32nd Season of Plays for and about Hawai`i.

This season Kumu Kahua Theater presents six Hawai`i plays: three Kumu classics and three new productions. With this one special season, our commitment to producing plays for and about Hawai`i continues. Below are descriptions of each play along with scheduled performance dates.

Wally Fukuda lives in the Liliha district of Honolulu. He's a recently retired baker still recovering from his wife's death. His friend Harry visiting from Las Vegas, tries to persuade him to sell his house, make the move, and enjoy a new life. In spite of his love for Hawai'i's fresh air and beaches, Wally warms to the idea. But, when he seeks approval from his married son and unmarried daughter, he's faced with opposition. The ensuing debate over the move embodied in the dynamics of a contemporary local family, makes for great comedy-spiced with a strong dose of thought-provoking realism. This play broke Kumu Kahua box office records when originally staged in 1992, repeatedly selling out the 300-seat Tenney Theatre.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8pm: August 29, 30, 31; September 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28
Sunday 2pm: September 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

Read the Reviews: Honolulu Advertiser & Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

The Conversion of Ka`ahumanu
by Victoria Nalan Kneubuhl

The most powerful political figure to emerge
in Hawai'i after the death in 1819 of Kamehameha the Great was his wife, Ka'ahumanu. She persuaded the new king Liholiho to abolish the kapu and forbid worship of the gods. A few years later, after an almost fatal illness, she converted to Christianity and encouraged her people to follow her example. Kneubuhl explores the circumstances surrounding Ka'ahumanu's decision to adopt the new religion and focuses on a growing intimacy between very different women-the imperious queen, and the mission-ary wives Sybil Bingham and Lucy Thurston. Produced in Hawai'i and taken on tour by Kumu Kahua to American Samoa, Edinburgh, Washington, DC and Los Angeles, it is included in an anthology of Kneubuhl's plays, published by University of Hawai'i Press.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8pm: November 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30; December 5, 6, 7
Sunday 2pm: November 10, 17, 24; December 1, 8

Read the Reviews: Honolulu Advertiser & Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Christmas Talk Story
by a variety of local writers

Fun for the whole family and filled with Christmas memories, original songs and holiday standards, Christmas Talk Story will take you on a "small-kid-time" journey through Christmas time in Hawai'i. A co-production with Honolulu Theatre for Youth.

Friday 8pm and Saturday 2pm & 8pm: November 30; December 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21

A Little Bit Like You
by Darrell H.Y. Lum

In a comic ghost story that could only happen in Hawai'i, a Japanese-Chinese family deals with the realities of being "hapa" (of mixed blood) through four generations in the islands. Keiko "Kay" Chang has begun hearing and seeing her late great-grandmother, in the company of an old manapua vendor. When Kay's grandfather has a stroke and ends up in the hospital in a coma, she is privileged to gain further insights through his moving and speaking spirit. Lum, whose plays have often been produced by Kumu Kahua, has a talent for dealing with serious issues in a warm, lighthearted manner. A Little Bit Like You was a big hit when originally co-produced in 1991 by Kumu Kahua and Honolulu Theater for Youth, and also when revived by KKT in 1993 for an interisland tour.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8pm: January 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31; February 1, 6, 7, 8
Sunday 2pm: January 12, 19; February 2, 9

Heads By Harry
Adapted from the Lois-Ann Yamanaka novel by John Wat and Keith Kashiwada

Hawai'i's most fearless writer tells the story of the Yaguu family, who run a taxidermy shop in Hilo. 'I'oni, the middle child, is at odds with many family members and neighbors: with her budding diva of a little sister, with a flamboyant older brother who wants to be a hairdresser, with a stubborn father who refuses to accept her into the family business, and with the Santos brothers, two pig-hunting ex-high-school football players who don't know what to think of her. A compassionate and harshly hilarious tale from the team that adapted for the Kumu Kahua Stage also Yamanaka's Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers; Gary Pak's Watcher of Waipuna and A Ricepaper Airplane; and Nora Okja Keller's Comfort Woman.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8pm: March 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29; April 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12;
Sunday 2pm: March 16, 23, 30; April 6, 13

King Kalakaua's Poker Game
by Alan Sutterfield

King Kalakaua loves to play poker. So does Edwin Booth, a visiting American actor. In the Royal Boathouse, the King's favorite poker room, they are joined by a handsome young advisor to the king, a young ali'i woman from Kaua'i disguised as a man, a German count, an Italian courtier, Hawai'i's first Chinese picture bride, and Queen Julia Kapi'olani. The ensuing action involves high-stakes gambling, deception, two romances, international intrigue, a duel with pistols, and lots of laughs. Playwright Sutterfield adopts the stylistic conventions of English drawing-room comedies and transposes them to 1882 Hawai'i, sprinkling his fictional tale with references to actual historical events. Winner of the 2000 Kumu Kahua Theatre/UHM Theatre Department Playwriting Contest, Hawai'i Division. Another of Sutterfield's plays, World War nIIhau, was produced by KKT in 1995.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8pm: May 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31; June 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14
Sunday 2pm: May 18, 25; June 1, 8, 15

Last Season (2001-2002)
Featured Five Plays Never Seen Before in Hawai`i.