WILD MEAT AND THE BULLY BURGERS

OUR PRODUCTIONS ARE SPONSORED IN PART BY THE FOLLOWING:

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 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, Hawaiian Electric, Edric Sakamoto, Ron and Rachel Heller, Leonard and Charlotte Chow, and other foundations, businesses, and loyal patrons.

LOIS-ANN YAMANAKA,
PLAYWRIGHT

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Lois-Ann Yamanaka is the author of the poetry collection Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre; the fiction trilogy Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, Blu's Hanging, and Heads by Harry; as well as a young adult novel, Name Me Nobody. Her works of fiction include, Father of the Four Passages and Behold the Many, as well as the children's books The Heart's Language and Snow Angel, Sand Angel. She has won a Lannan Literary Award, an Asian American Literary Award, and an American Book Award. She lives in Honolulu.

PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTES

Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers began as a series of prose poems back in the Bamboo Ridge Press days of quarterly submissions. Therein, editors in NYC read my work and began to reach out to me. I owe everything to the integrity of small presses like Bamboo Ridge who featured our voices. Small presses that have survived decades remain essential and relevant for revealing the literatures of marginalized peoples. And Kumu Kahua---show us the possibilities of the stage. Me ke aloha a me ka mahalo.

Lois-Ann Yamanaka

JOHN WAT,
DIRECTOR

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

John H.Y. Wat is a local actor, director, writer, dancer and educator. He taught Theatre, Speech and English at the Mid-Pacific School of the Arts for almost three decades and more recently, English at Kamehameha Schools, Kapalama. He has acted for film and television and in productions for Kumu Kahua Theatre, Diamond Head Theatre, the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, the Hawaii State Libraries, the Hawaii Mission Houses Museum, the University of North Carolina, Northwestern University and the University of Hawaii. He received a Hawaii State Theatre Council Po`okela Award as part of the ensemble of the Kumu Kahua production of Koi Like the Fish. He has directed more than thirty-five theatre productions, including seventeen world premieres, in Hawaii, Chapel Hill, Seattle and Chicago, and at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. He danced with Dances We Dance in productions of José Limón’s Missa Brevis and Fritz Ludin’s Fish in the Garden, and for twenty seasons appeared as Drosselmeyer in the Hawaii State Ballet production of The Nutcracker. He co-edited He Leo Hou: A New Voice, a collection of plays by Native Hawaiian playwrights published by Bamboo Ridge Press and recently wrote the introduction to Lee Cataluna’s new collection, Flowers of Hawaii and Other Plays. He holds an M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed coursework for the Doctorate in Performance Studies at Northwestern University. He has been the president of the boards of directors of the Hawaii Literary Arts Council, Bamboo Ridge Press and Kumu Kahua Theatre. He continues to serve on the board of Kumu Kahua and has also served on the board of the Hawaii State Theatre Council.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

When we first staged this adaptation of Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, most of our cast could remember the time, the setting and all the cultural artifacts of the period. This time through, so much has changed in the world and for many of the cast, this work has been a history lesson.

In 1997, the novel was newly published and it was in many respects revolutionary. It was written in a new form, the novel in stories; it pulled no punches in its language and themes; it was set in a small town in the middle of the Pacific; and at its center was the coming-of-age story of a young local teenage girl. It was also relatively new for Kumu Kahua to present narrative theatre adaptations of short stories and novels as we had just recently produced the adaptation of Gary Pak’s The Watcher of Waipuna.

A note on the theatrical form: I began my life as a director studying Chamber Theatre, a form invented by Robert Breen at Northwestern University, which provides for the exploration of the narrative voice of novels and stories in performance. Instead of using a voice over as is sometimes done for film, Chamber Theatre places that narrative impulse in the body and voice of an actor or actors on the stage. In our production, it will be obvious that “L” embodies and personifies the internal, narrative, and reflective dimensions of the central character, “Lovey.”

