Kumu Kahua sponsors 2 events for SONGMAKERS CHAIR

Kumu Kahua Theatre is sponsoring two evenings devoted to examining some of the historical events, cultural legacies, and artistic issues that arise in its upcoming production of Albert Wendt’s The Songmaker’s Chair. The events will take place on Tuesday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Korean Studies Auditorium, University of Hawai‘i at M?noa and on Tuesday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m at Kumu Kahua Theatre, 42 Merchant Street. These free events are funded by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, and co-sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i–M?noa Center for Biographical Research, the Departments of English and of Theatre and Dance, and the Center for Pacific Island Studies.

What: Event #I: Pacific Migration in Art, Society, and History
When: Tuesday, March 21, 2006, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Korean Studies Center Auditorium, University of Hawai‘i at M'noa

This event will be devoted to exploring how the act of migration by Pacific Islanders within the Pacific—its history, its social consequences, its affect on the arts and the culture of both the immigrants and the hosts—has been represented in drama, fiction, poetry, and other artistic media. Historian Fata Simanu-Klutz will talk about the size, the nature, the history and the cultural implications of this traveling. Writer and folklorist Caroline Sinavaiana, who has lived in Samoa, the continental United States, other Pacific Island nations, and now in Hawai‘i, will talk about the impact of migration on language, forms of expression, and self-understanding. Playwright Albert Wendt, perhaps the best-known writer on this subject, will talk about how the challenges of drama influenced how he dealt with this subject, which could be described as one of the major themes in his work. Dennis Carroll, the director of the production, will speak on the process of representing the different cultures embodied in the characters through performance—how to make the issues of migration almost literally come to life. A scene from the current production of The Songmaker’s Chair with special relevance for the evening’s discussion will also be presented.

What: Event #II: Pacific Island Migration: Art at Home and Away
When: Tuesday, March 28, 2006, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 42 Merchant Street

On this evening, the related topics will be the nature of the Intra-Pacific migration, and also the challenges of “transplanted” art. Katerina Teiawa, whose research and artistic interests lie “in the area of intra-Pacific movement/ migration/ diaspora, and the circulation of contemporary musical and dance forms,” in talking about “‘the thing,’ rather than the artist,” will explore how all the traveling that goes on between islands affects the ways “ideas, forms or materials move across cultural areas that still seem so fixed as ‘Samoan’ or ‘Fijian’ or ‘Tongan,’ etc.” Robert Sullivan, noted Maori poet, essayist, and writer of fiction and non-fiction, will talk about how the great history of Pacific Islander travel is not only the subject of contemporary Pacific literary arts, but affects the variety of ways that contemporary migration is artistically represented. As with the first event, Playwright Albert Wendt will speak, as will Dennis Carroll, the director of the production. A scene from the current production of The Songmaker’s Chair, chosen for its special relevance for the discussion, will also be presented.

These events are being held in conjunction with the current Kumu Kahua Theatre production of The Songmaker’s Chair, which will be onstage from Thursday, March 16 to Saturday, April 15 at Kumu Kahua Theatre. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, $13 for seniors and $10 for students. For more information or to order tickets, call Kumu Kahua Theatre at 536-4441. For more information about the play, and for access to the detailed humanities guides prepared for these events, go to www.kumukahua.org.

The Play: The Songmaker’s Chair is the story of a Samoan family, the Aiga Sapeseola, whose members have been in Auckland since the 1950’s. It is about migration and what has happened to this adventurous family over three generations. To survive and adapt to New Zealand, they have intermarried with Maori and Pakeha (whites) and developed what they call the Peseola Way—defiant, honest and unflinching, even in the face of death.

First staged in New Zealand in September 2003, the play was a huge success, with soldout houses through the run. According to the National Business Review, “The opening night audience, composed of a large number of Samoans, made it apparent that the best and more risqué lines were in Samoan”; the review also notes the “memorable moments of dialogue and staging along with well integrated singing and dancing”

The New Zealand Herald records the “delightfully festive atmosphere” at the premiere of The Songmaker’s Chair, and admires how “Wendt deftly structures the scenes to present his 10 characters in an impressive range of combinations that reveal the nature of the various relationships between siblings, husbands and wives, parents and children and so on.” The Herald also reports that “Although the action is set in the one house and occurs largely within four days, we are taken to Samoa and other parts of Aotearoa, traversing more than 40 years. And Wendt cunningly complicates the issue of cultural (dis)location: Peseola’s eldest son is married to a Palagi and his eldest daughter to a Maori.”

