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Prisoners’ play
tells it like it is
Inmates put together the self-
examination designed to help
heal their past and future
WAILUKU » Standing in a room with electronically secured doors, Maui prisoner Murphy Tau'a recites sentences he composed about his drug addiction, in preparation for a public performance with inmates.
"Drugs was the only thing take the place of the hurt, pain and loneliness after I lost my grandparents. I was selfish and only thought of getting high," said Tau'a, who is serving a 10-year sentence at Maui Community Correctional Center for first-degree theft.
"My kids and family used to come visit me, and they would just cry. I realized that I didn't only hurt myself. ... Then as time went on, I found out that I was a sick person and I needed help."
Tau'a is among 24 prisoners participating in the play "Na Leo i ka Pu'uwai" ("Voices of the Heart") at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's McCoy Studio Theater on Thursday and Friday. Tickets are $18 for adults and $10 for senior citizens.
Plainclothes prison guards will be accompanying the inmates to the theater and posted during the performance.
The two-act, 90-minute play, produced partly through a $25,000 grant from the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, includes individual and group pieces exploring the prisoners' past, present and future. It is performed by the prisoners themselves, including some female pretrial detainees.
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. contributed $10,000 for the production, and Maui County gave $3,000 for the theater rental.
Some prisoners said they liked that the play was based on their experiences.
"It's not like an act. It's like what we came up with," said Lance Imai, who is serving a 10-year sentence for negligent homicide.
"If some kids see what we've been through, maybe it will help them choose another path," said Rocky Vladmir, a convicted burglar and admitted crystal methamphetamine addict.
Verdine Kong, who wrote the grant for the play, said part of the intent is to help prisoners go through a self-examination and reintegrate into society.
"It's inevitable that most of them are going to come out," said Kong, a former state deputy public defender and current administrator with the nonprofit Maui Economic Opportunity Inc.
"What we're trying to do in the play is to bring to the public eye the different people in prison, what their dreams are, what they hope to become. ... A lot of them have a lot of remorse for what they've done to their families, their children, the victims."
Acting Warden Alan Nouchi of the Maui Community Correctional Center said he agreed to the production because he felt it could help to change not only the inmates, but also the public's perception of them, so they might be given job opportunities once outside prison.
"I think they have a stigma of just being losers," Nouchi said. "These are basically human beings like me and you, and what brought them into our facility ... ties into abuse, exposure to drugs and a lack of proper upbringing."
Part of the play also involves performances by a male and female inmate hula halau, Na Pa'ahao Maoli, or the True Prisoners, connecting them with Hawaiian culture and values.
Debbie Kamali'i, a training coordinator and cultural specialist with Maui Economic Opportunity, said many of the participants are Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian, and their hula heritage provides them with a connection to other people.
"It's important they retain their sense of pride ... their knowledge of their culture," she said.
Kamali'i, part of the BEST (Being Empowered and Safe Together) prison program, said the dance training teaches responsibility, patience, dedication and teamwork.
"When you're a halau, you have to work as a family," she said. "This teaches them to work with other people."
