Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 5, 1 May 2023 — A Mo'olelo Becomes a Musical [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Mo'olelo Becomes a Musical

Ikaikū Mendez (center front) teaches choreography to dancers from Komehameho Schools Moui (KSM). The rehearsol wos for Mendez' original musicol "'A'apueo - The Bottle of the Owls" whieh begon as his senior project for UH Mōnoo's Music Deportment and grew into ū full scole musical production complete with ū script ond nine original songs composed by Mendez. Bosed on the mo'olelo of the owl, 'A'opueo, the performance wos presented in February ot KSM's Ke'ōpūolani Hole ouditorium to a pocked house. - Photo: Kamehameho Schools

By Puanani Fernandez-Akamine What began as Ikaika Mendez' senior projeet to eomplete his degree in musie from UH Mānoa grew into an original musieal theatre produetion that played to hundreds of people in three performanees at Kamehameha Schools Maui (KSM). "I could choose between a recital or a project," said Mendez, who graduates this month. 'A recital would mean standing next to a piano and singing a lot of Italian, German and Latin songs. So I asked my advisor if I could do a project that incorporated mele Hawai'i instead." His advisor was supportive and Mendez initially planned to do a concert. As Mendez was working on the concept for his project, in what ean best be described as serendipitous timing, he was contacted by Jay-R Ka'awa, KSM's head of Extended Learning and Summer Programs. "Kumu Jay-R asked me, 'Ikaika, how ean we get hana keaka (Hawaiian theatre) on the Maui campus?' And suddenly it clicked. I asked her if I created a hana keaka for the campus and used it as my senior project, would that work? And she said 'yes - let's do it!" Born and raised in upcountry Maui, Mendez is a 2019 graduate of KSM. Although he currently resides in Honolulu to attend UH Mānoa, he also interns at his alma mater in the Hawaiian Language, Literature and Performance Department under his former Hawaiian Ensemble Kumu Kalei Aar-ona-Lorenzo, whieh is how he happened to be on Ka'awa's radar. Onee he decided to create a hana keaka production, Mendez needed to figure out what to write about. He landed on a somewhat obscure mo'olelo (story) about 'A'apueo, an owl for whom the ahupua'a of 'A'apueo, where the KSM campus is located, is named. "When I was a student at KSM we learned the mo'olelo

about how 'A'apueo's eggs were broken and how the owls went to war with the kānaka, but our understanding was shallow," Mendez said. "I thought, oh my gosh, we need to do this mo'olelo, this needs to be the one." Fluent in olelo Hawai'i, Mendez turned to nupepa.org to find the only written account of the mo'olelo. When he did, he was surpised at how short it was. "I thought it was a big legend, but it was only a eolumn and a half in the newspaper." Mendez realized he needed help to dive deeper into the meaning and details of the mo'olelo so he turned to two Maui cultural practitioners, Kumu Hula Cody Pueo Pata and KSM Kumu Hokuao Pellegrino, for guidance. "Before I contacted them I did my own translation and interpretation of the mo'olelo," Mendez recalled. But he was "hlown away" by the 'ike eaeh kumu shared and their own interpretations of the kaona (hidden meaning) of the mo'olelo. "Kumu Pueo has knowledge learned from a kupuna named Diane Amadeo. He used to sit with her and she taught him SEE A MO'OLELO BEC0MES A MUSICAL ON PAGE 11

In this poignant scene from the musicol, 'A'opueo weeps over the death of her children ūs she tenderly gothers their broken eggshells. - Photo: Courtesy of Ikaika Mendez

A MO'OLELO BECOMES A MUSICAL Continued from page 10

Ikaikū Mendez provides direction to the choir of his musicol production "'A'opueo - The Bottle of the Owls." The experience of writing, directing and producing o musical has inspired him to pursue ū moster's in hana keaka (Howoiian theotre). - Photo: Courtesy oihika Mendez

this mo'olelo. He is the only one who learned the mo'olelo from an aetual manaleo (native speaker) so he had extra mana'o that was never written in the newspaper," Mendez said. "And Kumu Hokuao is a mahi'ai, an aina guy, who had all the maps and knew where everything in the mo'olelo happened." The ereative proeess of blending together the details of the mo'olelo and the mana'o gleaned from Pata and Pel-

legrino was exeiting but intense. "I was on a very short timeline. I needed to begin teaehing the students in Oetober, but I had only just reaehed out to them in July. So all of July into August was dedieated to researeh, nūpepa and maps." Onee he had the storyline, he needed to turn it into a hana keaka. "I didn't know how to write a seript, so I eontaeted Kumu Haili'ōpua Baker," Mendez said. Baker is the direetor of UH Mānoa's Hawaiian Theatre Program, Ka Hālau Hanakeaka. With her help, Mendez transformed the mo'olelo into musieal produetion. At first Mendez planned to make it a full musieal (like an opera where all lines are delivered in song), but that proved to be a ehallenge given the timeff ame so he deeided to ereate musieal pieees linked together with dialogue. Titled 'A'apueo - The Battle ofthe Owk, his hnal seript ineluded nine original songs. "The senior projeet requirement tasked me to showease what I'd learned as a student in the musie department. As a Kanaka, although I learned a lot about western musie theory and performanee, it aetually opened my eyes to Hawaiian musie," Mendez explained. "So I wanted to ineorporate Hawaiian instruments, and everything from aneient ehant to modern Hawaiian musie." While some of the original musie that Mendez eomposed is true to traditional and modern Hawaiian musieal styles, he also ineorporated a few other musieal genres into the produetion sueh as rap, R&B, a eontemporary ballad, and a number he deseribes as "very Disney

prineess musieal theatre." In Oetober, with seript and musie in hand, Mendez began rehearsals for the produetion with 46 haumāna ffom KSM's Ka Pā Hula o 'A'apueo and Hawaiian Ensemble and the support of eampus kumu. Rehearsals for the musieal spanned four months and the produetion debuted in February at KSM's Ke'ōpūolani Hale auditorium. Mendez had planned for just one performanee, but that day some 800 people eame to see the show. The auditorium only seats about 500, so people had to sit outside and wateh the show on television sereens. With the support of eampus leadership, Mendez seheduled two additional shows the following week. The performanee featured Keikialoha Kahokuloa on the piano aeeompanied by KSM kumu. Keikialoha, a gifted musieian, is a fellow UH Mānoa student who Mendez met after he "happened" to hear playing his guitar while walking aeross eampus. More serendipity. By all aeeounts, 'A'apueo - The Battle of the Owls was a sueeess and it more than satisfied Mendez' graduation requirement. But beyond that, the experienee piqued his interest in theatre and in March he applied to UH Mānoa's Hawaiian Theatre Program to pursue a master's in fine arts degree. "This whole journey has taught me to look at mo'olelo differently," reflected Mendez. "I learned that the kaona of mo'olelo ean be different for everyone - and we have the ability to contextualize [mo'olelo] and apply it to our own lives without changing it." ■