One-on-One Dialogues with Artists

Kumu Kahua Theatre Managing Director Donna Blanchard interviews local Hawai‘i performers and creatives about their artistic process and approach to navigating the airwaves, stage, or screen.

This is a 2020 reboot of the popular interview series which ran weekly on the ThinkTech network and monthly on ‘Ōlelo. To learn more, visit Kumu Kahua Theatre on YouTube.

 
 

Tony pisculli

In this episode of Backstage, host Donna Blanchard interviews director, combat choreographer, and writer Daniel A. Kelin II, who is the co-founder and producer of the Hawai'i Shakespeare Festival, as well as a Master Teacher with Dueling Arts International and Hawai'i’s premiere fight choreographer.

Tony has been teaching stage combat and directing fights for more than 20 years and has choreographed over 100 productions including stage, indie film, opera, and burlesque. He is currently living in Hawai‘i, is a recent graduate of the Stonecoast Creative Writing program, and the author of a novel now out on submission.

Daniel A. Kelin II

In this episode of Backstage, host Donna Blanchard interviews playwright, actor, director, and educator Daniel A. Kelin II, who has served as the Honolulu Theatre for Youth's Director of Drama Education since 1987. A 2009 Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Scholar in Education in India, Daniel is on the Teaching Artist roster of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and has been affiliated with theatres, schools and youth organizations in American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Pohnpei, Guam, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

A practicing artist, Daniel has directed, acted in and written plays performed in Asia, the Pacific and across the US. Several of his plays have garnered national awards.

 

HARRY WONG III

In this episode of Backstage, host Donna Blanchard interviews Kumu Kahua Theatre Artistic Director Harry Wong III about his approach to a script.

 

JIM MURPHY & STEPHANIE CONCHING

In this episode of Backstage, host Donna Blanchard interviews theatre veterans Stephanie Conching and Jim Murphy about the vast and vital world of stage management.