Rate My Professor Justina Mattos

Mattos is a prolific playwright and director, having written works such as Moʻo Huelo: Tale of a Tail, a Hawaiian language musical for children produced at the KEAKA Hawaiian Language Theatre Festival in 2019; Kakahiaka, another Hawaiian language musical for the same festival in 2016; and Hilo Rains, a pidgin mystery performed in 2001. She has directed numerous productions at UH Hilo and community venues, including Rent in 2019, Aloha Las Vegas in 2018, The Trial of Liliʻuokalani in 2013, and pandemic adaptations like MOORE: A Pacific Island Othello in 2020 and the Wailau online storytelling series since 2020. Key publications include the novel After Dawn (Lulu Publication Co., 2014), “Ola Nā Iwi: A Postmodernist Look at Science and Culture” presented in 2007, and “A Guide to the Archival Records of Kumu Kahua Theatre 1971-1997” (1997). She received the 2021 UH Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching. Mattos facilitates the annual statewide Keaka Hawaiian Language Theatre Festival, conducts community outreach to rural students through afterschool programs, and delivered the keynote address at UH Hilo's 2023 Spring Commencement, significantly influencing Hawaiian language theatre and education.