And while narrative adaptations were relatively new to our theatre, that is not to say that narrative forms of theatre were a new genre. After all, the earliest classical Greek theatre involved a chorus singing the story and centuries later Shakespeare also included a narrator called Chorus in some of his plays. More recently on Broadway and off, audiences have seen narrative theatre adaptations of books such as Peter and the Starcatcher and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

In general, it is usually impossible to bring all of a novel to the stage in a two-hour production. We were forced to choose which stories to include and what ideas to explore. One of the major themes of our production is the attraction to, fascination with, and aspirations for other “mainstream” popular cultures especially as they are propagated and promoted in American media. And today in the age of global media these other cultures are often in deep tension with the authentic, local, and lived experiences of ourselves, our families, our friends, and our neighbors. Hopefully, what we have chosen does justice to the novel’s riveting portrayal of raw humanity, the emotional gamut of laughter and tears and everything in between.

Once again it has been a great privilege and responsibility to bring Lois-Ann’s words to the stage. And we hope that if we, as Lovey says, let them “rip right out the lips, [those] words will always come out like home.”

Elexis Draine was last seen at KKT in Aloha Las Vegas as Gracie. She appeared in Romeo and Juliet (HSF),  Blue, One Comedy of Eras, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theater, Kamau Aʻe, and Cane Fields Burning. Elexis was the Assistant Director for Kumuʻs, Who You Again? By Ryan “Oki” Naka.

Ron Encarnacion has the distinction of being the actor who has performed in the most KKT plays. His recent KKT credits include Blue, Who You Again?, Comedy of Erras, Daʻ Beer Can Hat and Ala Wai. He has also been seen in Quiptease (HPU), Twelfnite o Wateva (HMH), and Magnum PI (TV credit CBS).

Kaliko Fase is making his stage debut. He graduated from Roosevelt High School. His television credits include Hawaii 5-0, Magnum P.I. and Doogie Kemealoha, M.D.

Randall Galius Jr. is returning to the stage after a five year hiatus. He was last seen at KKT in Pakalolo Sweet by Hannah Ii-Epstein. His KKT credits include Dead of Night, and My Name is Gary Cooper for which he received a Poʻokela for Featured Male in a Play. He received a Poʻokela for Leading Male in a Play for his performance in Boy at TAG. Film credits include Ala Moana Boys, Water Like Fire and Stoke.

Brandon Hagio was last seen at KKT as Grayson in Gone Feeshing by Lee T. Tonouchi. His credits include Lucky Come Hawaii (KKT), Taming of the Shrew (HSF), Blue (KKT), Oriental Faddah and Son (WCC), Hawai'i Nō Ka 'Oi: A Celebration of Ed Sakamoto (UHM), Sganarelle (HSF) The Underneath (WCC) as well as The Untitled TMT Project and Aloha Attire (KKT) He received Po‘okela Awards for Lead Actor in Da Beer Can Hat and Oriental Faddah and Son. Brandon has also assistant directed Rolling the R’s (KOA), Hedda Gabler (HSF), and Wild Birds (KKT). Currently, Brandon is the Emerging Island Educator for the Hawaii Conservatory of Performing Arts and a Lecturer of Theatre at both Windward and Leeward Community College.

Karen Kuioka Hironaga was last seen in Ryan “Oki” Naka's Who You Again? directed by her husband Denny Hironaga.  She has also been seen on stage at KKT in Uncleʻs Regularly Scheduled Garage Party is Cancelled!, Da Mayah, Half Dozen Long Stem, Tea, Mahalo Las Vegas, and the remount of Shoyu on Rice. She was in Sounds of Aloha Menʻs Chorus Christmas Show (PTW), Happily Eva Afta, Once Upon One Noddah Time (OP), and The Joy Luck Club (DHT). She also acted in the film The Descendants in a scene opposite George Clooney, directed by Alexander Payne.

Angelica Hunter was last seen in Half-Perched and Dangerously Baked: Episode XVI at Kennedy Theatre. She is an English major at UH Manoa and studies acting at Z/A Studios in Honolulu.

