If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother. When celebrated Maui artist and spoken-word poet Pat Masumoto told friends of her idea to create a performance piece dedicated to mothers everywhere, the reactions ran the gamut from reverence to angst.
If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother.
When celebrated Maui artist and spoken-word poet Pat Masumoto told friends of her idea to create a performance piece dedicated to mothers everywhere, the reactions ran the gamut from reverence to angst. There’s no in-between when it comes to that woman we call Mom.
“When people write about their mothers it’s a hot subject,” Masumoto said.
The 70 year-old playwright and daughter to Lahaina centurion Florence Shizuko Hasegawa, put a call out in January for writers world wide to share stories about their mothers. What she didn’t foresee was the flood of heated, historic and rich text that would flow her way.
“I received hundreds of stories,” she said. “What I was looking for were story tellers — I wanted to have a mix of fun, sadness, joy, grisly and silly stories. I wanted everything.”
The result, “My Mama Monologues,” a play-reading of 39 true stories told in 2009 by men, women and children about their mothers. The play premiered Mother’s Day at Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s McCoy Theater and comes to Kaua‘i for one show at 7 p.m. Sunday at St. Michael’s and All Angels Church in Lihu‘e. Masumoto, in the company of Kaua‘i performers will present the 39 vignettes.
The Kaua‘i production is being produced and directed by poet and writer Michaella Mintcheff, who has produced poetry, theater and dance events on Kaua‘i at the former Kaua‘i International Theater. The cast of readers will include Clarita Kaapuni, David Dinner, Jean Rhude, Michaella Mintcheff, Polli Oliver, Rocky Reidel and Catherine Lo — Lo is the only resident Kaua‘i writer included in the collection.
Masumoto conceived of “My Mama Monologues” first as a gift to her own mother — but that first inclination took on a life of its own. One unforeseen gift was the bond that developed between one writer and reader. The Maui writer, under the care of Hospice, attended the premiere nurse and oxygen tank in hand to hear her submission “The Most Important Woman in My Life” read on stage.
“She told her husband, ‘I must go for Mother’s Day and hear my mother’s story,’” Masumoto said. “There was this incredible connection between her and the reader.”
Another gift was learning that a director of an assisted living facility on Maui intended to introduce a similar program.
“He wants to have residents share stories about their mothers,” she said.
Masumoto received stories from authors living as far away as England, with mothers born as long ago as 1897 in as remote a place as the Andes. Capturing motherhood, full blown, the stories are ticklish, teary, bristly and heroic. Masumoto vows to have Kleenex available at the door.
In the press release Masumoto says, “In the beginning, I stayed up night after night receiving one e-mail after another, and giggled, sobbed, and even cursed. I felt myself bonding with the authors. It didn’t matter when or where or for whom Mama’s existed. There was a universal likeness.”
One quarter of the vignettes are men. The youngest contributor was a Seattle first grader who made her submission to the monologues over the phone and there were two Kamehameha students who wrote poems in iambic pentameter with rhyming couplets.
The show is two hours long with a 15 minute intermission.
Submissions are being accepted for a 2010 show. Visit mymamamonologues.com for writer’s guidelines.
Want to go?
What: “My Mama Monologues”
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: St. Michael’s and All Angels Church, Lihu‘e
Cost: $10, adults; $5, children and seniors when reservations made. At the door tickets are $15, adults; $10, children and seniors.
For reservations call,
246-6168
