Shipment Day

Imagine that you have stumbled upon a family secret, a relative in exile that no one in your immediate family has ever spoken of. Intrigued, you meet that relative, a Portuguese cousin, and spend the next seventeen years getting to know the circumstances of her life, her struggles and her quiet achievements. Such was the case when Hawai'i-born writer/director Lorenzo DeStefano learned about his cousin, the well-known author and leprosy activist Olivia Robello Breitha. "SHIPMENT DAY" is set in Honolulu between 1934 and 1937 and chronicles Olivia's early life experiences, including her childhood and Portuguese immigrant family life on the island of Kauai, her engagement to be married, and her diagnosis with the condition at 18. The play also covers her two and a half year confinement at Honolulu's Kalihi Hospital to the day before her shipment to Kalaupapa, the Hansen's disease settlement on Molokai where, as Hawaii State Board of Health parolee #3306, Olivia would spend the next seventy years of her life, until her death in 2006 at the age of 90. "SHIPMENT DAY" was first developed as a one-act at the Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles in August, 2015, directed by the playwright. The one-act version of "SHIPMENT DAY" won Best Play, Best Actress and Best Actor at the 2016 PlayBuilders of Hawaii New Works Festival. The World Premiere of the full-length play was presented by the Hawai'i Performing Arts Company /Manoa Valley Theatre in Nov/Dec, 2018 in Honolulu.