Kumu Kahua Theatre Teams Up With Creatives From Chicago To Hawai‘i To Present Whilrwind 24-hour Play Festival: Mana Wahine
HONOLULU — In an exhilarating celebration of creativity, collaboration, and women-centered storytelling, Kumu Kahua Theatre teams up with Chicago’s Nothing Without a Company and Tree Moss Hawai‘i to present MANA WAHINE: A 24-Hour Play Festival on Sunday, April 12, 2026. This dynamic, fast paced event will bring together 30 Hawai’i-based theatre artists to create and perform six brand new 10-minute plays all within a single 24-hour period. The festival’s theme will be centered around women’s voices and experiences, highlighting the strength, complexity, and creativity of women both onstage and behind-the-scenes.
Now in its 10th iteration from the innovative minds at Nothing Without a Company, the upcoming 24-hour fest marks the company’s third collaboration with Kumu Kahua Theatre. Tree Moss Hawai‘i, a collective of playwrights of Hawai‘i focused on new play development and advocacy, will join in the festival for the first time.
“The 24-hour festival is such a creative rush—not only for the organizations and artists coming together and producing pure theatre magic, but also for the audiences taking in the results at showtime,” said Kumu Kahua Theatre Managing Director, Donna Blanchard. “We’re honored to be invited back for a new round by Nothing Without a Company and to join forces with our friends at Tree Moss Hawai‘i as we explore where 24 little hours takes us!”
How it Works
Six playwrights, six directors, and 18 actors will be randomly sorted into teams, with each team assigned a specific space to devise, write, and rehearse brand-new 10-minute plays. At the end of 24 hours, a final public performance of the six resulting plays immediately follows!
Catch MANA WAHINE: A 24-Hour Play Festival
When: Performance, showcasing results of last 24 hour, held April 12, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kumu Kahua Theatre, located at 46 Merchant Street in downtown Honolulu.
Tickets: Available now at Kumu Kahua Theatre’s website, www.kumukahua.org, tickets are $24—just one dollar for every hour put into creating the festival process!
About Kumu Kahua Theatre
Kumu Kahua productions are supported in part by the NME Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Island Insurance Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan of 2021, McInerny Foundation (Bank of Hawaii, Trustee); The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawaiʻi, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaiian Electric Company, Alexander & Baldwin, The John R Halligan Charitable Fund, Spectrum/Charter Communications, Vacations Hawaiʻi, ABC Stores, the Gloria Kosasa Gainsley Fund, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, The Kim Coco Fund for Justice of the Iwamoto Family Foundation, Edric Sakamoto, Ron and Rachel Heller, and other foundations, businesses, and loyal patrons.
About Nothing Without A Company
Incorporated as a non-profit in 2008, Nothing Without a Company is planting theatre around Chicago by telling the stories of historically marginalized voices through immersive and site-specific theatre in reclaimed environments. In the summer of 2005, a group of friends and collaborators from The Theatre School at DePaul and Columbia College Chicago decided to expand site-specific theatre into Chicago’s north side. Nothing Without a Company has since pushed theatre into bars, apartments, street corners, parks, alleyways, garages and backyards, and has been on the forefront of immersive theatre in Chicago— allowing the audience to be a part of the play and to choose their own adventure.
About Tree Moss Hawai‘i
At Tree Moss Hawai'i, our kuleana is to nurture the creative growth of Hawai'i playwrights, build a thriving infrastructure for new works in Hawai’i, and advocate for the voices, work, and rights of Hawai’i playwrights. We dream of a healthy and vibrant theatrical scene in Hawai’i that’s in conversation with the broader American, Asian, and Polynesian theatre landscapes. The collective was started by Creative Lab Hawai‘i Playwriting Fellows with a shared vision of fostering a stronger, more connected playwriting community in Hawai‘i. Since our founding in 2021, Tree Moss Hawai’i has helped workshop over 20 new plays, many of which have been produced in theatres across O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i Island, and the continental United States.
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