It’s not every day that a Hawaii writer’s name appears on the credits of a multi-award-winning, Emmy-nominated television show. Susan Soon He Stanton’s does, as a staff writer on HBO’s “Succession.”
She’s also the playwright for “we, the invisibles,” a drama with roots in her own experience. That play debuts in Hawaii tomorrow, in a production by Kailua Onstage Arts.
Stanton continues to call Hawaii home, but she now resides in New York and does much of her writing for “Succession” in London.
She says her knack for storytelling found fertile soil as a child in her Aiea family home, participating in conversations around the dinner table.
As a student, she was involved in Punahou School’s theater program, and at Honolulu Theatre for Youth, she had the opportunity to learn playwriting with Daniel A. Kelin II, HTY’s director of drama education. She credits that early experience with launching her career.
After writing her first play, “everything clicked and I found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Stanton said.
Under her belt are a degree from New York University, an MFA from Yale’s School of Drama and writing residencies and productions all over the world. She’s created a theatrical adaptation of Disney’s “Moana” for students, and says her knowledge of seafaring came from writing “Navigator,” a 2010 production for HTY in collaboration with the Polynesian Voyaging Society.
”WE, THE invisibles” was inspired by one of Stanton’s part-time jobs between theater gigs. It’s backdrop is the bombshell 2011 charge by a West African maid that she had been sexually assaulted by International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
“The play is a journey through memories of years working in the hotel industry and interviews with my co-workers, many of whom had immigrated to New York,” Stanton said. “This play tells deeply personal stories from people and cultures that folks in Hawaii may not have had a chance to encounter before.”
Kailua Onstage Arts bills the play as “funny, poignant, and brutally honest,” taking a first-person approach to explore the complicated relationship between the powerful people who move in and out of high-priced hotels and the people who clean their rooms, serve them food and change their sheets.
“This is my most ambitious, political and personal play ever,” Stanton said. “We share rarely heard stories of people who have sacrificed everything to come to America.”
Nearly 100 different people are characterized within the play in quick succession, They are brought to life by nine actors: Therese Olival, Allison Francis, Garrett Hols, Jason Lee Hoy, Danielle Zalopany, Stacey Pulmano, Noah Faumuina, Pedro Haro and Monica Bennett.
Stanton’s goal with “we, the invisibles” dovetailed with the mission of Kailua Onstage Arts, which is “to give voice to the voiceless,” said director Kevin Keaveney.
“Susan’s writing is rich with both humor and humanity,” Keaveney said. “However, the most impressive thing to me is the way she has put herself into the play as an unreliable narrator.”
Viewers must examine each scene, seeking to determine what is “truth,” Keaveney said. “It is a brave piece of writing, in which a crusader for truth and justice can be portrayed as unwittingly complicit as well.”
Meanwhile, Stanton’s career continues to progress. Season two of “Succession” premieres on Aug. 11, and Stanton has just finished writing a play called “Both Your Houses,” commissioned by American Conservatory Theatre and Crowded Fire in San Francisco; it takes place in the wings during a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” She has just finished workshopping another new play at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
AMONG STANTON’S most spotlighted works is “Succession.” Stanton tells of being on set for an episode she wrote and seeing hundreds of extras and a highway tunnel blocked off for shooting, an experience she describes as “surreal.”
Despite her remarkable resume of theater, film and TV scripts, including some major TV projects that are still under wraps – she’s typically juggling at least five – Stanton lists some of her Hawaii-centered work as highlights in her career.Projects like her screenplay “Dress,” set in Kailua, and directed and performed by Henry Ian Cusick. Or, among several scripts produced at Kumu Kahua Theatre, her Po‘okela-winning “#iambadatthis,” an experimental play that relied heavily on sound, which she developed at Sundance Theatre Labs.
“Hawaii is a unique place and stories by local writers need to be told,” she said. “Generally, every other play I write takes place here.”
Stanton’s Hawaii-born mother Barbara Kim Stanton, recently retired director of AARP Hawai‘i, is Chinese and Korean. Her father, poet and professor Joseph Stanton, is a mainland transplant. “Hapa-ness has influenced my work quite a bit. This constant sense of displacement and living between worlds is at the center of my work,” she said.
“When I was growing up, it was rare when I saw a play or movie that reflected my life experience as a hapa girl on Oahu. Maybe that’s what first gave me the calling to be a playwright. I wanted to reflect the world that I saw back on a stage.”
Underpinning the public attention, stage work and celebrity sheen lies the work of a solitary writer.
“I believe for plays to be successful, they need to be deeply personal,” she said, adding: “There is always an emotional cost for every play I write. If I’m not terrified of the audience watching the show, then I’m not putting myself out there.”
Once her writing finds its way to the stage, or set, “that’s when the fun begins,” Stanton said. “I get to work with collaborators and see everything brought to life.”
“WE, THE INVISIBLES”
>> Where: Paul and Vi Loo Theatre, Hawaii Pacific University-Kaneohe, 45-045 Kamehameha Highway
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday through Aug. 11
>> Cost: $20-$30
>> Info: kailuaonstagearts.com
