Kumu Kahua Theatre, Hawaii’s stage group specializing in shows written by island playwrights with tales about Hawaii’s lifestyle, will launch its 54th season Aug. 27 at the downtown venue. Five plays, including two world premieres, make up the season.
The company’s productions encompass Hawaiian history, humor and themes that embrace local culture, communities and identities, and frequently feature scripts with pidgin English.
Harry Wong III curated the works, which will feature local actors and directors, whose storytelling skills will challenge and move audiences while celebrating the vibrant community of the islands.
“Through the use of humor, history, and even magic, these plays explore serious issues
about identity, culture, society and belonging,” said Wong. “We are thrilled to share these diverse and dynamic stories and celebrate the work of tremendous playwrights with our community.”
The agenda of productions:
- “Lovey Lee,” by Moses Goods, Aug. 22 to Sept. 22—A coming-of-age play, Lovey Lee is a young queer Hawaiian, in search of his place, in the 1970s of Hawaii, a time of reclamation, discovery and pride. The state’s cultural renaissance is in its peak, and the sexual liberation movement is booming, but the journey of any brave pioneer is often complicated and fraught with challenges, and Lovey attempts to find his relevance.
- “Kimo the Waiter,”by Lee Cataluna, Nov. 7 to Dec. 8–Kimo waits tables while pursuing his dream of acting professionally in the 1980s – but he’s always too brown, or not brown enough. Kimo’s quest is funny, frustrating and totally relatable as he tries to break free from stereotypical images of island characters. During a time when there were few roles for people of color, except for local commercials, those television images of Hawaii people were, in some cases, even more limiting than Hollywood’s idea of what it meant to be from Hawaii.
- “Southernmost,” by Mary Lyon Kamitaki
Jan. 23 to Feb. 23– For former fisherman Wally Chaves, who lives with his retired wife Becky in the familiar
hills of Kaʻu at the southernmost tip of the Big Island, planting keiki trees for a coffee farm is giving him new life. When daughter Charlene visits with her girlfriend Jessica – Wally
calls her “one vegetarian lesbian” – things become unstable. But when earthquakes start to really shake things up, should they stay, or should they go?
- “The Magic of Polly Amnesia,” by Tony Pisculli, March 27 to April 27–
Polly Amnesia – orphan, magician, punk – takes the stage fora her one-woman magic show. Throughout her act, she attempts to sort hope from delusion, dreams from bullshit and true magic from trickery as she recounts her quixotic quest to solve the mystery of her own identity and the family that abandoned her. But in tonight’s performance, something is going terribly wrong. A world premiere. - “The Golden Gays,” by Ryan “Oki”naka, May 29 to June 29, 2025–Aunty Maria Lani Tunta is the free, fierce, and fabulous mother to a chosen family of queens, facing their golden years and ready for second chances. What does it mean for a drag queen to be in their 70s, for a sexual player to keep up his game, for a divorced man to explore being gay for the first time, for a widower to date again? These bitches bicker, tease, and challenge each other to move on, and they do it in makeup and heels. In this crazy life you have to seize the cheesecake. This script was inspired by the groundbreaking show: “The Golden Girls.” A world premiere.
Performances are at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets: $5 to $25, now on sale at www.kumukahua.org or
(808) 536-4441
.
.”