CAATA ConFest 2020 Announcement
Ku’u ‘Āina, Ku’u Piko, Ku’u Kahua – Return to the Source
August 7 – 16, 2020 in Hawai’i
The contributions of theater practitioners from Hawai’i have largely gone unrecognized by American Theater. From being founders and original cast members of every established Asian American Theater or play on the continent, to any broadway play featuring Asian American actors, artists from Hawai’i have been there. It is time to come back to Ku’u ‘Āina (land), Ku’u Piko (center), and Ku’u Kahua (stage).
This year’s ConFest will center the voices of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander theater practitioners. Attendees will be exposed to the idea of what is like to create theater in a state where Asian Americans are in the majority. And be introduced to the thriving theater community of Hawai’i, where Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander faces on stage is the NORM not the exception.
Our conference theme, “Ku‘u ‘Āina, Ku‘u Piko, Ku‘u Kahua,” is a call to all theatre artists to reconnect with their foundations and their sources of knowledge, which may be their land, their family, their center. Performing our stories on the stage is a means to ground ourselves, our cultural knowledge, and our many identities in the works that we bring to our communities. We invite our national colleagues to return to the Piko (the source), witness Hawaiian theater and participate in growing our collective impact.
Festival productions: August 7 – 16, 2020
Conference presentations: August 11 – 15, 2020
Hosted by Hana Keaka, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and TeAda Productions.
Mahalo to our generous sponsors and partners including:
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Inamona Theatre Company
Lili`uokalani Trust
T-Shirt Theatre
Theatre Communications Group
The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA) envisions a strong and sustainable Asian American theater community that is an integral presence in national culture—evocative of our past, declarative of our present, and innovative towards our future.
Our mission is to advance the field of Asian American theater through a national network of organizations and artists. We collaborate to inspire learning and sharing of knowledge, and resources to promote a healthy, sustainable artistic ecology.
As a collective of Asian American theater leaders and artists, we bring together local and regional leaders to work nationally toward our shared values of social justice, artistic diversity, cultural equity and inclusion. We hold national conferences and festivals biennially in different parts of the country, reaching as wide a range of Asian American populations and communities as possible. We survey Asian American theater artists and organizations to find out their foremost concerns. We form alliances with other theater groups of different affinities to advance mutual goals cooperatively and to exchange ideas and strategies.
CAATA History
In September 2003, six Asian American theater companies attended a convening sponsored by Theater Communications Group. The companies— Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, East West Players, Ma-Yi Theater, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), Second Generation, and Mu Performing Arts— began discussions to hold the first National Asian American Theater Conference. Spearheaded by Tim Dang of East West Players, “Next Big Bang: The First Asian American Theater Conference” took place in Los Angeles in June 2006.
The first National Asian American Theater Festival took place June 2007 in New York City, featuring over 25 performing artists and companies. Conferences and Festivals have since been hosted in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Ashland, Oregon. The next combined Conference and Festival (ConFest) will be held in Chicago from August 11-19, 2018.
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