Read about my journey as a playwright in my blog. 

Pulani 1989, 2015, 2016

There have been three productions of this musical play set in Guam. It is a coming of age story about a girl who is raised isolated on a hidden island by her grandmother, a suruhana (healer). When guella (grandmother) dies, Pulani knows she needs to go back to her village to find an apprentice. On her way, she meets characters, friends and foes. In 1989, it was performed at the University of Guam. In 2015, at the Island Girl Power complex in Dededo (pictured above) and in 2016, ar the University of Guam for Festpac, the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture. 
Link to 2016 production

One Minute Play Festival Honolulu 2015, 2016

This is a national program in which playwrights are asked to write one-minute plays about community issues. Its website describes it as "The American Theatre's National Social Barometer Project".  Both years that it was in Honolulu, I was on Guam, so I didnʻt get to see the production, but I love that I contributed. I post my plays here because they are so short! One minute of your time please. 
Operation: Mauna Kea
Patient (preferably female) is laying on an operating roomtable, tied down, restrained. Doctor is "operating."
DOCTOR:  This won't hurt a bit.
He attaches an upside-down white styrofoam cup on the Patient (taping it on his body).
PATIENT: Ow.
DOCTOR: You'll get over it. Here's number 2.
PATIENT: Ow! This is supposed to help?
DOCTOR: Oh yes! You are the perfect specimen for our experiments. Here's number 3.
PATIENT: Ow! Ow! I didn't agree to this torture.
DOCTOR: I don't think we had to ask you. But we did everything by the book, so there's no problem. Here's number 4.
PATIENT: How can that be? I must have rights.
DOCTOR: Nope. Number 5.
PATIENT: Aaaaah!
DOCTOR: The benefits will far outweigh the pain you are going through now. Number 6.
PATIENT: St -aaaaaaaaah - pp! What benefits?
DOCTOR: Science. To know the unknown. Number 7.
PATIENT: Whyyyyyyyyyy?
DOCTOR: Number 8.
PATIENT: Oooow.
DOCTOR: Number 9.
PATIENT: No ...
DOCTOR: Number 10.
PATIENT: Please ....
DOCTOR: Number 11.
PATIENT: Please ...
DOCTOR: Number 12. You can rest now.
PATIENT: I'm ... dying.
DOCTOR: Just one more. And this will be the biggest, the best, the one that will give you and all of us value.
He takes out a big white mixing bowl, that he turns upside down and tries to put on the Patient's stomach.
Patient breaks free of this bindings, grabs the bowl away from the doctor and crashes it to the ground.
PATIENT
No more!
Death of the ʻŌhiʻa
Tutu and Lehua enter. They are walking through an ʻōhiʻa rain forest. 
TUTU: I want you to learn about our aumakua here in the forest.
LEHUA: The pueo? 
TUTU: Everyone like their aumakua to be pueo.
LEHUA: That’s cuz they’re savage, yo.
TUTU: Yo yo!  (slaps her playfully) And this is why I want you here with me. You sound like you’re from L.A.
LEHUA: No worries, tutu. I got em. Hawaiian pride. 
TUTU: I heard her calling to me in my dreams. Two weeks ago.
(Tutu stops abruptly and sees the dead ohia tree that she has been searching for.)
TUTU: Auwe! 
(She drops to her knees and sobs. )
TUTU: She called. And I didn’t come.  Look. She make. I killed her! 
LEHUA: My science teacher was telling us about this. It’s a fungus. It no was you.
TUTU: Oh but it was. I should have been come sooner.
LEHUA: But there was nothing you could have done. 
TUTU: She was my aumakua. It was my kuleana to take care of her.
LEHUA: The scientists are trying to learn what the fungus will be attracted to, to pull it out of the tree. He said that carrots seem to work.
TUTU: Carrots?
LEHUA: Lots of experiments they’re doing. It’s kinda cool. 
TUTU: We need to honor the forest. In the old way. Chanting to the spirits. 
LEHUA: I want the scientists to figure it out. 
TUTU: That’s the problem with you kids. You don’t care about the old ways. That’s what’s killing them. 
LEHUA: I care, tutu. I’ll chant with you.. Especially if I get to cut school again. 
TUTU: Sounds like you like school.
LEHUA: Just my science class. 
TUTU: Let’s go get some carrots, Lehua girl. ​
Cheating Scandal
Signs read: DO YOUR BEST ON THE TEST. Student is taking a test on a desktop computer. Teacher looks over his shoulder.
TEACHER: You're doing good. Go on to the next question.
STUDENT 1: But I'm not sure.
TEACHER: It's good. Move on.
STUDENT 1: Oh, I get it. Am I right?
TEACHER: Just move on.
STUDENT 1: All right!
Teacher circulates. Student 2 raises hand.
STUDENT 2: I don't get this. Can you help me?
TEACHER: This is a test. I can't help you. Do your best.
STUDENT 2: It's hard. I have a stomach ache.
TEACHER: Why don't you eat the peppermint I gave you?
STUDENT 2: Okay.
Teacher circulates. Student 3 raises hand.
STUDENT 3: I just wanted to tell you. I remembered this. It's so easy.
Teacher looks at the computer screen.
TEACHER: You might want to read the directions over.
Student 3 reads it over.
STUDENT 3: Oh, I see. It's one of those trick questions. Thanks for telling me.
Alarm goes off, like a police siren. Police enter the room and puts teacher in handcuffs.
POLICE: You are under arrest. We have it all on tape.
TEACHER: Oh my god. What did I do?
POLICE: It is very serious. Cheating on a standardized test is Racketeering. You could get twenty years in jail. We have it all on tape.
In Denial
DARLENE and sister SUSIE  are talking before going into the living room where MOM is watching tv. KAYLA, the granddaughter, is also sitting in the living room but occupied by her smartphone. 
DARLENE: There’s 3 cartons of eggs. She keeps forgetting she has, and she buys more. 
(They go to the living room. SUSIE speaks from right by her. )
SUSIE: Hi mom. Hi Kayla.
KAYLA: Hi Aunty. 
(MOM doesn’t react, just keeps watching tv. SUSIE  blocks her view of the tv).
SUSIE: I said hi mom.
MOM: I didn’t know you were here.
SUSIE: Exactly. You didn’t hear me say hi to you and I was just right by you. 
MOM: I’m watching tv. 
DARLENE: It’s too loud.
(DARLENE picks up the remote to check the volume.)
DARLENE: Look mom. It’s on 75. The neighbors can hear it!
SUSIE: You have a hearing problem. You should get the hearing aids.
MOM:I hear fine.
DARLENE: No you don’t. You’re always asking me to repeat myself.
MOM: That’s because you mumble when you talk. 
SUSIE: Oh mom. Can you please get the hearing aids.
MOM: I will when I need them.
SUSIE: You need them now. 
(KAYLA has been observing how SUSIE and DARLENE has been badgering MOM. She suddenly gets up to speak.)
KAYLA: Gosh mom. Gosh Aunty. Leave Grandma alone. 
DARLENE: Stay out of this, Kayla. 
KAYLA:You guys are on Grandma’s case and she doesn’t like it. 
SUSIE: Because we want what’s best for her.
SUSIE: We’re concerned about her hearing and ... 
MOM: My hearing is fine.
DARLENE: We’re more scared that you’re losing your memory. The hearing is not the big problem. But it is tied to dementia. And that’s what’s scary! Aren’t you scared mom? 
KAYLA: You are scared. Grandma is not scared. So just leave her alone.
 (KAYLA goes to her grandma and faces her, takes her hand, smiles.)
MOM: Dear sweet Kayla. You two should smile more. Like Kayla. 

