(Introduction written by Jacquelyn Pualani Johnson)
What was next? It had been over two years since the play reading group had assembled. Weekly, we read. We considered. We cried. We guffawed....and...speculated, suggested, challenged, proposed, praised, spat-out, and zipped-up all the reactions we had to reading and discussing over 135 plays. Most were full-length, some were short. Many were anchored in our chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific. Others spanned the globe, wending through time and space and realities beyond.
The logical next step was to begin writing ourselves.
That’s where Peter Charlot stepped in. Peter. Playwright since the early 70s. Volcano resident for thirty years. Observer of human nature and intelligences. Ninja Slippah afficionado. In the final two months of his life, he summoned the theatre muse – Keaka—and set us up writing Renshi-style.
Renshi? Where one writer picks up where the previous left off? Pololei. And so Renshi I was born: Searching for Keaka, a title Peter conjured in his unquestionably wise way of doing things. Writers participated in a search that began in the darkened bowels of the UH Hilo Theatre, traveled up Mauna Kea, landed in Hilo Hospital, drifted to a beach, and finally ended where “Light floods the room, revealing the walls and floor and ceiling and furniture of the dressing room, and the detritus of costume pieces and props littering the floor.” Nothing short of a full circle, deftly codified by the Hui member who commandeered Renshi I, Daniel Akiyama.
So, too, did Peter end, on November 7, 2021, at 4:00 a.m. Quietly. His loving wife and daughter, Darcy and Nicolyn, the audience for his final curtain call. But his end was only in terms of Earthly existence because his spirit fueled Renshi II.
But this time the group gathered under the moniker Keakalehua --we had found our keaka!--and Karen Yamamoto Hackler set the challenge: write by using ʻōlelo no’eau, the wise sayings that permeate Hawaiian culture. There were the usual conundrums: a three-day turn around?...number of pages?... should one scene relate to the next?...any restrictions on the number of characters?...what about a theme?... should each person read the previous scene, as was done in Renshi I, to anchor each attempt in a semblance of continuity?
And so the discussion ensued. But our doyenne, Victoria Nālani Kneubuhl, whom we laud and deeply cherish, cut to the chase, giving all focus: the commonality would be the use of ʻōlelo no’eau. No other connective tissue would be needed.
Vicki opted to begin the process, untying the traditional lei maile with #802: He manu hānai ke kanaka na ka moe, The person is like a pet bird belonging to the realm of sleep. In the fashion of solid bookends, our Keakalehua Play Reading Hui founder, Dr. Justina ʻŌlalimākiaikalauaki Mattos, would wrap up by writing the final scene. The end result: a total of sixteen 5-page efforts, each based on the ʻōlelo no’eau supplied by the preceding playwright. It took nearly eight weeks of concerted effort, June 3, 2022 to July 26, 2022.
As is warranted in an introduction—framed by the expectations found in the academic world where I cavorted for 38 years—I had to do my homework and begin with the Pukui masterpiece where 2,942 ʻōlelo no’eau nestle. The first discovery? The editors of the impressive tome made clear that: “Each saying is offered as a separate, individual distillation of thought.” And, “Ambiguity.....is in fact an intentional aspect.” These editorial insights – wise, in-and-of-themselves -- helped me to accept the range of ideas and approaches undertaken by the sixteen playwrights of Keakalehua who contributed to Renshi II. They clearly paid homage to the adage, “write what you know.”
Diverse? Beyond belief. Note this tally:
General charcteristics:
Total number of characters in all scenes: 75
Age range of characters: below 10 years of age, to kupuna (elders)
Ethnicities of characters: Hawaiian, Chicano, Caucasian, Japanese, Portuguese,
Filipino, Hapa-haole, Greek
Historical figures as characters: 3 scenes
Locales utilized:
Geographical locations: Hawaiʻi, San Diego, Alaska, Ancient Greece
Actual locales: Homes, bedrooms—including a royal bedroom; a dorm, a company lounge, a high school; also the ocean, dream worlds, the future; a hill, water, a sunset.
Stylistic qualities:
Serious in nature: 12 scenes
Comedi in nature: 2 scenes
Other form- parody: 1 scene
Time periods:
Contemporary settings: 13 scenes
Antiquity: 2 scenes
Languages utilized:
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi: 3
Creole Pidgin English: 7
Other: Spanish, Japanese
Special considerations:
Scenes involving spirits or ghosts: 7
Scenes utilizing dreams: 5
Recognition of those who contributed to this eclectic collection is a requisite part of any introduction. To this end, I decided to ask the writers to respond to a simple scenario: someone walks up to you, taps you on the shoulder and asks, “Who are you?” What would be your response? I invite all readers to take a gander at the final pages of Renshi II where you will find the writers’ self-descriptions. So insightful.
“To know the sayings is to know Hawaiʻi,” stated Eleanor Lilihana-a-i Williamson, writer of the introduction to Ōlelo Noʻeau, and Mary Kawena Pukui's assistant in field work in Kaū back in 1959. Her thoughts fed my need to anchor our Hui work on our ʻāina, the Moku o Keawe, Hawaiʻi Island.
Nothing is more emblematic of our jewel of an island than our massive Mauna a Wākea. “...a deeply sacred place that is revered in Hawaiian traditions...regarded as a shrine for worship, as a home to the gods, and as the piko of Hawaiʻi Island.” A vision came to me of our collective being drawn to Lake Waiau at the top of Mauna Kea. We gathered at the edge, and as we leaned over to see our reflections in the slick of water, they became one. Each person was distinctive, yet connected by wai, a life force, that also means “to retain, place, leave, remain.”
ʻAe, by writing Renshi II, we had joined forces and had left a part of ourselves to be mused upon...and guffawed, speculated, suggested, challenged, proposed, praised, spat-out, and zipped-up...once again. There was vulnerability in the act of writing, but there also was a power that bound us kekahi-i-kekahi.
Waiau translates as “swirling water,” a manaʻo that succinctly collects all the images, words, tempi, pulsations, inferences put into Renshi II.
And, so, Renshi II: Waiau is now among us.
This introduction to Waiau is lovingly dedicated to Therese Barnette; a cosmopolitan woman who chose our Pacific World where her travels and influences found home in our embrace. A hui hou...A tout a l'heure.
