How should artists measure success? For Lee Cataluna, an accomplished playwright who has penned a number of plays, including “Dah Mayah,” currently on stage in Honolulu, the answer is continuing to create — and still enjoying it.
“I heard somebody say that the measure of success when you're a creative person is: that you're still doing it and that you still love it,” she said. “If you stopped doing it somewhere along the way, hmmm that wasn't successful. It didn't work for you. Or you didn't like it. And if you'd still doing it and you hate it [she laughs], that’s not good either.”
The playwright lost count of the total number of plays she has written, but estimates it is probably about 30. Her work includes commissions from Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Dramatic Publishing,TYA/USA National BIPOC Superhero Project and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Cataluna has taught the art of playwriting at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, when a professor was on sabbatical, and reads manuscripts for a program through the University of Southern California. She is also a columnist for Civil Beat.
Through Saturday, Oct. 5, “Da Mayah,” which is the first play she wrote, will be on stage at Mānoa Valley Theatre. The production has been extended through early October, due to popular demand. It was first produced in 1998 and three of the original actors and actresses were cast in the current production. While one had to step away due to a medical situation, another performs in a new role after his original character was written out of the play.
“Da Mayah” shares the story of a fictional mayor and his loyal assistant. There is a subplot involving a careless hitman and the owner of a washerette and karaoke bar.
The idea for the play started with an exposition assignment for writing classes run by Kumu Kahua Theatre and playwright and novelist Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl.
“She gave us six or seven scenarios to choose from and one of them was the newly elected mayor of Hilo, Lester Perez, has a secret and his loyal assistant, Sandra, is helping him to deal with it,” Cataluna said. “That was the scenario that I picked for my assignment that week. I liked it, so for every assignment every week that went by in class, I stuck with the same story, rather than writing different things, so by the end of the class, I had a play.”
For Cataluna, it is important to put words down, even if the first draft isn’t perfect.
“My process is ʻGet it done,’ ” she said. “Because I figure a first draft I can work on, I can fix, I can ask for help. But if it's just in my head, not on the page, I can't really do anything with it.”
Her advice for young writers?
“Just learn everything you can,” she said. “Go to a lot of plays. Somebody told me once that I have to act at least once on stage in order to be a good playwright. And I don't believe that. I cannot act.”
Cataluna’s journey to writing plays was launched when she saw her first Broadway show while on a work trip to New York City. At the time, she was working as a morning news anchor. Her company sent her to New York City to shoot some promo videos.
“It was the first time I'd been to New York, and the first time I traveled so far by myself, so I decided I was going to do everything while I was there,” she said. “I had three days. So I did. I went to every museum I could think of. I rode the subway, went to Coney Island, had a hot dog, went to Central Park, the whole — everything. And then, I had to really talk myself into seeing a Broadway play, because I was a dancer as a kid, and I thought, ʻUgh, I'm just going to sit there and hate myself for not being that talented.’ ... But I dragged myself there because I decided I was going to do all the things.”
Instead, the voice in her head whispered, “You know, you could write something like that,” she said.
“And that was a surprise,” Cataluna said. “That was a very surprising voice. And I thought, ʻWell, that's weird.’ And when I came home, I had a flyer in my mailbox from Kumu Kahua Theater about those playwriting classes, and I'd never been to their shows.”
That was the sign to start writing, she said.
“A reporter kind of always has to say, ʻI don't know anything. Let's figure it out,’” she said. “I walked myself into the class, and it was exactly that. I was the only one who had no background in theater, but I loved it. And people were cool, and I just loved everything about it. It was this weird calling in that I was strangely brave — and made myself do it.”
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