Alysia-Leila Kepaa was most recently seen in iHula at PTW. Credits include Oriental Faddah and Son (PTW), Demigods Anonymous (PTW), and The Taming of the Shrew (HSF). Alysia studied abroad at the Fast 15 Acting School at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom.

Jeremy Keuma was last seen in Taming of the Shrew (HSF). He attended Windward Community College where he acted in Stories of Kupuna, Burning Memory and Kaneʻapua by Moses Goods. Jeremy participated in MacBeth (HSF) as both an actor and assistant director.

Neal Milner is originally from Milwaukee but has been in Hawaiʻi for many years and participated in many theatre projects. Credits include History of a Garden at Foster Botanical Garden and One Flew Over the Cuckooʻs Nest (MVT). He is a regular contributor to The Conversation on HPR and was a KITV political analyst. 

Kris10 Misaki is a graduate of Pearl City High School and studied theatre at Leeward Community College. Her recent credits include Aloha Fry-Day (KKT), Twelfth Night, Aloha Attire (KKT), As You Like It (HSF), The Secret in the Wings, and Folks You Meet in Long’s (LCC), and The Epic Voyage of Kāne‘āpua (PTW). She received a Po‘okela Award for Featured Female in a Play for Folks You Meet in Long’s.

Devon Nekoba graduated from Gonzaga University with a minor in theatre. He was most recently seen in Lucky Come Hawaii (KKT). Credits include Lisa Matsumoto‘s Once Upon One Time (MVT), Joy Luck Club (MVT), Be More Chill (MVT), Children of Eden (Iʻm a Bright Kid Foundation), Lisa Matsumoto's The Princess and the Iso Peanut (MVT). On-screen, Devon has been on Hawaii 5-0, Inhumans and various television commercials. 

Ryan “Oki” Naka was born and raised in Honolulu, HI and prefers to go by the name Oki, a nickname based on his last name(Okinaka). Oki has performed in numerous stage productions, as well as various television, web, and film roles. Oki is currently the Emerging Island Artist for the Hawaii Conservatory of Performing Arts. In his role as a playwright, his script, iHula was produced at KKT in 2016 and has recently been produced again by Windward Community College at Paliku Theater in 2021 and 2023. His play Who You Again? was performed at KKT in 2022. He's performed improv comedy for nearly ten years and has been a member of Improvhi. He's also assisted in writing, performing, and producing Waikiki PD, a local police sketch comedy series.

Meghan Ormita was last seen at KKT as Deedee in Aloha Las Vegas by Edward Sakamoto. She was also seen in The Vagina Monologues (AMG) and Almost Maine (LCC). Meghan trained at LCC where she choreographed for Clockwork Cutie Review and The Tea Party.

Maila Rondero Kaneaiakala studied acting at San Jose State University. Her show credits include Songs of the Dragon Flying to Heaven, Statehood, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre and Rolling the Rʻs.

Jantzen Shinmoto is from Aiea. He was last seen in Happily Eva Aftah (Kennedy Theatre), Lisa Matsumoto’s Once Upon One Time (MVT) and The Year That Christmas was Almost Canceled (Mo’olelo)

Thomalin Sirivatha was last seen in iHula (PTW). Prior credits include Lucky Come Hawaii (KKT), The Taming of the Shrew (HSF). Credits include iHula (PTW), Alika in Wonderland (PTW) and Protocol Z (PTW). Among her many awards and recognitions, Thomalin received the Kennedy Center American College Theatre: Irene Ryan Candidate in Acting Award (2022). 

P.J. Souza graduated from Moanalua High School. He studied acting at DHT with Shannon Winpenny.  He was last seen in Romeo and Juliet (HSF) and Both Your Houses (HSF).

