Noa Gardner
Noa Gardner is a Native Hawaiian poet and playwright born and raised in Kaimuki on the island of O’ahu. He recently graduated from the University of Southern California with an MFA Dramatic Writing. Noa investigates different aspects of Hawaiian culture, people, as well as his own family, through his writing. Much of his work centers on family dramas, specifically Hawaiian families in Hawaiian homes. He was a national finalist for the Gary Garrison Ten Minute play award (2016) and has had his plays read in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Son of Semele Ensemble, Los Angeles Theatre Company, and Pasadena Playhouse.
Sean Dunnington
Sean Dunnington is a queer Jewish playwright, screenwriter, and civic artist living between Manhattan and Honolulu. Raised in a rural cowboy town on Hawai’i Island, Sean taught himself how to belong by writing his own stories. Sean’s work has been produced and presented Off-Broadway and in regional theatres nationwide, as well as libraries and galleries, state museums, public radio stations, and LGBTQIA+ centers. Select plays include “Authoritarian” (Tisch Goldberg Theatre), “The Children’s Farm” (Magic Theatre), “Flat Fish” (LabTheatre), “Zap” (Lounge Theatre), “Small Minds” (The Worms), “Hawaiian Shake” (University of Redlands), and “The Undocumented” (Manhattan Repertory Theatre). Sean’s award-winning debut feature film “My Partner” has premiered in over twenty festivals worldwide, including the Hawai’i International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Beijing Queer Film Festival. Sean has been in artistic residence with the East-West Center, Ka Waiwai Collective, The Orchard Project, and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center. He’s been a fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Creative Labs Hawai’i, California Arts Council, LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ Youth, National Collaborative for Health Equity, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Sean founded Tree Moss, the first-ever national collective for emerging Hawai’i playwrights, which supports and cultivates new Hawai’i plays. Sean’s commitment to democratizing storytelling practices and frameworks has led him to facilitate over a hundred writing workshops and story circles for non-profits, public schools, and community centers across Hawai'i, including the Hālawa Correctional Facility, Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative. Sean has returned to his hometown on Hawai’i Island every summer for the past decade as the Program Director of the Kahilu Performing Arts Workshop, an annual theatre arts education program dedicated to empowering Indigenous and low-income youth. Sean's belief in the expansive potential of playwriting extends beyond the stage to maps and communal healing processes. Sean has integrated playwriting with maps, crafting dozens of StoryMaps that visually depict queer belonging through narrative geography. He also actively contributes to Restorative Justice Initiatives, EDI Committees, and Racial Healing Circles, employing playwriting as a tool for individuals to voice their own narratives and foster mutual understanding amongst one another. Sean received his BA in Applied Playwriting from the University of Redlands’ Johnston Center for Integrative Studies. He will soon graduate with his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Keali'iwahine Hokoana-Gormley
Kealiʻiwahine Hokoana (she, her) is a Native Hawaiian dramatist from the island of Maui. She received her BA in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, her AA in Liberal Arts from University of Maui College and her high school degree from the Kamehameha Schools. In 2003 she co-founded a local 501(c) 3 non-profit theater company in Hawaiʻi called Talking Stories, where she wrote and produced many of the productions. Keaʻs plays have shown all over Hawaiʻi and even at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her play “The Legend of Kaululaʻau” was housed at the Ritz-Carlton-Kapalua for about a year. Her play “Koi, Like the Fish” was made into a film and shown all across Maui by the Office on Aging as an impetus for discussion about elder abuse. She is in her third year of being a member of Tree Moss.
Mākena Miller
Mākena Miller (She/They/Mak) grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mak moved to New York City and experienced her first winter (yikes!) when she attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and as a result Mak now has a proper winter coat. Soon after Mak dove into improv at UCB (advanced study), as well as other comedy theaters in New York. Mākena has an MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theater and recently trained with Philippe Gaulier, CLOWN ALERT! You can catch her at various comedy shows in Brooklyn doing what she loves best, bearing it all and being goofy as hell!
Daniel Akiyama
Daniel Akiyama is the author of the full-length plays A Cage of Fireflies (Sundance Institute Theatre Lab selection; O’Neill finalist) and Games for Boys (Sundance and O’Neill finalist). His short plays include Udder Paradise, The Bitter Fury and Magnificent Vengeance of Don Clown, and an adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper. Daniel has worked with members of the Keakalehua Playwrights Hui on Searching for Keaka and Waiau, two experiments in linked collaborative writing. A graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Daniel studied playwriting with Dennis Carroll, Y York, Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, and Daniel A. Kelin II. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, New Play Exchange, and Tree Moss Playwrights, is honored to serve on the board of directors of Keakalehua and on the community advisory board for the Edward Sakamoto Collection at UH Mānoa, and was a nominee for the 2023 United States Artists Fellowship.
Hannah Ii-Epstein
Hannah Ii-Epstein (she/her/hers) was born and raised on the North Shore of ʻOahu and received her MFA at Northwestern University. She is a creative writer, award winning dramatist, and Artistic Director of Nothing Without a Company. Hannah is a founding member of BearCat Productions, a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a 50th season writer at Kumu Kahua Theatre, a board member at Aloha Center Chicago, and a member of the Ke Aliʻi Victoria Kaʻiulani Hawaiian Civic Club, Ke Kula Kupaa O Ka Pakipika hālau, and Tree Moss a professional collective for Hawaiʻi playwrights. Hannah is a 2021 recipient of 3Arts Make a Wave grant and About Face Theatre’s Playwright Artist Grant. In 2023, Hannah worked as a Co-Curator on "Chicago’s Legacy Hula” exhibit at The Field Museum (closing March 9, 2025) as well as a panelist and playwright at the first ever APIDA Arts Festival in Chicago, IL.
Kelsie Pualoa
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