Write a play about a confrontation between a person and a cockroach.

That’s the challenge Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press put out to writers in the first month of their joint Go Try PlayWrite contest last summer, and 30 people took the bait. Apparently the writing prompt triggered strong reactions about the unwelcome inhabitants of every island home, even from those who have never written a play.

The contest will run at least until the end of this year, with different monthly prompts provided by Kumu Kahua’s artistic director Harry Wong III. One of Kumu Kahua’s missions is to provide opportunities for local playwrights and other artists to find expression in plays specifically related to Hawaii and all its cultures and idiosyncrasies.

Other prompts have included bringing a new significant other from the mainland to Thanksgiving with your local family (November) and a confrontation between locals and spring breakers surfing in Waikiki (March). The prompt for June calls for a monologue of someone delivering a commencement address at their alma mater (high school or college).

The contest requires each entrant to write a five-page monologue and/or a 10-page scene, with guidelines provided on both of the nonprofits’ websites. Scripts are submitted to the judges anonymously. The winner receives a $100 prize and a subscription to Bamboo Ridge Press, which publishes two literary volumes of poetry, prose, plays and novels every year, written by, for and about Hawaii’s people.

Playwriting is a more daunting form of writing, and there aren’t many who’ve undertaken the task in Hawaii, acknowledged Bamboo publicist Misty Sanico. Through social media posts, everyone is encouraged to give it a try. Kumu Kahua and Bamboo Ridge have often collaborated on projects, and many of Hawaii’s esteemed playwrights, including Lee A. Tonouchi and Lee Cataluna, have had their work first published by Bamboo, she said.

Tyler Miranda, whose first novel (“‘Ewa Which Way,” 2013) and poems were published by Bamboo Ridge Press, won the contest’s first round in August 2021.

“This was my first crack at playwriting,” Miranda said, though he taught the topic as an English teacher at Leilehua High School for 12 years. Born and raised in Ewa Beach, where the “mother tongue” is pidgin, Miranda said he was intrigued by the cockroach prompt in the press’ email blast. (He now works as an air traffic controller in Seattle.)

His winning play was based on a curmudgeonly character from his series of poems,“The Wretch of Makakilo,” who some readers “see as their grandma and some see as their grandpa — there is no real gender identity.”

In the play, “the wretch” starts talking to a cockroach as the bug keeps creeping closer, probably attracted by the lychee the character is peeling. Resisting the impulse to slap it with a slipper, the wretch grumbles about how his “good for nothing kids” hardly visit, then remarks that the cockroach seems to be all alone, too.

Somehow the wretch finds empathy for “the disgusting creature” because it at least offers some company. The scene closes with the wretch leaving a peeled lychee for the roach to nibble on — even keeping the kitchen light on for it before going to bed.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Miranda. “But then it’s also hopeful.”

Wong cited Miranda’s play as an example of what the theater looks for in a play — a deeper level of conflict in the human heart as it struggles with itself; an element of surprise; or something new that can be discovered every time it’s re-read. Ultimately, “it must give pleasure,” but Wong enjoys plays that offer “difficult pleasures” over the easy, superficial ones.

“It’s funny, a guy talking to a cockroach,” Wong said of Miranda’s play. “But it’s literally a process in which he’s trying to understand a struggle he’s going through, which I find is fascinating.”

The contest attracts about eight entrants per month, half of them inexperienced in playwriting, though Tonouchi, who’s built a reputation as “Da Pidgin Guerrilla,” has won the contest four times. Wong would welcome more interest, but he understands that theater has not been much of a tradition in Hawaii, and it’s a painstaking process for people to write their stories.

However, it’s incumbent on Kumu Kahua to encourage playwriting by offering a class, workshop or a contest and inspire people to attend plays as an enjoyable pastime, like going to the beach, he said. His group wants to dispel the notion that people “come get culture” at the theater.

“It’s the theater’s mission to let people know you can go to the theater and NOT see Shakespeare that you were forced to read in high school,” he said. “You can go and see yourself, your grandma, or your aunt.

“I want it to be like the same way people listen to music by Kalapana, or Cecilio & Kapono, or Kapena; it’s music that’s from here, it’s the poetry of our climate — music that’s homegrown here in the islands,” Wong said.

Next season, which begins in August, the theater is re-running classic hits that still speak to a lot of people, he said, including “Aloha Las Vegas” by Edward Sakamoto; “Lucky Come Hawaii” by Jon Shirota; “Gone Feeshing” by Lee A. Tonouchi; “Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers” by ­Lois-Ann Yamanaka; and “Folks You Meet in Longs” by Lee Cataluna.

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Go Try PlayWrite

The contest, presented by Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press, challenges local writers to try their hand at playwriting. The prompt for June calls for a monologue of someone delivering a commencement address to their alma mater (high school or college). The deadline to enter is June 30.

To read a complete list of contest rules, visit KumuKahua.org or BambooRidge.org.