Lee Cataluna

Maui-born author/playwright Lee Cataluna is acclaimed for her insightful plays and novels that highlight local life in Hawaii. Some of her most popular plays include “Aloha Attire,” “Uncle’s Regularly Scheduled Garage Party is Cancelled Tonight,” “Folks You Meet at Longs,” and “Flowers of Hawai’i,” which Maui Onstage will present at the Historic Iao Theater opening on Feb. 14.

Among the enthusiastic reactions to her plays, Cataluna recalls, “a man in the audience holding on for dear life to the railing next to him because he was laughing so hard he was afraid he might fall out of his chair. That was pretty good.”

On Yelp an audience member responded to viewing “Garage Party” as “probably the most fulfilled night of entertainment I have had in a very long time.” And a response to “Flowers of Hawai’i:” “A local classic. Lee captures so much of family dynamics in Hawaii, and so well. A must-see!”

A play-in-scenes, “Flowers of Hawai’i” explores an extended Hawaii family dealing with a variety of issues from infidelity to drug addiction, plus troubles that aren’t as common.

It’s about “a diverse Hawaii family where almost nobody gets along, but we know there’s real, durable love there,” Cataluna explains. “It’s similar in structure to plays like ‘Almost,’ ‘Maine’ and ‘La Ronde.’ The audience meets different branches of the family in separate scenes and then we see everybody all together in their dysfunctional, wonderful glory at the end. These are people you know and love, even if you don’t always like them. It’s straight-up comedy, but there are moments of heartbreak as well as mature themes.”

Inspiration for the play came from a grad school assignment. “I had a playwriting teacher who gave us assignments rather than have us work on full-length plays,” she recalls. “This drove me crazy because I didn’t want to just write short scenes that didn’t amount to anything useful. I decided to try to connect each assignment so that I could put all the scenes together in a single full-length play.”

Then when she encountered some plates in an antique store from the Santa Anita Ware Flowers of Hawaii collection, made in the 1940s, they “reminded me of my Tūtū, and thinking of my extended family brought different stories to mind. I decided to use the set of plates and the 9 flower designs to structure the piece so that each scene was connected to one of the flowers. As we are often reminded, Queen Liliʻuokalani referred to the Hawaiian people as her flowers, so the title of the piece is connected to that as well.”

Directed by Camille Romero, Maui OnStage’s production of “Flowers of Hawai’i,” features an array of actors including Ami Pearce, Samson Ching, Samantha Maxwell,Victoria Navarro, Virginia Sandell, and Francis Tau’a.

Born in Wailuku, a Baldwin High School graduate in 1984, she recalls, “I went to school with Francis Taua and I’m such a fan and so excited that he’s doing this play. And I know Camille Romero and (Maui OnStage’s) Luana Whitford-Mitchell from back in the day, so getting connected with those two super talented Maui wahine is pretty special too.”

Cataluna first became enamored with the magic of live theater in elementary school. “Seeing a play when I was in first grade and thinking that telling a story that way was the most powerful, magical thing and so much better than television,” she says. “I always liked to write, but I had no idea that being a writer was something that I, a Portuguese/Hawaiian girl from the neighbor islands, could be. Much aloha to my Baldwin teachers, Mrs. Charlotte Boteilho, who taught us to never let anyone tell us what we couldn’t do, and Mr. Larry Gaddis, who believed in my writing before I believed in it myself.”

A long time columnist for the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Advertiser, she most recently has published articles in Honolulu Civil Beat, with titles like “Let’s Look At The Fireworks Problem From A Different Angle,” “Hawaii’s Greatest Leaders Were Childless Women” and “Maui’s Identity Crisis Is On Display At Kahului Airport,” which all stir debate.

“Traditionally, a columnist is supposed to stir discussion in the community,” she notes. “I don’t particularly enjoy stirring things up. That’s not my nature. However, I think that has led to my longevity as a columnist. I’m not picking fights to get attention. I’m trying to write about things in a fair way from an angle that maybe hasn’t gotten much attention in the media. For the last couple of years, my focus has been on playwriting more than journalism, but Civil Beat has been very cool to let me write when I have a stretch of time between theater projects.”

This prolific author has “a play opening in Chicago in March, one touring Honolulu schools right now, and a new play I’m workshopping called ‘Stuck in Honolulu’ about how my father surprised me toward the end of his life. I have a commissioned piece for the San Francisco Playhouse and a play about Queen Emma commissioned by Arena Stage in D.C.”

Having produced over 20 plays, in terms of goals with her work, she concludes, “Most of all, I want to tell a good story. I want to write roles for really great Hawaii actors to do their thing and knock it out of the park. I want born-and-raised Hawaii people to see themselves on stage. I want people who have never been to Hawaii to find unexpected connections with the story and characters.”

Maui Onstage will present “Flowers of Hawai’i,” at the Historic Iao Theater opening on Feb. 14. The play continues on Feb. 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28 and March 1 and 2. The theater opens at 6:30 p.m. with shows starting at 7:30 on Fridays, and opening at 2 and shows starting at 2:30 on Saturdays and Sundays. The Feb. 16 performance includes a post-show Q & A with Cataluna. Tickets are available at mauionstage.thundertix.com/events/241260.