Andrew Kuliniasi

Collaborating with Dare2Create, this Poetry in Motion spectacle intertwines PNG superstitions and beliefs with Spoken Word Poetry and PNG Contemporary Dance, while also delving into real-life horrors faced in PNG.

The creative force behind the choreography is none other than the talented Nadya Parascos, whose extensive Dance Theatre background promises a visually stunning experience.

Kuliniasi's enthusiasm for this collaboration knows no bounds, as he anticipates a learning journey and the fruits of partnering with the best in the field.

His latest show will feature the conversation around the cost of funeral expenses and how families are affected. Here is a brief in the lead up to the show’s premier.

What is the cost of death for the living? Is it worth grieving for someone who caused you grief in life? When four siblings are burdened with the costs of a funeral, a hauskrai and the burial of their deceased father, they turn to their neglected half-brother who has the means to pay for it all.

The young playwright has made it with his stage play published by independent publisher Hibiscus Three. Andrew is the owner and Managing Director for Knack Theatre Studio Productions.

He is Victor was a stage play with bold statements to grasp people’s attention on GBV and LGBTQ community and steer them to being educated of a life either hidden behind closed doors, ridiculed by a society, all this and more leading to tragic ends, scarred moments and memories.

For so long I have envisioned to do a story that entails the length one has to go through to get their status in society recognised and understood. I am, as many would say, very different in my standing as a human being.

I advocate awareness programs through the plays I produce in hopes that it will reach to the core of someone or people who have been in denial and never knew they needed a channel to break free.

The play, set mostly on Misima Island in Milne Bay, tells the thousand-year-old legend of Sine Kepu, matriarch warrior and leader. It features witchcraft, intra-familial marriage, spear fighting and traditional song and dance.

Andrew Kuliniasi, the play’s 16-year-old writer and director, says he hopes Meisoga not only makes people from Milne Bay feel proud of their culture, but also Papua New Guineans.

The play is about the legend of how Meisoga matriarch warrior, Sine Kepu, led her clan to find an island to save their lives and reclaim and protect their culture.

Set many centuries ago, the play tells of how the Meisoga tribe eventually found a new home on Misima Island in Milne Bay.

Fellow actor, Alphonse Aisi, says Meisoga is an important play for Papua New Guinea.

“Today the younger people forget their culture. Plays like Meisoga help keep the culture alive,” said Aisi.

So Loop PNG Entertainment had a chat with the young director to know more about him.

Kuliniasi is from Milne Bay and currently a grade 11 student at Port Moresby International School (POMIS).

He was drawn to the magic of theatre by age eight and started taking part in school productions by age 12.

It were the Disney films that attracted him and the first theatre play he directed was a Disney film remake of Hercules in 2015.

The play is said to be a historically-fictitious play, based on how the Meisoga clan came to be on the island of Misima in the Milne Bay province.

The Meisoga is one of the biggest clans on Misima Island and the word Meisoga itself means Sea Eagle.

Kuliniasi is 14^th generation Meisoga – biggest clan today in Milne Bay Province, and wants to capture the story of this clan, which he says has been lost in time.