CAATA Con/Fest Speakers Confirmed; ConFest Pass Sales End July 23

Tuesday, August 14, 9:00am

TAMMY HAILI‘ŌPUA BAKER

Artistic Director, Ka Hālau Hanakeaka

Associate Professor, Dept. of Theatre & Dance

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Tammy Haili‘ōpua Baker’s work centers on the development of an indigenous Hawaiian theater aesthetic and form, Hawaiian language revitalization, and the empowerment of cultural identity through stage performance. Baker is also a playwright and the artistic director of Ka Hālau Hanakeaka, a Hawaiian medium theater troupe. ​

As an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa she oversees both the Hawaiian Theatre and the Playwriting MFA programs. Originally from Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i, Baker now resides with her family in Kahalu‘u, Ko‘olaupoko, O‘ahu.

Thursday, August 16, 9:00am

RAJIV JOSEPH

Playwright

Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with Guards at the Taj (also a 2016 Lortel Winner for Best Play) and then, this year, for Describe the Night. Other plays include Archduke, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Animals Out of Paper, The Lake Effect, The North Pool and Mr. Wolf.

Joseph has been awarded artistic grants from the Whiting Foundation, United States Artists and the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. He is a board member of the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, where he develops all his plays. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

DAVID HENRY HWANG

Playwright & Chairman, American Theatre Wing

David Henry Hwang’s work includes Pulitzer Prize finalistYellow Face, his Tony-nominated revival of Flower Drum Song, the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad and FOB, and the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author) and Disney’s Tarzan. He is also America’s most-produced living opera librettist, and a writer/producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series “The Affair.” Born and raised in Los Angeles, Hwang is a Tony Award winner (M. Butterfly) and three-time nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Recent honors include the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Master American Dramatist, the 2012 Inge Award, the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright “Mimi” Award, a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award and the 2015 IPSA Distinguished Artist Award. He is Chair of the American Theatre Wing and sits on the board of the Lark Play Development Center. Hwang was recently the Residency One Playwright at New York’s Signature Theatre, and currently serves as head of playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, and as the Artistic Ambassador for Silk Road Rising in Chicago. In 1998, East West Players named its new mainstage The David Henry Hwang Theatre. His latest show, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori, recently premiered in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

JAMIL KHOURY

Founding Artistic Director

Silk Road Rising

Jamil Khoury is the Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising. Promoting playwrights of Silk Road backgrounds (Asian and Middle Eastern) is a passion that dovetails well with Khoury’s experiences living in the Middle East and his eleven years as a cross-cultural trainer and international relocations consultant.

A theatre producer, playwright, essayist, and filmmaker, Khoury’s work focuses on Middle Eastern themes and questions of Diaspora. He is particularly interested in the intersections of culture, national identity, and citizenship, as well as our nation’s ever-evolving notions of Americanness.