Who’s your mama?

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"My Mamma Monologues"

When: 7 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. May 10

Where: Maui Arts & Cultural Center's

McCoy Studio Theater

Cost: $20 $15 kids and students (with i.d.)

Details: www.mymamamonologues.com

Oh, the stories 100-year-old Florence Hasegawa could tell. There's the day she was honored as Maui County's "Outstanding Older American Women of the Year," or the time she was nearly killed after being hit by a truck, or the day she retired from her job as a marriage license agent of nearly 70 years.

Should the exact details begin to fade, Hasegawa can simply thumb through her stack of journals - decades worth of meticulous notes. Everything from a grandchild's birth to the name of the refrigerator repairman - it's all in there. No doubt, in more than a century of living this spry firecracker of a woman is quite literally a force of nature - just ask her daughter.

"For years now I've been talking with my friends about my mother and some of it is precious and other times it's just ranting," admits Hasegawa's daughter, Pat Masumoto. "The thing that I discovered is that she's a very good subject to tell stories about. She's such a character - I think all mothers are characters."

That's the idea behind "My Mama Monologues," a collection of true stories about moms from around the world. Inspired by her own mother, Masumoto has created this powerful play reading to reintroduce listeners to perhaps the one person they know best. Structured like "The Vagina Monologues," this collection of anecdotes centers on the good, the bad and the funny moments of motherhood. It's no coincidence the show is opening on Mother's Day weekend, at 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's McCoy Studio Theater.

There's the fast-talking scatterbrained mother who bounces from one random topic to the next. There's the stubborn Filipino mother who defied her parents by marrying for love instead of money. There's the elderly mother suffering from Alzheimers - and wandering tendencies.

Then there are the stories about the "tough old bird" Mrs. Hasegawa, including the day she nearly lost her life. In 2004, the 4-foot-8-inch Hasegawa was rushed to the hospital after being hit by a reversing truck and dragged several feet along the pavement. While her bones remained intact, the skin on her arms and legs was scraped off. It took four months of extensive surgery and physical therapy to recover.

"At first I was going to do a whole bunch of monologues just on my mother, but then some of my friends had really juicy stories to share, too," Masumoto explains.

So she launched an e-mail campaign asking friends to pitch their stories and created a Web site to promote the project. Authors of assorted cultures and ages answered the call by submitting nearly 200 stories, one from as far away as England. Masumoto chose her favorites and worked feverishly, quickly becoming intimate with the stories and their tellers.

"I've worked day and night with these people and gotten to know their most intimate secrets," she explains. "Because of the process of this we've really bonded and I feel like we've become a family."

The authors range from the youngest at age 7 to the oldest at age 89. Like the mothers they are describing, each story is unique, capturing a mix of styles and emotions - from uplifting messages of heroic mothers to disturbing memories of abuse.

In some cases the authors will read their own stories. Others will be told by some familiar Maui faces, including Mana'o Radio disc jockey and comedian Kathy Collins, former Schaefer International Gallery director Darrell Orwig, and Maui playwright Jennifer Fahrni. Masumoto promises lots of laughs and even a few tears by the show's end.

"I'm gonna hand out Kleenex at the door," she reports. Yes, she's serious.

"There are a couple stories that every single time I read them, I cry."

One in particular, titled "Mom's Last Day on Earth," tells the story of a son's unexpected final day with his mother.

"As I was helping with the editing, I cried. Then when I got a cast to audition for it I cried. It's such a beautiful story that I simply talk about it and I cry," Masumoto says as she wipes away tears.

Masumoto is no stranger to the stage. This busy extrovert has been known to slam the mic at a spoken word competitions, write and produce plays and belt out "art rock" sounds with her band, Sing Sing Laugh Laugh.

"Many times I have a purpose, but this is one project where I'm really going with the flow because it just speaks for itself. It's a universal theme and everyone will have their own reaction to it," Masumoto says.

Maui audiences will get the first peak at the monologues, with performances also planned for Oahu on May 15 and Kauai on May 17. An encore performance is already in the works for next year.

"I'm already asking for submittals for 2010," says Masumoto. "I want to have it grow and make it happen every year because I really see the value in it."

Reach Lehia Apana at lehia@mauinews.com.