Faʻalavelave "The Interruption" by Kiki Rivera (Honolulu, HI)

Faʻalavelave “The Interruption”

by Kiki Rivera

November 7 – December 8, 2019

Kiki Rivera’s contemporary comedy tackles a darkly taboo topic with humor in a queer Samoan context. Mele and Sefina are engaged to be married until Mele’s biological father passes. Traditional indigenous practices, as well as family bonds, are challenged by a dead man’s secrets.

Kiki Rivera (she, he, they, we) is an internationally produced, award-winning theatre artist, educator, and arts activist. Kiki has her BA in Theatre as well as her MFA in Playwrighting from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM), and member of the 2018 ArtEquity cohort. Kiki also attends and responds to college theatre productions in Hawaiʻi to nominate students for participation in ACTF Region 8 festivals and holds workshops to encourage the growth of future indigenous storytellers. As an educated gender-queer person of color (Samoan-Filipinx born and raised in Hawaii) that is cis-femme presenting, Kiki recognizes her privilege and responsibility to those marginalized communities. Her work focuses on cultural and sexual identity and the effects of colonization. Kiki is one of many voices for Pacific Islanders in the diaspora and is published in Samoan Queer Lives edited by Yuki Kihara and Dan Talaupapa McMullin. Kiki believes in self-reflective storytelling from a contemporary indigenous perspective and creating space for marginalized theatre artists of color.