‘Maui’ tale
in Hawaiian comes
to stage
By Kekoa Catherine Enomoto
Star-BulletinMaui -- the Hawaiian demigod who introduced the 'awa drinking ceremony, captured the sun in order to lengthen the days, and discovered how to make fire by outwitting those tricky mudhens -- comes to the stage in a Hawaiian-language play. (Nonspeakers, don't fear; it's like enjoying opera in Italian.)
Members of Ka Halau Hanakeaka stage "Mauiakamalo, Ka Ho'okala Kupua O Ka Moku -- Mauiakamalo, the Hawaiian Hero for all Times" at 8 p.m. tomorrow. This Oahu premiere is at Ke'elikolani Auditorium on the Kamehameha Schools campus. Performances of the play will also be given next week on Maui and Kauai.
Writer/director Tammy Haili'opua Gonsalves Baker, a University of Hawaii master's degree candidate in theater directing, and her husband, UH Hawaiian-language lecturer Chris Kaliko Baker, are co-producing "Mauiakamalo." It's their second Hawaiian-language production in two years.
The play features aspects of romance, abduction and mano a mano battle when Mauiakamalo defeats the devious bat, Pe'ape'amakawalu, to rescue his own beautiful bride, Mahanaulu'ehu.
"It's not myth, we call it tradition," Kaliko Baker said.
New look at tradition
What: "Mauiakamalo, Ka Ho'okala Kupua O Ka Moku - Mauiakamalo, the Hawaiian Hero for all Times"
