Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press Announce The Winner of the January 2025 Go Try PlayWrite Contest
For Immediate Release 02.19.2025
Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press Announce
The Winner of the January 2025 Go Try PlayWrite Contest
Where: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant Street, Honolulu
Contact: Sara Ward, officemanager@kumukahua.org, 536-4441
HONOLULU HI – The January Go Try PlayWrite winner is Lee Tonouchi for his piece Chopsticks of Death
Lee A. Tonouchi a.k.a. "Da Pidgin Guerrilla" stay one Pidgin playwright. His plays Gone Feeshing, Living Pidgin, Da Kine Space, Echoes of dat Red Guitar, and UchinaAloha wuz produce by Kumu Kahua Theatre. Da Hawai‘i Conservatory of Performing Arts did his play Oriental Faddah and Son. Da Honolulu Theatre for Youth wen go do his children's play Three Year Swim Club. An'den da East West Players did da adult version which wuz one Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice Selection.
Each month Kumu Kahua Theatre co-sponsors this playwriting contest with Bamboo Ridge Press in their combined effort to nurture local playwrights and authors. Each month a different judge is pulled from amongst the theatre practitioners in the Hawaii theatre community. All plays submitted are read by Kumu Kahua Theatre Artistic Director, Harry Wong III.
January 2025 prompt.
A chopstick prompt. Write a ten page maximum scene about someone learning how to use chopsticks to eat. The scene should end with either success or failure. Have fun with this one.
Contest Rules: Each entrant must write a 5-page monologue and/or a 10-page scene based on monthly requirements. Each month a new prompt will be chosen by Kumu Kahua Theatre’s Artistic Director. The prompt will be given on or by the 1st of the month and the due date will always be the last day of the month. All entries must be written in traditional play format; instructions on this format can be found here: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/script-formats courtesy of the Dramatists Guild.
There will be one winner each month. Scripts will be submitted to the judges anonymously. So please do not put your name on the cover of your script. Winners will receive $100.00 and a subscription to Bamboo Ridge Press.
We are now accepting entries for the February Go Try PlayWrite Contest!
February 2025 prompt:
A hell of a prompt. Write a ten page maximum scene or an eight page maximum monologue where you send someone to hell. This is as open as can be; all that matters is that someone did something or a number of things that receives eternal punishment. Writers, consider this prompt primal scream therapy.
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, Ron and Rachel Heller, Leonard and Charlotte Chow, and other foundations, businesses, and loyal patrons.