Projects
Beatrice
by Dave Ragland and Mary McCallum
Portland Opera
Beatrice Morrow Cannady, a prominent leader in Oregon’s cultural community and civil rights movement of the early 1900s.
King of The Yees
by Lauren Yee
As a major player in the Yee Family Association (a men’s club formed during the Gold Rush) for nearly two decades, Larry Yee is a charming leader in San Francisco’s Chinese community. His daughter Lauren (the playwright), is eager to move away from the trappings of her childhood neighborhood, and on to new opportunities in her life. But when scandal erupts and her father goes missing, Lauren must navigate the myths and magic of Chinatown, uncover the past, and embrace her heritage in order to find her father. This funny, surreal, touching tale explores the importance of culture, race, nationality, and the joys and pains of truly getting to know family.
Past Projects
Stains
by Sarah Cho
stains is a coming-of-age comedy about a teenage girl whose family sees her first period as a burden. An autobiographical play about growing up poor, female, and Korean American in Los Angeles, stains is in development as part of Moving Arts Theatre’s 2021 MADlab Playwriting Development Program and was selected to participate at the 2022 Great Plains Theatre Commons New Play Conference.
Wayfinding
by Whitney Rowland
Directed by Lava Alapai
A fantastical, poignant comedy about Jane, an emotionally-numbed new widow, and Harrison, an inattentive, self-sabotaging fiancé. In seeking escape, these two strangers collide – both literally and figuratively – tangling their life lines and setting them on a time-bending journey involving an intercontinental plane crash, a magical forest, and a choice that leads them both to an unexpected destination.
An online stage-to-film event!
The Chinese Lady
BY LLOYD SUH
DIRECTED BY LAVA ALAPAI
The Chinese Lady tells the story of fourteen-year-old Afong Moy as she’s brought to the United States from Guangzhou Province in 1834. Allegedly the first Chinese woman to set foot on U.S. soil, she has been put on display for the American public as “The Chinese Lady.” For the next half-century, she performs for curious white people, showing them how she eats, what she wears, and the highlight of the event: how she walks with bound feet. As the decades wear on, her celebrated sideshow comes to define and challenge her very sense of identity.
October 2021
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
by Jocelyn Bioh
Paulina, the reigning Queen Bee at Ghana's most exclusive boarding school, has her sights set on the Miss Universe pageant. But the arrival of Ericka (a new student with undeniable talent, beauty, and light skin) captures the attention of the pageant recruiter — and nearly topples the social order of Paulina’s hive-minded friends. Jocelyn Bioh's biting comedy explores the challenges facing teenage girls across the globe and cautions that while beauty may be only skin deep, its pursuit can cut much deeper.
A co-production with Artists Repertory Theatre.
Portland Center Stage at The Armory
January 2020
Is God Is
By Aleasha Harris
Washington Ensemble Theatre - Seattle WA.
Is God Is is a modern myth about twin sisters who sojourn from the Dirty South to the California desert to exact righteous revenge. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award, Aleshea Harris collides the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, and Afropunk in this darkly funny and unapologetic world premiere.
The Revolutionists
By Lauren Gunderson
Artists Repertory Theatre - Portland OR.
Who runs the world? GIRLS! In 1793, during France’s Reign of Terror — a playwright, an assassin, a former queen, and a Caribbean spy walk into a room and attempt to save the soul of France while avoiding the edge of the guillotine’s blade. Olympe De Gouges is desperate to pen the perfect piece of revolutionary art for her generation, while Charlotte Corday is determined to become an assassin. Prophetic Marie Antoinette is happy to reminisce about her time in the palace while Marianne Angelle gathers intelligence to send home to the Caribbean. In a blisteringly funny portrayal, The Revolutionistsdepicts four badass women who fight for the equality of all women and for the love of their country.
Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare
co-direction - Darius Pierce, Liz Young
Anonymous Theatre
An Octoroon
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Artist Repertory Theatre
co-direction - Dámaso Rodriguez
AN OCTOROON is a raucously irreverent riff off a 19th Century hit melodrama set on a Louisiana plantation. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins offers a brazen and metatheatrical experience that twists a world of larger-than-life stereotypes into blistering social commentary. It's a hilarious and gasp-inducing satire from one of America's most thrilling writers.
“…directors Lava Alapai & Dámaso Rodríguez understand what the show is trying to do and turn everything up to 11.”
-TJ Acena, Oregon Artswatch
“Addressing race in theater—an art form too often dominated by white people in both its creation and its consumption—is an important task in any political moment, and this is one of the best treatments of it I’ve seen in recent memory.”
-Megan Burbank,Portland Mercury
“The play holds up a mirror to our ideas about race and then proceeds to shatter them…”
-Krista Garver, Broadway World-Portland
Columbinus
by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli
Inspired by the 1999 Columbine school shooting.
"The eight-member cast, drawn from across the metro area, does terrific, fiercely committed work, and the fine director Lava Alapai keeps the action tense and clear and focused."
- BOB HICKS, Oregon ArtsWatch
Charlotte's Web
by Joseph Robinette
"Alapai shows a steady hand when dealing with this complex setting and cast. She understands the story and allows a lot of humor to enhance the characters."
- Dennis Sparks
Full Review
Locomotion
by Jacquline Woodson
"Director Lava Alapai works with a sure and quiet hand as she brings us deeper into Lonnie's life and reveals more of his story."
- Carol Wells, The Oregonian/OregonLive
"OCT’s production, under Lava Alapai’s astute and sensitive direction, brings the story to fruition with theatrical richness and satisfying econom."
- Bob Hicks, Oregon Artswatch
Film/Video
48 hour film festival
lava alapai -writer/ director
jeff woods - camera/editor