Kumu Kahua Theatre teamed up with Tree Moss Hawaiʻi and Nothing Without a Company to present Mana Wahine: A 24-Hour Play Festival, where six plays — written that weekend — were performed for a live audience on Sunday, April 12.
The event brought together 30 Hawaiʻi-based artists to create and perform six new 10-minute plays all created within a single 24-hour period. The works were created by six playwrights, six directors and 18 actors, who were sorted into teams and had to imagine, write and rehearse their plays before a final public performance.
“I wish more theaters did this or had these kinds of challenges, because it's so much fun,” said Wil Kahele, one of the playwrights who participated in the festival. “And you meet your other fellow thespians and directors and playwrights — and their families because they come to watch it at the end of the 24-hour festival. It's just cool.”
Mana Wahine: A 24-Hour Play Festival was a collaboration between Kumu Kahua Theatre, Tree Moss Hawaiʻi and Nothing Without a Company. (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre) 
The plays were created by six playwrights, six directors and 18 actors, who were sorted into teams. (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre) 
Playwrights, directors, and actors and actresses were part of the teams working to create six new 10-minute plays during the festival. (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre) 
Groups of actors, playwrights and directors created six plays which were performed for a live audience on Sunday, April 12. (Courtesy of Kumu Kahua Theatre)
Kahele is also an actor, who has appeared in “Hawaiʻi Five-0,” “Under the Blood-Red Sun,” “Haole," "Next Goal Wins” and more, according to his IMDb profile.
In this challenge, playwrights had to capture an entire story in just 10 minutes on stage, he added. When Kahele met the actors for this challenge, he asked what they do and do not like to do.
“Cause I don’t want to put kissing in my script, if you do not like to kiss,” Kahele said. “I’m not gonna put singing in my script if nobody knows how to sing or play an instrument, so you need to find out what everybody's strengths and weaknesses are.”
He also had to practice letting go, just like a parent, which is something he learned from playwright Lee Cataluna, he said.
“And then you just see what happens because every director, every actor is going to interpret your work differently,” Kahele said.
Also participating in the festival was Playwright Jeannie Barroga, who moved to Hilo in September after years of living in the Bay Area. She has written about 80 plays but “that doesn't mean they were all produced,” she said. In her early days, Barroga wrote a play each month.
“I just challenged myself to see if I could do that,” she said.
Now, a number of her plays are held in a collection at Stanford University.
Barroga flew in from Hawaiʻi Island to participate in the festival. After meeting her team on Saturday, April 11, she wrote until 2:30 a.m., she said. The script had to be handed in by 7 a.m. on Sunday, April 12.
“Others wrote right up to the seven o'clock deadline, where we had to turn it in and they make copies,” she said.
By 8 a.m., teams started rehearsals. The show was performed to a live audience that evening.
Barroga is part of Tree Moss Hawai‘i, a collective of Hawaiʻi playwrights who meet monthly to collaborate on projects and are focused on the development of new plays. The current cohort includes nine individuals, who call Hilo, Honolulu, New York and more, home. The hui is “especially interested in playwrights who share a unique perspective of Hawaiʻi through their writing,” according to its website.
Nothing Without a Company was the third partner in the festival and is a Chicago-based group that is bringing theatre to non-traditional spaces, such as bars, apartments, street corners, parks, alleyways, garages and more, according to its website.
Looking to catch a show? Kumu Kahua Theatre has “Blu’s Hanging” on stage now, which is based on the coming-of-age novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. The story follows a Hansen’s Disease survivor, as he mourns the death of his wife and struggles to provide for their kids. The production runs Thursday to Sunday through April 26. Tickets start at $28, plus fees, and there are discounts for seniors and group orders. Get tickets.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
