Through the month of June Kumu Kahua Theatre is reviving Alani Apio's Kamau A`e, the second instalment in Apio's as-yet incomplete trilogy dramatising the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Kamau and Kamau A`e present the struggles over land, language, and identity between Native Hawaiians and haoles, and more importantly the same struggles within the Native Hawaiian community. But the plays present a war that is far too real, far too realistically. Indeed, Hawai`i has its own blood diamonds.

Two semesters ago I read the plays and was assigned the task of seeing into the future of Apio's Kamau universe to write the third instalment. Children are almost never thought of in times of war, so I was drawn to the character of Stevie, the little girl present throughout both plays though not always seen, in that she is the common denominator of the adults at odds with each other.

Kamau a`e—you carry forward that which needs to be remembered. One thing Hawaiians get: we know what is pono.

( Undertow )

A couple years ago, I took a bullshit theatre course to get some 'writing intensive' credits out of the way. Turns out, I didn't even need any more WIs. And while the course itself was truly bullshit, the lab sessions were pretty fun and fulfilling. I even got to write a 5-minute, 3-character play as a final project. Since I'm taking a break from writing fan fiction because, really, my brain is fan fiction-fried, I figure I may as well dig out and dust off the script and get to what I meant to do years ago: convert it into a short story.

I'd started tinkering last summer but hit some roadblocks a few chapters in, and it's been untouched ever since. Maybe this not-so-new self-assigned assignment will make my muse stop acting like such a fan fic-inclined zombie.

( 'Nicotine Fantasies' script )