The Playwright: Albert Wendt is a leading figure in the field of Pacific literature and author of various novels, short stories, poetry and plays. Leaves of the Banyan Tree won the New Zealand Watties Book of the Year Award and is considered a classic. Important works include Sons for the Return Home, The Mango’s Kiss and The Book of the Black Star, which combines words and images in short poems, drawing on Samoan language, myth and the author’s own experience. His play The Songmaker’s Chair was a highlight of the first Auckland International Arts Festival.

Since 1988, Wendt has held the Chair in New Zealand and Pacific Literature at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa. He is a mentor to many writers and has been responsible for anthologizing the literature of the region in several volumes, most recently in Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English, the 2003 collection he edited with Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan. Recent honors include an Honorary Ph.D. from the University of Bourgogne in France (1993), the Order of Merit from the Government of Samoa (1004), the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature (2000), New Zealand’s Senior Pacific Arts Award (2003) and the NIKKEI Asia Prize in Culture (2003).

He currently holds the Citizens’ Chair in English, established in 1965 by the Hawai‘i State Legislature to attract individuals of extraordinary scholarly and creative accomplishments to UH M?noa, in order to benefit the academic and the larger communities of Hawai‘i. He will be holding the chair, and in residence in Hawai‘i, during March of 2006, the scheduled time of production.

Kumu Kahua productions are being supported by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts celebrating more than thirty years of culture and the arts in Hawai‘i (with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts); the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, Mufi Hannemann, Mayor; The Hawai‘i Community Foundation; The Hawai‘i Council of the Humanities; and Foundations, Businesses and Patrons.

