Hawai’i-born writer/director Lorenzo DeStefano
interviewed by PBS Hawai’i’s Leslie Wilcox

View Online @ www.pbshawaii.org/long-story-short-with-leslie-wilcox-lorenzo-destefano

“Long Story Short” host Leslie Wilcox interviews Honolulu-born filmmaker and writer Lorenzo DeStefano, whose work explores the hidden lives of those who are often overlooked in society.

DeStefano wrote and directed “Shipment Day” (www.shipmentdayplay.com), a critically acclaimed play that had its world premiere at O’ahu’s Manoa Valley Theatre in late 2018. It tells the true story of his cousin Olivia Robello Breitha, who contracted leprosy at 18 and was exiled to Kalaupapa, Moloka’i, where she spent the next 70 years of her life, until her death there in 2006.

Leslie discusses this unique and compelling project with Lorenzo as well as his impressive body of work in Film, Television, Theater, Fiction, Non-Fiction and Photography, and how growing up in Hawai’i has formed his unique perspective on the world. (www.lorenzodestefano.com)

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PBS HAWAII - "GET CAUGHT READING" Series – Lorenzo DeStefano - April 4, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkAva_M0s-M

Hawaii-born writer/director Lorenzo DeStefano reads an excerpt from "Olivia-My Life of Exile in Kalaupapa", the memoir by his late cousin, the renowned author & leprosy activist Olivia Robello Breitha (1916-2006).

OLIVIA'S BOOK available from Pacific Historic Parks - https://pacifichistoricparksbookstore.org/products/50023

OLIVIA'S AUDIOBOOK available from Audible - https://www.audible.com/pd/Olivia-Audiobook/B01MXYSFX1




A World Premiere
directed by Lorenzo DeStefano


www.shipmentdayplay.com / www.visitationsmemoir.com






Thursday Nov. 8 through Dec. 2

“Shipment Day” tickets - https://manoavalleytheatre.com/shows-tickets-3/

For more information please visit
www.shipmentdayplay.com / www.manoavalleytheatre.com

Imagine that you have stumbled upon a family secret, a relative in exile that no one has ever spoken of.
Intrigued, you meet that relative, a Portuguese cousin, and spend the next seventeen years, until her death,
getting to know the circumstances of her life, her struggles and her quiet achievements.
Such was the case when Hawaii-born playwright & director, Lorenzo DeStefano, learned about his late cousin, the well-known leprosy activist Olivia Robello Breitha.

“SHIPMENT DAY” is set in Honolulu between 1934 and 1937 and dramatizes Olivia’s traumatic early life experiences. The play chronicles her diagnosis with the condition at 18, her two and a half year confinement at Kalihi Hospital,
Up to the day before her shipment to Kalaupapa, the Hansen’s disease settlement on Molokai where,
as Hawaii State Department of Health parolee #3306, Olivia would spend the next seventy years of her life, until her death there in 2006, at the age of 90.




-- AUDIENCE COMMENTS --

-- 2016 PlayBuilders of Hawai’i Reading & 2018 MVT World Premiere --


“Speaks to an important chapter in Hawaii?s history. Very poignant.” / “Instantly riveting. A highly relevant, first-person story.”
“The characters are dynamic and well-rounded.” / “Touching… Eye-opening.”
"A beautifully staged look at a painful era in island history. The playwright/director and a consistently talented cast bring the story to life with memorable success." - -Honolulu Star-Advertiser
"Exciting, heart wrenching, and peppered with comedy to ease the tension here and there, Shipment Day invites you to experience Olivia Robello’s story yourself. ..poignant and beautiful...this is a very interesting and important story to tell. - Hitting the Stage
“Brilliant. Heart-wrenching. I can?t wait to see this play in its entirety!”
“So very touched by this presentation. How blessed we were to be introduced to this inspiring lady.”
“Very movingly performed. Actors committed to telling this story.”
“History comes alive. How has a story like this not been told before?”
"Amazing show. Loved everything about it." / "A must see."
"An eye opening true story. An emotional and entertaining play."
“The characters are dynamic and well-rounded.” / “Touching… Eye-opening.”
“Makes the far away past be immediately right at our doorstep here and now in all its horrific, moving, tangible, shame-inducing intensity.”
“Shipment Day is about humans and our treatment of each other, about connection and yearning, loneliness and fear, fulfillment, hate, ignorance. This play has it all. Major standing ovation.”


2016 PLAYBUILDERS OF HAWAII NEW WORKS FESTIVAL


Best Play - “Shipment Day” by Lorenzo DeStefano
Best Actress – Kuulei Shafee
Best Actor – William Ha’o





“SHIPMENT DAY” was first developed as a one-act at the Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles in
August, 2015,
directed by the playwright.



In addition to his extensive work as a photographer, writer and filmmaker, Honolulu-born Lorenzo DeStefano’s plays include “Shipment Day”,
a November 2018 world premiere for the Manoa Valley Theatre, Honolulu. First developed at the Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles as a one-act, “Shipment Day” won Best Play at the 2016 Playbuilders of Hawaii New Works Festival. DeStefano’s other plays include “Providence”, from the screenplay by David Mercer, and “Camera Obscura”, from the 17 million word “Inman Diary”. Developed at Seattle Repertory Theatre, “Camera Obscura” received its world premiere at London’s Almeida Theatre, both productions helmed by the celebrated English director Jonathan Miller. DeStefano’s directing credits include “Shipment Day”, the 25th anniversary production of William Inge’s
“Natural Affection”, for which he received an L.A. Drama-Logue Award, Horton Foote’s “The One-Armed Man”, the world premiere of “Conversations With The Spanish Lady” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, and the world premiere of “Twisted Twain”, a one-man show by Bill Erwin. (www.lorenzodestefano.com)


http://www.pacifichistoricparksbookstore.org/olivia-my-life-of-exile-in-kalaupapa.html

The new edition of Olivia’s deeply moving autobiography,
“Olivia-My Life of Exile in Kalaupapa”, in print since 1988, is now available from



The Audiobook of “Olivia-My Life of Exile in Kalaupapa” now available from

www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoirs/Olivia-Audiobook/B01MXYSFX1
Produced by Lorenzo DeStefano & Benjamin Hamilton Narrated by Deanna Espinas
Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
Release Date: 12-20-16
Publisher: The Estate of Olivia Robello Breitha






© / all rights reserved Shipment Day Productions / Lorenzo DeStefano

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