PlayBuilders April News

​"Directors Mark Branner and Will Haʻo posed with playwright Marion Lyman Mersereau and the cast before our final in-person workshoping at Hawaiian Missionary Houses on Sunday, March 22. Our play development has continued on Monday nights via Zoom and will be made available for descendants to listen to and critique on Hawaiian Missionary Houses Historic Site and Archives website.

Highlights of Adjustments Made to 2020 Schedule Due to Coronavirus:

• Open Your Hearts Wide Invited reading is taking place for missionary descendants on our
  home page of this website during the month of July.

• The PlayFestival will be held on our homepage during the entire month of September.
• Bursting Bubbles first draft was recently was given a private Zoomed reading for
   domestic abuse survivors. Mahalo nui to the actors who volunteered to do this.
• Bursting Bubbles will be presented online during Domestic Violence Awareness Month
   if we are unable to present it live due to the pandemic. 
  
• Open Your Hearts Wide will be presented online in November if we are unable to present
  it live at Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives.
  
• Stay safe and well, Friends. Wear your masks. 
  

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PlayFestival 2020:
Mahalo nui to all the wonderful playwrights who submitted their works to our 9th Annual PlayFestival. Because of the numbers of excellent plays submitted, we added an extra day to the festival to allow for more plays to be included. Furthermore, we had so many entries submitted by young people under the age of 18  that we decided to organize a special play festival just for them.

Thanks to Windward Community College theatre professor, Taurie Kinoshita, who has agreed to sponsor us our first Youth PlayFestival will be presented at Windward Community College (exact date and location to be announced) and Robert St. John of Le Jardin Academy has agreed to organize it.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we have adjusted festival dates from May 21 to 24 to September 10-14 and it will still be presented at the ARTS at Marks Garage.

Congratulations to the following playwrights who were selected to participate in The PlayFestival 2020:
​
Full-Length Plays
(To be presented at the ARTS at Marks Garage September 10-14)
“Beretania Snap Shots” by Sean-Joseph Choo
“Vile Jelly” by Robert St. John
“Harlot Town “ by Michael Markrich
“Who You Again?” by Ryan Okinaka
“The Girl’s Bathroom Confessional” by Kimberlee Stone

One-Act Plays
(To be presented at the ARTS at Marks Garage September 10-14)
“Token” by Lauren Ballesteros
“Velvet Red” by Fili Leasau
“Shame Shame” by SH Murakoshi
“Fable, A Dark Comedy in One Act” by Carol Polcovar
“Happy Divorce” by Kimberlee Stone
“The Bad Woman of Chinatown” by Mark Tjarks
Full-length Plays by Young People Under 18
(To be presented at Windward Community College this fall, at a date and exact location to be determined)
“Symmetry” by Diza Hendrawan
“Praying to Oreos” by Maggie Munday Odom

Ten-minute Plays and a One Act Play by Young People Under 18
(Also to be presented as part of the Youth PlayFestival at WCC)
“The Storm” by Cole Barnes
“Lost” by Savannah Boals
“Fasten Your Seatbelts’” by Lucy Chung
“Hawaiian Style” by Kealisha Kalani
“Betrayed” by Leilani Kawaa
“Rules” by Luc Lambert
“Becoming Bartos” by Aya Lewis
“Love” by Bella Powers
“An Impossible Mistake “ by Dante Sbarbaro
“How to Buy a Pool” by Wade Spriggs
“The Cursed Ticket” by Catherine Ward
And…
“The Surly Bonds of Earth” (a one-act) by Maggie Munday Odom

"Open Your Hearts Wide" by Marion Lyman-Mersereau
Over the course of a year, in preparation for the bicentennial, playwright and missionary descendant Marion Lyman Mersereau conducted a series of story circles and personal interviews with fellow descendants to ask a simple question, “What is it like to be a Missionary Descendant and how do you feel about your ancestors?” The play explores multifaceted perspectives and incorporates excerpts from missionary journals and the recently discovered Aliʻi letters. Produced by PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theatre Company under special agreement with Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, with grants from the Cooke and Atherton Foundations and the National Endowment of the ARTS.  Directed by Mark Branner and Will Haʻo.

On April 24 we will record a Zoom reading and will soon invite missionary descendants to view it on either PlayBuildersʻ or Hawaiian Missionary Houses Historic Site and Archives and to share their thoughts and suggestions with us via Google Forms.


"Bursting Bubbles"
 by Laura Clark Greaver with Lauren Ballesteros, Cindy Ramirez, and Terri Madden
Over 30 domestic violence survivors have been interviewed for our"Bursting Bubbles Project." Laura Clark Greaver is doing a beautiful job leading the writing team which includes Lauren Ballesteros, Cindy Ramirez,  and Terri Madden.  A date for the reading of the first draft of the play will be announced soon.


Monday Night Bursting Bubbles Story Circles have continued since January but we are now transitioning into special story circles lead by Elaine Valdov.
Elaine has volunteered to work with our domestic violence survivors group via Zoom while she is isolating with her family on the Windward side. She was supposed to have returned to hometown of NYC in March but decided it would be safer to stay put here until things open up again.  Elaine is a lovely person and we appreciate her so much. When she learned of what we are doing, she wanted to help. Here is a little info about Elaine. I will be posting an interview with her soon.

Elaine Valdov is President and Founder of The International Institute for a Culture of Peace[1] As a peace and human rights activist and conflict resolution specialist, Valdov lectures internationally and is best known for her work in championing and building initiatives worldwide, in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and UNESCO’s[2] International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. She has chaired task forces for women empowerment and gender equality; and founded “Yoga Peace Ambassadors” to teach MDG humanitarian service options in Yoga Ashrams worldwide.
Valdov has held many NGO positions at UN Headquarters in New York, including:

• Chair: Executive Committee of NGOs Affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information 1996-2000 (outreaching to civil society and NGOs worldwide, to enhance the partnerships between the United Nations, Governments and NGOs in addressing world challenges.[3][4][5]
• Co-Convener: Seoul International Conference of NGOs: The Role of NGOs in the 21st Century.
• Secretary General: Medical Assembly at the United Nations (focused on reversing the World Health Organization and World Bank’s predicted world pandemic of cancer.)
• Chair: NGO Committee on the University for Peace.
• VP, Member of Executive Committee and Advisory Committee to the UN Secretary General:[6] As President of the DPI Executive Committee, Dr Valdov, was on the Millennum NGO Forum Advisory Committee to the UN Secretary General in 1997 and 2000.[7]

She has been a director of mental health facilities and a trauma counselor, with persons from countries around the world. Following September 11, Valdov was the director of the September 11 family relations and established programs in the US and abroad, helping families to deal with disasters, with special focus on helping widows and children who are caught in the midst of violence and terrorism. She further has worked with Lions Club International, Rotary International and [8] (FAF) in the creation and implementation of the post-September-11 programs of (“Finding New Hope”) and (“Universal Hug for Peace”).

Mahalo nui for your interest. If you have any questions regarding any of our  projects, please contact Terri Madden at terri.madden@playbuilders.org or call her at 808-218-0103