Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 11, 1 November 2013 — New Cataluna play showcases drama of family relationships [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New Cataluna play showcases drama of family relationships

ByTreenaShapiro Even while in California for graduate sehool, loeal playwright Lee Cataluna had Hawai'i on her mind. Reminders even popped up at antique stores - in the form of 1940s plates erafted at California potteries. Cataluna started eolleeting plates from the "Flowers of Hawai'i" series, whieh featured nine different pietures of tropieal flowers. "The first time I saw one, it reminded me of my grandmother's dishes. That's kind of what everyone from Hawai'i says about these plates," Cataluna deseribed by

e-mail. "They weren't faney ehina - more like everyday dishes. They were very popular in Hawai'i." The dishes ended up helping inspire some of the stories in Cataluna's new play Flowers ofUcmal 'i, whieh is opening at Kumu Kahua Theatre on Nov. 7. It's a drama, but expeet some of Cataluna's eomedy to shine through in the exploration of ehallenging relationships in several Hawai'i families - from ehildren who start elaiming their mother's possessions while she's still alive to a young mother trying to pass the responsibility for her ehildren to her own mother; along with stories of

infidelity and abuse. "People should know that this is an adult play. If it was a movie, it would be rated R. If it was a TV show, it would be on eable," Cataluna says. "It is not a light eomedy, though some parts are funny. It's dark, too. It's about a large, extended family. Families ean get pretty weird." The theatre deseribes Cataluna's latest work as a series of playlets. That's not a familiar term to Cataluna, who explains that the individual pieees grew out of her elasswork. "I had a professor in grad sehool who wanted us to only work on 10-minute plays rather than full-length pieees," she says. After getting over her iniīial frustration with the assignments, Cataluna drew inspiration from eontemporary "novel-in-stories." Then, she says, "I tried to figure out a way that I eould write 10-minute plays that eould both stand on their own and be part of a larger pieee." That larger pieee, written last year, is Flowers ofHawai'i, whieh ties together stories that were inspired by the hopieal flower designs on the plates. "The idea of dishes, a family dinner and all the drama that eomes out during Thanksgiving or Christmas - that fit into what I was working on for sehool, so the plates kind of beeame an organizing symbol for what I was writing." Cataluna says being away at graduate sehool made her home-

siek and nostalgie, but she adds, "I realized at some point that I was missing things that I didn't aetually have in my life baek home. Perfeet things. I think that gap between fantasy and reality fueled a lot of the writing I did on this pieee." While Cataluna isn't a eonstant presenee at rehearsals - she firmly believes the seript now belongs to the direetor, Harry Wong, and the east now - she did see the first readthrough and run-through and says, "I'm pretty thrilled with the east." It's more than an obligatory shout-out, she notes. "If they're not working on a seene, they sit and wateh their fellow aetors work with sueh enjoyment and admiration on their faees beeause everyone is so talented and it's eool to be in a

group with that mueh artistry." Flowers ofHctwai'i is Cataluna's first play at Kumu Kahua sinee graduating from the University of California-Riverside, but don't eall it a eomebaek. "Isn't that a term you use when a eelebrity did a stint in jail or a poliheian was horribly

disgraeed?" Cataluna quips. "I just went to grad sehool and got my master's! I wasn't even gone very long." ■ Treena Shapi.ro, afreelance writer, is aformer reporterfor the Honolulu Star-Bulletina«(7HonoluluAdvertiser.

PLAY DATES Flowers of Hawai'i premieres Nov. 7 anel repeats Thursdays through Sundays through Dec. 8. Tickets range from $5 to $20 and ean be purchased with a credit card by calling 536-4441 or visiting kumukahua.org or in person at the box office at 46 Merchant St. in Honolulu.

j NĀ HANANA v > EVENTS f

Parents, take note, Lee Cataluna, pictured, says the show may be about families, but it's not intended for children. - Courtesy photo

ūanielle Zalopany, left, and Reb Beau Allen portray members of a large extended family in Lee Cataluna's play "Flowers of Hawai'i," a eolleehon of stories about the struggles and frustrations of an 'ohana that sticks together - no matter what. - Courtesy: Kumu Kahua Theatre