Honolulu Theatre for Youth

Christmas Talk Story (2000-2007): Annual holiday show in which playwrights are invited to write monologues from a childʻs point of view set in Hawaii. (To be published soon)
2000 - I Love My Cousin
2001 - I Am Thankful for ...
2002 - Origami Christmas Tree
2003 - Best Of - I Am Thankful For - Book and CD also published at this time with Bess Press. I am Thankful For and I Love My Cousin included 2003 - Origami Christmas Tree performed by Talking Stories in Maui as a benefit for Mediation Services of Maui 
2004 - Presents for my So-called Friends
2005 - I Believe
2006 - Christmas Pencil Fight (submitted, but rejected)
2007 - Best of - I Love My Cousin 
Mixed Plate Special 2000 - A production in which 4 short plays set in Hawaii and the Pacific Rim are performed. This one, The Taotaomona and the Two Sisters, was set in Guam.
Commission - Juan Dapaldapal, based on a Filipino folktale. 

Original Play Festival, Aloha Performing Arts Company, Kona

2007 - Ka Ikena, a directed reading
​2009 – Island Space, a directed reading

Kumu Kahua Theatre, Honolulu

2003 - Ka Ikena, a staged reading
1992 - Island Space, Short Play Prize, Kumu Kahua/ UH Manoa Theatre Dept Playwriting Contest

East West Players, Los Angeles

1982 - Wind Dances, produced as a play-in-progress, reviewed in LA Times
and Dramalogue (my first play)
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