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	Kumu Kahua Presents Two Public Events in Conjunction with Current Production of Albert Wendt’s The Songmaker’s Chair Kumu Kahua Theatre is sponsoring two evenings devoted to examining some of the historical events, cultural legacies, and artistic issues that arise in its upcoming production of Albert Wendt’s The Songmaker’s Chair. The events will take place on Tuesday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Center for Korean Studies Auditorium, University of Hawai‘i at M?noa and on Tuesday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m at Kumu Kahua Theatre, 42 Merchant Street. These free events are funded by the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, and co-sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i–M?noa Center for Biographical Research, the Departments of English and of Theatre and Dance, and the Center for Pacific Island Studies. What: Event #I: Pacific Migration in Art, Society, and History When: Tuesday, March 21, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. Where: Korean Studies Center Auditorium, University of Hawai‘i at M'noa This event will be devoted to exploring how the act of migration by Pacific Islanders within the Pacific—its history, its social consequences, its affect on the arts and the culture of both the immigrants and the hosts—has been represented in drama, fiction, poetry, and other artistic media. Historian Fata Simanu-Klutz will talk about the size, the nature, the history and the cultural implications of this traveling. Writer and folklorist Caroline Sinavaiana, who has lived in Samoa, the continental United States, other Pacific Island nations, and now in Hawai‘i, will talk about the impact of migration on language, forms of expression, and self-understanding. Playwright Albert Wendt, perhaps the best-known writer on this subject, will talk about how the challenges of drama influenced how he dealt with this subject, which could be described as one of the major themes in his work. Dennis Carroll, the director of the production, will speak on the process of representing the different cultures embodied in the characters through performance—how to make the issues of migration almost literally come to life. A scene from the current production of The Songmaker’s Chair with special relevance for the evening’s discussion will also be presented. What: Event #II: Pacific Island Migration: Art at Home and Away When: Tuesday, March 28, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. Where: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 42 Merchant Street On this evening, the related topics will be the nature of the Intra-Pacific migration, and also the challenges of “transplanted” art. Katerina Teiawa, whose research and artistic interests lie “in the area of intra-Pacific movement/ migration/ diaspora, and the circulation of contemporary musical and dance forms,” in talking about “‘the thing,’ rather than the artist,” will explore how all the traveling that goes on between islands affects the ways “ideas, forms or materials move across cultural areas that still seem so fixed as ‘Samoan’ or ‘Fijian’ or ‘Tongan,’ etc.” Robert Sullivan, noted Maori poet, essayist, and writer of fiction and non-fiction, will talk about how the great history of Pacific Islander travel is not only the subject of contemporary Pacific literary arts, but affects the variety of ways that contemporary migration is artistically represented. As with the first event, Playwright Albert Wendt will speak, as will Dennis Carroll, the director of the production. A scene from the current production of The Songmaker’s Chair, chosen for its special relevance for the discussion, will also be presented. These events are being held in conjunction with the current Kumu Kahua Theatre production of The Songmaker’s Chair, which will be onstage from Thursday, March 16 to Saturday, April 15 at Kumu Kahua Theatre. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, $13 for seniors and $10 for students. For more information or to order tickets, call Kumu Kahua Theatre at 536-4441. For more information about the play, and for access to the detailed humanities guides prepared for these events, go to www.kumukahua.org. Here is some further information about the production. The Play: The Songmaker’s Chair is the story of a Samoan family, the Aiga Sapeseola, whose members have been in Auckland since the 1950’s. It is about migration and what has happened to this adventurous family over three generations. To survive and adapt to New Zealand, they have intermarried with Maori and Pakeha (whites) and developed what they call the Peseola Way—defiant, honest and unflinching, even in the face of death. First staged in New Zealand in September 2003, the play was a huge success, with soldout houses through the run. According to the National Business Review, “The opening night audience, composed of a large number of Samoans, made it apparent that the best and more risqué lines were in Samoan”; the review also notes the “memorable moments of dialogue and staging along with well integrated singing and dancing” The New Zealand Herald records the “delightfully festive atmosphere” at the premiere of The Songmaker’s Chair, and admires how “Wendt deftly structures the scenes to present his 10 characters in an impressive range of combinations that reveal the nature of the various relationships between siblings, husbands and wives, parents and children and so on.” The Herald also reports that “Although the action is set in the one house and occurs largely within four days, we are taken to Samoa and other parts of Aotearoa, traversing more than 40 years. And Wendt cunningly complicates the issue of cultural (dis)location: Peseola’s eldest son is married to a Palagi and his eldest daughter to a Maori.” The Playwright: Albert Wendt is a leading figure in the field of Pacific literature and author of various novels, short stories, poetry and plays. Leaves of the Banyan Tree won the New Zealand Watties Book of the Year Award and is considered a classic. Important works include Sons for the Return Home, The Mango’s Kiss and The Book of the Black Star, which combines words and images in short poems, drawing on Samoan language, myth and the author’s own experience. His play The Songmaker’s Chair was a highlight of the first Auckland International Arts Festival. Since 1988, Wendt has held the Chair in New Zealand and Pacific Literature at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa. He is a mentor to many writers and has been responsible for anthologizing the literature of the region in several volumes, most recently in Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English, the 2003 collection he edited with Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan. Recent honors include an Honorary Ph.D. from the University of Bourgogne in France (1993), the Order of Merit from the Government of Samoa (1004), the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature (2000), New Zealand’s Senior Pacific Arts Award (2003) and the NIKKEI Asia Prize in Culture (2003). He currently holds the Citizens’ Chair in English, established in 1965 by the Hawai‘i State Legislature to attract individuals of extraordinary scholarly and creative accomplishments to UH M?noa, in order to benefit the academic and the larger communities of Hawai‘i. He will be holding the chair, and in residence in Hawai‘i, during March of 2006, the scheduled time of production. Kumu Kahua productions are being supported by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts celebrating more than thirty years of culture and the arts in Hawai‘i (with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts); the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, Mufi Hannemann, Mayor; The Hawai‘i Community Foundation; The Hawai‘i Council of the Humanities; and Foundations, Businesses and Patrons. Home \| News \| Calendar \| Directory \| Library \| Plays Copyright 2006, Roger W. Tang Questions? Email

Kumu Kahua Presents Two Public Events in Conjunction with Current Production of Albert Wendt’s The Songmaker’s Chair