Foibles of fictional local folks are featured in this scene from Lee Cataluna's "Da Mayah" where Jazzmin (Karen Kuioka Hironaga) appreciates the musical talents of Big Al (Stu Hirayama). Photo: Courtesy Mike Terada

Playwright steps into teaching
role at Kumu Kahua

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola Loa

For more than a decade, Lee Cataluna has been writing plays that bring to the stage wise and witty portraits of local life. From the political satire of "Da Mayah" to the musical send-up of "You Somebody", Cataluna's creations of character and plot are as profound as they are accessible, as evidenced by a heap of literary awards and the number of fans hooked on Cataluna productions.

Playwright Lee Cataluna

Cataluna herself never expected to be hooked on writing for theatre. The daughter of OHA Kaua'i Trustee Donald Cataluna, she grew up surrounded by sugar plantation life on Maui, Ka'ū on Hawai'i Island and Kōloa, Kaua'i. She graduated with top academic honors from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California and returned home to work in local television and radio. In 2000, she became a columnist for The Honolulu Advertiser.

Meanwhile, alongside her day job, she took a playwriting class at Kumu Kahua, the non-profit dedicated to promoting theatrical works with Hawai'i roots. The class sparked her interest. The rest is a new chapter in Hawai'i theatre arts history, still unfolding thanks to Cataluna's prolific scriptwriting output (she is at work on a new play based on a family member's life story) as well as her soon-to-start mentorship at the helm of the very same Kumu Kahua class, which she credits for launching her stage-writing career.

Ka Wai Ola Loa spoke to Cataluna about the class and a very cool art form, which to hear her describe it requires a note of caution: playwriting can be addicting.

KWOL: What is it about playwriting that you find appealing compared to other types of writing in your career?

Cataluna: It is interactive and collaborative. Writing is lonely, but in playwriting, your work leaves your laptop and takes on broader life. Directors, actors and audiences add to this thing you started and it becomes a very wonderful community. These characters you created in your mind start walking and talking. It's an amazing thing when an actor takes a character and starts advocating for him…. like 'this guy wouldn't say this.' But I wrote you, I am thinking! (laughs) It's also a very Hawaiian form of storytelling in the way it brings people together as lifelong friends. It's analogous to planting a lo'i or paddling a canoe. Everyone does his part, but together we are so much bigger.

KWOL: Why turn to teaching?

Cataluna: I took the Kumu Kahua class from Vicky Kneubuhl almost every year for several years. When I found out she couldn't teach it this year, I heard it coming out of my mouth: 'Maybe I can do it.' I got a taste of teaching as the Keables Chair at 'Iolani School, and I loved being in the classroom again. I found myself learning a lot from the faculty there who are all lifelong learners. It gave me confidence to teach. In the meantime, people are always sending me original works for feedback all the time. If I have time, I get back to them, but better than me giving advice, I now a chance to put a structure to this process.

Popular local playwright Lee Cataluna is set to share the skills of her art in upcoming workshop. Courtesy photo

KWOL: What are some of the skills a beginner can learn in a playwriting class?

Cataluna: Observing character traits and eavesdropping to develop an ear for dialogue and learning how to squirrel away little gem moments to use them in a larger project. Plus getting past writer's block. I think for a lot of people, writer's block is a symptom of perfectionism. If you just buy into the idea that you can get a first draft out, then you have something to work with.

KWOL: And what are some of the fatal flaws a beginner is bound to make in playwriting?

Cataluna: The tendency to tell the whole story and leave nothing to the imagination. You have to do that in soap opera for the folks who missed the show yesterday and need to catch up, but in theatre, the audience wants to work a little and put things together as the story unfolds. Think about it: when a movie lays everything out there in five minutes, you say, 'This is really junk.'

KWOL: How did you end up coming to Kumu Kahua to develop your skills as a playwright?

Cataluna: I went to New York City for the first time and decided to go to a play on Broadway. I was sitting there and it came to me: I can do something like this! When I came home, there was a flier in my mailbox about the Kumu Kahua class — like magic. How is that for a sign? (laughs). I went into the class a little scared, thinking I would be lost among all these grad student Shakespeare experts. They were there, but they were cool. Once I got over myself, I loved it. Kumu Kahua is a safe and nurturing place, too, and so different from big city theatre. This is a black box theatre—with 100 seats. An actor walks past you and his costume brushes your leg as he passes. It is like hanging out with your friends and hearing a really good story. Theatre is not an outsider's idea here.

KWOL: Can you describe audience response to your first play, "Da Mayah"?

Cataluna: It was just fiction. It was poking fun at local politics but not at anyone in particular, but people kept trying to guess which mayor I was writing about or swearing they knew exactly who I was writing about: 'That's my auntie! That's the guy I know! That's me!!' People who had never been to the theatre went back several times. I think they enjoyed the characters that looked like regular people. There is something really powerful about seeing people who represent you on stage.

KWOL: Is there a recurrent theme you like to bring out in your plays?

Cataluna: I think I like to explore how regular people try to life a live of dignity, despite the slings and arrows that come their way. This why I have found the story of my uncle so fascinating. He is the subject in a play I am writing now on commission for Kumu Kahua. It's about Kaua'i's only armed train robbery. It happened in 1920 when a man jumped on a train and stole the payroll of the plantation. It was very sensationalistic. The man convicted was my uncle and he served his time, and when he came out, he turned his life around and became a guard at 'Iolani Palace. I think it is such a wonderful story because he didn't do the crime, but he took the hit in this Hawaiian way for a guilty family member. Afterwards, he didn't let the crime define him. He lived a decent life. I am lucky to bring this to Kumu Kahua, because my concerns and sensitivity to the family will be understood. He had no heirs, and so I am having to consult with the cousins—about 200 of them, and they say, 'It's a good story. Do it!'

KWOL: You spent enough time taking theatre classes and training in Los Angeles. How would your uncle's story be treated by producers there?

Cataluna: (laughs) Might be something like, 'Where is the love interest in the story?,' or 'We know he didn't do the crime, but maybe he should.' There is very much the pressure in L.A. to be something you are not in order to be successful. I don't know if it works. I know it doesn't feel good. But that is the struggle of any artist to bring the inside out but still walk the bridge of marketability. The challenge is to find a way to express very private ideas so people can stand up and say, 'Hey, I get it!'