PlayBuilders gathers, honors, and shares Hawaiʻi’s real-life stories through theatre, creating spaces where culturally rich and diverse communities can connect, be heard, and be empowered.
Welcome Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo!
PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theater Company is delighted to announce that Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo will direct Our Okinawan ʻOhana, a new community-based play honoring the stories, memories, humor, history, and resilience of Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan community.
Developed over the past two years through story circles, interviews, community conversations, and the work of playwright Lee A. Tonouchi, Hawaiʻi State Poet Laureate, Our Okinawan ʻOhana brings forward the voices of elders, families, cultural practitioners, and community members whose lived experiences help illuminate the deep and enduring connections between Okinawan identity and life in Hawaiʻi.
Sean-Joseph is a Hawaiʻi-based director, playwright, performer, composer, sound designer, educator, and arts leader with extensive experience in new work development, local storytelling, and collaborative theatre-making. His work has been seen with organizations including Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Kumu Kahua Theatre, Hawaiʻi Shakespeare Festival, Capitol Modern, Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design, Creative Lab Hawaiʻi, and Kamamo House. As a playwright, his work has received national recognition, including finalist and semi-finalist honors from the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, and The Playwrights Realm’s Native American Artist Lab.
We are grateful to welcome Sean-Joseph into this role as the project moves from story gathering and script development into rehearsal and performance. His background in new plays, community-rooted storytelling, and Hawaiʻi theatre makes him a strong fit for this next phase of Our Okinawan ʻOhana.
Auditions will be held on July 20, 22, and 27. Rehearsals will begin after July 20, with performances planned for fall 2026. Additional audition, rehearsal, and performance details will be announced soon.
Stay Tuned -
July through October.
Our Okinawa Ohana:
Stories from our Uchinanchu community
by Lee Tonouchi
directed by Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo
( based on shared stories collected by
PlayBuilders of HawaiʻI Theater Company)
Community auditions in Mid July!
Our Okinawan ʻOhana Project OverviewL
Our Okinawan ʻOhana is a community-based theatre project created by PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theater Company in collaboration with the Hawaiʻi United Okinawa Association, the Jikoen Hongwanji, and the Maui Okinawa Kenjinkai. The project honors and shares the personal stories of Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan community.
From November 2024 to the present, stories have been collected through community story circles led by Terri Madden, with assistance from Diane Aoki, Deanna Espinas, William Hao, Emily Jorgenson, Jonathan Masaki, and Karen C. Oshiro. During these story circles, community members shared memories of family, immigration, plantation life, food, language, cultural traditions, humor, and resilience. In addition the team interviewed over 40 individuals. The stories were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Playwright Lee A. Tonouchi, Hawaiʻi’s Poet Laureate, then transformed these stories into the play he titled Our Okinawan ʻOhana: Stories from Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan Community.
The project celebrates intergenerational storytelling, cultural preservation, and community connection. On January 15, Reiko Ho and Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo staged a community reading at Jikoen Honwanji. Since that reading, Lee has continued revising the play based on feedback from community members who attended. These revisions are helping prepare the work for its upcoming full production, directed by Reiko Ho, which will bring together experienced actors and community members to share these stories onstage, including participants who will help tell their own lived experiences. Performances will take place at the Okinawan Ballroom on September 27 and at Windward Community College on October 17 and 18.
Our Okinawan ʻOhana creates space for Okinawan families and the wider community to remember, reflect, laugh, and celebrate together.
About Lee A. Tonouchi
Lee A. Tonouchi is the current Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate, serving a three-year term from February 2026 to January 2029. Widely known as “Da Pidgin Guerrilla,” he is a prominent author, playwright, and educator who advocates for the use of Hawaiʻi Creole English, or Pidgin, in literature.
Happy Grant News! We were just notified by the Atherton Family Foundation that they are providing a $10,000 grant for Our Okinawan Ohana! Atherton Family Foundation has helped us in the past on several of our projects over the years, and we are so very grateful for their support!
Our Okinawan ʻOhana is a community-based theatre project created by PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theater Company in collaboration with the Hawaiʻi United Okinawa Association, the Jikoen Hongwanji, and the Maui Okinawa Kenjinkai. The project honors and shares the personal stories of Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan community.
From November 2024 to the present, stories have been collected through community story circles led by Terri Madden, with assistance from Diane Aoki, Deanna Espinas, William Hao, Emily Jorgenson, Jonathan Masaki, and Karen C. Oshiro. During these story circles, community members shared memories of family, immigration, plantation life, food, language, cultural traditions, humor, and resilience. In addition the team interviewed over 40 individuals. The stories were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Playwright Lee A. Tonouchi, Hawaiʻi’s Poet Laureate, then transformed these stories into the play he titled Our Okinawan ʻOhana: Stories from Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan Community.
The project celebrates intergenerational storytelling, cultural preservation, and community connection. On January 15, Reiko Ho and Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo staged a community reading at Jikoen Honwanji. Since that reading, Lee has continued revising the play based on feedback from community members who attended. These revisions are helping prepare the work for its upcoming full production, directed by Reiko Ho, which will bring together experienced actors and community members to share these stories onstage, including participants who will help tell their own lived experiences. Performances will take place at the Okinawan Ballroom on September 27 and at Windward Community College on October 17 and 18.
Our Okinawan ʻOhana creates space for Okinawan families and the wider community to remember, reflect, laugh, and celebrate together.
About Lee A. Tonouchi
Lee A. Tonouchi is the current Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate, serving a three-year term from February 2026 to January 2029. Widely known as “Da Pidgin Guerrilla,” he is a prominent author, playwright, and educator who advocates for the use of Hawaiʻi Creole English, or Pidgin, in literature.
Happy Grant News! We were just notified by the Atherton Family Foundation that they are providing a $10,000 grant for Our Okinawan Ohana! Atherton Family Foundation has helped us in the past on several of our projects over the years, and we are so very grateful for their support!
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On January 15, 2025, PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theater Company presented the first draft of Lee Tonouchi’s community-based play, Our Okinawan ʻOhana: Stories from Our Uchinanchu Community, as a staged reading at Jikoen Hongwanji. Directed by Reiko Ho, and Sean Joseph Choo, the reading featured many of Hawaiʻi’s most celebrated actors bringing the community’s stories to life.
The evening was warm, joyful, and deeply meaningful. Before the reading began, the reading, participants, artists, and audience members gathered for a potluck feast that included special Okinawan food bentos from Gyotaku Japanese Restaurant. After the reading, PlayBuilders received audience feedback by email, which Lee is now using to revise the script. His revisions are also being informed by additional stories collected from Maui. To date, PlayBuilders has conducted story circles in Honolulu and Maui and approximately 50 personal interviews with members of Hawaiʻi’s Uchinanchu community. These stories continue to shape the play, ensuring that it reflects the voices, memories, humor, struggles, and cultural pride of the community it represents. |
June 4, 2026: Such a wonderful live interview of Lee by Russell Subiono at the Atherton. Diane Aokiʻs play "Memory Beads" is playing at Kumu right now.
