And away we go!

Hey everyone! Welcome to our officially unofficial Maui Academy of Performing Arts educational tour blog!

TOUR BACKGROUND

MAPA's Educational Theatre Tours have been bringing high-quality professional productions to pre-schools, elementary schools and middle schools statewide-– Maui, Oahu, the Big Island (Hawaii), and Kauai—for over 30 years. Each school year, nearly 35,000 students engage their imaginations and explore their world through the wonder of theatre. Many of these students will experience live theatre for the first time when MAPA's professional actors bring the show to their schools. MAPA changes the show twice a year – one brand new show in the fall, and another new show in the spring. For more information about MAPA, check out www.mauiacademy.org

This fall our show is called TEA TIME WITH OGRES. This fall tour is especially exciting because it is a puppet show. The puppets we are using are very high quality too. They were designed by a very creative man who used to work for Jim Henson and Sesame Street, but now does landscaping in Haiku, Maui.

THE SHOW HAS THREE ACTOR/PUPETEERS:

Rebecca Narrowe
(Devin, Pink, Servant)



Kai Johnson
(Brown Nose, Nobleman)


DARYL
(Grandpa, the Hitoshi’s, Shigeyru, Momotaro)

WHAT WE DO:

Each school day, we go two to four schools and perform a show for 50+ kids. We perform for children By the end of our 10 week tour we will have been seen by over 18,000 kids statewide!!! It’s a lot of hard work. We have about 9 pieces of set/sound equipment which we need to load in, build, perform on, break down, and load out every time we go to a new school. This is what it all looks like unassembled PICTURE. Assembled PICTURE. In addition, each of us play many multiple rolls, which makes the half hour show quite a mental and technical workout for an actor, However, each group of students is so excited to see us that there is no question our efforts our worth it.

THE PLAY (what it's about):

There is a boy named Devin who is being picked on by bully's at School. His grandpa finds out, and tells him a story about these mean, bullying Ogres named Pink and Brown Nose. These Ogres, led by Pink, are picking on everyone in town - an old couple, a shoe maker, the nobleman of the town, etc. Finally, Momotaro—a popular hero from Japanese folklore—stands up compassionately to the Ogres, and breaks the curse on Pink through a tea ceremony, and she turns back to the nice, good friend she used to be.

THE PUPPETS:

Pink - the Head Ogre (played by Becca)

Brown Nose - Pink's lacky (played by Kai)

The old Hitoshi's and Shigeru the Shoemaker (all played by Daryl)

The Nobleman (Played by Kai)

Servant to Nobleman (Played by Becca)

Come check out our daily shows and shenanigans! It’s live theater for children, so no show is exactly the same.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that when we finish our last show, and after we’ve finished discussing some tour logistics, we tour actors get to spend the rest of our day exploring the beauty and adventure Hawaii has to offer. In other words, it’s theater all morning, beaches and hikes all afternoon. Yeah, we pretty much have one of the best jobs ever