The Chiburu Community Project
November 2, 2024
Contact:
Terri Madden
Founder, Artistic Director
PlayBuilders of Hawai’i Theater Company
(808) 384-9933
[email protected]
What: Community-Based Theatre Talk Story Circles with Okinawan Community
]Venue: To Be Determined
When: Story Circles Start in February 2025. Details to be announced this January.
PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theater Company Commissions Lee Tonouchi to Write a Community-based Play
with and for Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan Community in Early 2025
PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theatre Company is proud to announce that we have commissioned playwright Lee A.Tonouchi to write a community-based play with and for Hawaiʻi’s Okinawan Community in collaboration with the Hawaii United Okinawa Association. Talk story circles will begin in early 2025, which marks the 125th anniversary celebrating Okinawan immigration to Hawai‘i.
Lee is a Hawai‘i-born, fourth generation Okinawan writer and editor who is known as “Da Pidgin Guerrilla” because of his strong advocacy for the Pidgin language. He has received much national acclaim for his Pidgin works. His Pidgin poetry collection Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son: One Hawai‘i Okinawan Journal won the Association for Asian-American Studies Book Award. His Pidgin children’s picture book Okinawan Princess won a Skipping Stones Honor Award. And his Pidgin play Three Year Swim Club was a Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice Selection. Most recently he received the 2023 American Association for Applied Linguistics Distinguished Public Service Award for his work in raising public awareness of important language-related issues and promoting linguistic social justice.
Acclaimed local playwright, Tonouchi has worked with Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Kumu Kahua Theatre and the East West Players. He came to this project during a show at Kumu Kahua Theatre when he sat next to PlayBuilders’ Executive Director, Terri Madden. During an intermission conversation, Terri explained what community-based theatre is and asked Lee, “If you could write a play with any community in Hawaiʻi, what community would that be?” Lee answered, “Das easy. Da Hawai‘i Okinawan community!”
During weeks that followed, Terri explained PlayBuilders’ unique community-based, story-gathering methodology to Lee. From there, they took their idea to Jon Itomura, the Executive Director of Hawaii United Okinawa Association, a non-profit organization that promotes and preserves Okinawan culture in Hawai‘i, who agreed to partner with them on this project. The HUOA has over 40,000 members across fifty member clubs.
PlayBuilders of Hawaiʻi Theatre Company is a 15-year-old, award-winning, community-based theatre company that has written and produced plays with residential communities such as Chinatown, Wahiawa, and Waipahu, as well as with special interest groups such as Honolulu’s homeless, LGBTQ+, former foster youth, missionary descendants and most recently, caregivers. Major funders who have made our work possible in the past include the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Hawaiʻi Peopleʻs Fund, the Atherton Family Foundation, the Cooke Family Foundation, the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
PlayBuilders’ Mission is to “gather and share real stories that resonate with, empower, and connect the many culturally rich and diverse communities in Hawaiʻi.”
Community Talk Story circles will begin in February 2025 with a reading of the first draft of the play late next year for Hawai’i Okinawan community’s reactions and approval. The finished play will be produced the following year at a place and time to be announced upon completion and with the Hawai‘i Okinawan community input.
If anyone has an Okinawan story to share or would like to participate in the Hawai‘i Okinawan community Talk Story Circles, please contact Terri Madden at 808-218-0103 or email her at [email protected]
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Open Your Hearts WidePurchase tickets now because with your ticket you can watch the movie as often as you wish on your own time!
World Premier ”Open Your Hearts Wide,”written by Marion Lyman-Mersereau. Produced by PlayBuilders in Partnership with Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives and the PAʻI Foundation. Screen play by Mark Branner and Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak. Co-Directed by Mark Branner, Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, and Vicky Holt Takamine. an Orig Entertainment Film, Where and When: Streamed on line June 3-21 (Watch any time or day, as many times as you wish,) For link and to purchase tickets go to playbuilders.org/OYHW beginning May 20 Family friendly. Ticket price: $20 The movie features 27 local actors and 19 real life missionary descendants. Family friendly. Creator and Producer Terri Madden, shares, “We really hoped that we would be able to create a live production, but Covid-19 had different plans, and so for the first time in PlayBuilders history, we made a movie! We hired Jeff Orig of Orig Entertainment and turned Marion's play into a screenplay by co-directors Mark Branner and Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak with input by co-director Kumu Vicky Holt Takamine. I see this as the first of 3 productions. The second production will be written with and for the Hawaiian community and the third will be a “bridge play” where we bring both Hawaiian and missionary descendants together. “ For more information, please contact Terri Madden at [email protected] or call her at 808-218-0103. |
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JUst Last year - Open Your Hearts Wide Invited Reading Report Production:
Playwright and Missionary Descendent Marion Lyman-Mersereau spent 2 years asking fellow descendants one simple question in preparation for the bicentennial of the arrival of the Thaddeus in 1820. That question was, "What is it like to be a descendant and what do you think of your ancestors?" She has written a community-based play on the answers she received called "Open Your Hearts Wide". A special invited recorded reading of the play took place for missionary descendants during the month of June on our website. Over 90 missionary descendants listened to the beautifully produced audio reading and 25 responded to our survey. Marion Lyman-Mersereau will spend the next several months rewriting the play based on their suggestions. We are very grateful to Elizabeth Lentz-Hill and Hawaiian Mission Houses for all their help and support with the project. Dates for live performances will be announced as soon as we have a clearer vision of the COVID-19 situation. NEA has suggested that we ask for an extension until June. Playwright: Marion Lyman-Mersereau Directors: Mark Branner, William Haʻo Producer/ Community Organizer Terri Madden |
