 101: Directors, facilitated by Harry Wong III
Studio: Theater Management (Managing Directors, Producers, Admin), facilitated by Meena Natarajan
Men’s Dressing Room: Designers, facilitated by Christopher Patrinos
Upper Lanai: Open Space
Lobby: Open Space
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Victoria Nālani Kneubuhl is a Hawaiʻi playwright and author of Hawaiian, Samoan and Caucasian ancestry. She holds a master’s degree in drama and theatre from the University of Hawai`i. Her many plays have been performed in Hawai`i and the continental United States and have toured to Britain, Asia, and the Pacific. An anthology of some of her work, Hawai`i Nei: Island Plays, is available from the University of Hawai`i Press, and a second volume of plays, Navigating Islands, is in production at the press. In addition, she has written numerous living history performance programs for historic sites and community organizations, the most notable being January 1893, performed over a three-day period in 1993 at the ceremonies observing the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Her mystery novels Murder Casts a Shadow, Murder Leaves Its Mark, and Murder Frames the Scene were also published by UH Press. She is the writer and co-producer for the television series Biography Hawaii. Biography Hawaiʻi has produced six documentaries that have aired on PBS Hawaiʻi. In 1994, she was the recipient of the prestigious Hawai`i Award for Literature and in 2006 she received the Eliot Cades Award for Literature.
Joshua "Baba" Kamoaniʻala Tavares hails from Hōnaunau, Kona on Hawaiʻi Island. He is the playwright, composer and director of Glitter in the Paʻakai. He is incredibly grateful for this opportunity to bring this moʻolelo to life with this remarkably talented ʻohana. Mahalo e nā kūpuna, e ke akua, e nā kumu, nā hoa, kuʻu ʻohana, a me ka poʻe lehulehu i ke kākoʻo piha ʻana mai i kēia hana keaka hou loa. An MFA candidate in Acting and Hana Keaka, he is expected to graduate in May 2024 and looks forward to continuing to build pilina in our community, training institutions and professional performing arts industry. Let's continue to amplify and uplift the voices of our lāhui through storytelling. Ola!
A Kumu Kahua Board member from 1989 to 1997, Harry Wong III received an Associate of Arts Degree from Honolulu Community College in 1987, a Baccalaureate in Philosophy from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1990, and in 1993 went on to receive a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Direction from UH Mānoa. Harry has been the Artistic Director of Kumu Kahua since 1997.
While a guest lecturer at Windward Community College and Guest Director for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and The Actors Group (TAG), Harry oversees all season selection and direction of productions, as well as the annual playwright contest, and also directs at least one production each year at Kumu Kahua.
Additional achievements include: a Po‘okela for Play Directing for Topdog/Underdog, 2010; Outstanding Alumni Award, Honolulu Community College, 2010; Hawai’i Shakespeare Festival, Co-founder and Director; an Individual Artist Fellow Grant for Theatre Directing, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, 1999; a Princess Grace Award for Directing, 1996; Participant in the Young Director’s Lab at Lincoln Center Theatre, New York, 1996; Allen Lee Hughes Fellow, Arena Stage, Washington, DC, 1995-1996; and a Masako Sakamoto Scholarship for Acting, Kennedy Theatre, UHM.
Meena Natarajan is a playwright and director and the Co-Artistic and Executive Director of Pangea World Theater, a progressive, international ensemble space that creates at the intersection of art, equity and social justice. Meena has co-curated and designed many of Pangea World Theater’s professional and community-based programs. She is currently on the boards of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, National Performance Network, The Loft Literary Center and Longfellow Rising and is the Radical Equity Catalyst in the national cabinet of the USDAC (people-powered U.S. Department of Arts and Culture). She has written at least ten full-length works for Pangea, ranging from adaptations of poetry and mythology to original works dealing with war, migration and colonization. Her play, Etchings in the Sand co-created with dancer Ananya Chattterjea has been published by Routledge in a volume called Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: The Second Edition. Meena leads ensemble-based processes in Pangea that lead to works produced for the stage and site specific performances. She has also directed and dramaturged several original theater and performance art pieces.
Christopher George Kekoa Patrinos is an Assistant Professor of Lighting at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Theatre and Dance. Prior to joining the University of Hawaiʻi Christopher served as an Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Chaminade University of Honolulu and Theatre Technical Director at Punahou School. In addition, Christopher served as Theatre Manager at the Leeward Theatre; Technical Director at the Richard T Mamiya Theatre; Director of Audio Visual at the Hawaii Convention Center; and Production Manager at the Hawaiʻi Theatre Center. Christopher has an MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Historical Studies from Chaminade University of Honolulu. He would not be where he is today without the support of his family. When Christopher is not in the theatre he is a proud volleyball dad and a staunch supporter of UH Athletics. Go Bows!