Denny Hironaga(Assistant Director)  directed Who You Again? at KKT. Prior to that he co-directed Da Beer Can Hat with his wife Karen Hironaga and The Hilo Massacre with Harry Wong.  He has worked with KKT behind the scenes on many productions and he especially enjoyed being AD for Jim Nakamoto on numerous Ed Sakamoto plays.  Denny loves making movies. His latest film, Obake Neko, is adapted from Ed Sakamoto’s play, Obake. He is currently the cinematographer for the feature film, Shikata Ga Nai. His next project is the feature film Fixing Bobo (Creative Lab Hawai‘i) based on Darrell H. Y. Lum’s Da Beer Can Hat.

Kristen Labiano (Stage Manager) graduated from Waipahu High School and obtained a BA in Humanities from UH West O‘ahu. Kristen’s past theatre credits include The Secret in the Wings, Nocturnal Emissions Burlesque, Shoot Get Treasure Repeat, and Plantation Plays (LCC), as well as Puzzy and Aloha Fry-Day (KKT). Kristen has also Co-Directed Monsters and Maidens, Assistant Directed Plantation Plays, and did musical composition for Merry Men (LCC). Kristen has received multiple ensemble Po‘okela Awards for her performances with Leeward Theatre.

Brian Lee Sackett (Lighting Design) has been involved in Hawai‘i theatre for 20-plus years. He has worked in every facet of theatre, other than playwriting, which he is quick to admit is beyond his skill set.

Keith Kashiwada (Sound Design) has done many designs for KKT productions.  He directed two plays by Lee Cataluna, Super Secret Squad, and Folks You Meet in Longs. He also co- adapted and directed Heads by Harry and Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, from the novels by Lois- Ann Yamanaka. He is a veteran of many KKT productions as actor, director and adaptor.

Sara Ward (Properties Design) has designed props for almost every theatre on Oʻahu. Her favorite shows she’s worked on include Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Jamarama), Fiddler on the Roof (HPU), Seussical (DHT), The King and I (ACT), The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time (MVT), The Rocky Horror Show (MVT) and Aloha Las Vegas (KKT) . Sara has received four Po‘okela awards for her prop work, and in  2019 she received the  Hawaiʻi State Theatre Council Pierre Bowman Award. Sara is a member of the full-time professional staff at Kumu Kahua Theatre as the Office Manager.

THEATRE ABBREVIATIONS

Army Community Theatre: ACT
The ARTS at Marks Garage: AMG
All the World's a Stage: ATWAS
Central Theatre Arts Academy: CTAA
Diamond Head Theatre: DHT
EVOLVE Theatre Company: ETC
Hawaiian Mission Houses: HMH
Hawai‘i Opera Theatre: HOT
Hawai‘i Pacific University: HPU
Hawai‘i Shakespeare Festival: HSF
Honolulu Theatre for Youth: HTY
Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre: IONA
Kaimukī High School: KHS
Kumu Kahua Theatre: KKT
KOA Theater: KOA
Kīpuka Theatre: KT
Leeward Theatre: LCC
Mid-Pacific Institute: MPI
Mānoa Valley Theatre: MVT
‘Ohana Arts: OA
Open Home Performance Network: OHPN
‘Ōhi‘a Productions: OP
On the Spot: OTS
Performing Arts Center of Kapolei: PACK
PlayBuilders of Hawai‘i: PBH
Palikū Theatre: PTW
The Actors’ Group: TAG
University of Hawai‘i Mānoa: UHM
Windward Community College (Palikū): WCC

KUMU KAHUA THEATRE
2022-2023

Managing Director: Donna Blanchard
Artistic Director: Harry Wong III
Office Manager: Sara Ward
Box Office Associates: Alyson Wong, Kathy Dombrigues & Victoria Amara

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President: Marcus Oshiro
Vice President: Dann Seki
Treasurer: Adam Huttler
Recording Secretary: Denise-Aiko Chinen
Mark Kalahele
Jason Kanda
Karen Kaulana
Brook Lee
Annie Macapagal
Tony Pisculli
John H. Y. Wat
Victoria Wei