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OHANA ORACLE
OHANA ARTS PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL & SCHOOL ACTING
SUMMER 2013
Ohana Arts students after the finale of Footloose, the musical Ohana Arts put together for the summer of 2013.
By
Robert Ramos In the summer of 2013, after the numerous amount of paper work and preparations for the audition, I was still not sure what to expect about Ohana Arts. Apart from what I heard about it from my friends who have been in the program the past year and from several videos I've seen online, one really does not feel what this program is all about until they got to experience it firsthand. Overall, Ohana Arts is nothing more and nothing less than a gift given to me by a wonderful group of people willing to sacrifice their time and
share their wisdom to make me a better performer and a better person. This has been the busiest summer of my life so far, and the most rewarding. I definitely got so much more out of this program than I've expected and it is absolutely one of the best learning experiences I've ever had the honor to take part in. What makes Ohana Arts special? It's a program that is perfect for young musicians, dancers, singers, actors, people with a passion for the arts. All it takes is dedication, commitment, and a goal to
improve. Never before have I been a part of a program that does what Ohana Arts does. It's one thing to be casted to a musical, but Ohana Arts offers an opportunity to learn and improve one's skills as a performer as well as a chance to be a part of two musical productions. Anyone with an opportunity to become a part of this program should never take it for granted. Anyone looking for an opportunity to improve as a performer and to learn about the arts will absolutely benefit from Ohana Arts.
ACTING
THE OHANA ORACLE By Robert Ramos I've been in the performing arts for two years, and it is an amazing honor to have Jill Bolstridge as my first acting teacher. She does so well in connecting with her students and she is such an energetic and passionate mentor. Every minute I spent being mentored by her was a wonderful experience in itself. She has such great knowledge of the mechanics of acting and comedy that she's willing to share with students and she does everything she could to make sure her students become great actors. It is a blast to be in her class. In her acting class, we focused mainly on learning the mechanics of good improv. We did games and exercises that train our basic skills as performers such as cheating out, focusing, staying in character, articulating, and more. Not only that but we did games that train our eyes, ears, and brains for improv. After our period of learning the basics of improv and acting, we moved on to comedy. After learning multiple comedic techniques through several exercises and games, we started working on an original student-devised piece, "The Love Boat." The performing arts
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C-Jay Quinto, Jessabeth Aggacid, Robert Ramos, Chantelle Sonoda, Kady Valledor, and Kiana Tom work on student-devised piece, "The Love Boat."
organization I came from works a lot with improv and comedy and a lot of the exercises Ms. Jill makes us do are the same as the exercises my director does with my theater club. Improv and comedy has a lot of impacts on me as a performer. "In all of my years in theatre education, this is, by far, the best original studentdevised piece on which I have had the pleasure to work," Bolstridge said regarding "The Love Boat." This piece is by far one of the memories of this year's Ohana Arts I would always remember. With Footloose, we had to work with scripted material but with this small collection of scenes created by me and my friends, all of our wit and creativity and humor came together to make a wonderful scene everyone can enjoy. I also love how Ms. Jill gave us a lot of freedom to put our own thoughts and ideas into it, giving us the freedom to make the piece our own. Hopefully next year, Jill Bolstridge would come back and share once more her wisdom and passion for the performing arts to next year's Ohana Arts students. Now that, I would definitely return for.
ACTING
THE OHANA ORACLE
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LEFT: Students of Ohana Arts play one of Jill Bolstridge's many activities and exercises that challenge actors and encourage them to use multiple acting skills such as eye contact, cheating out, projecting and articulating, listening, reacting, poise, character, concentrating, and more. These games include "The Messenger Game," "Museum," "Cheat Out," "Zip! Zap! Zop!" and "Sheep and Shepard."
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
ABOVE: C-Jay Quinto, Jessabeth Aggacid, Robert Ramos, Chantelle Sonoda, and Kady Valledor work on "The Love Boat," a student-devised piece.
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
ABOVE, LEFT, and RIGHT: Several of Jill Bolstridge's students perform different pieces that exercise their ability in improv and comedy. They are taught several techniques in improv and comedy, given five minutes to prepare a short skit, and PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN then perform it in front of the class.
SINGING
Learning music from a very knowledgeable teacher
THE OHANA ORACLE
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Once a week, Laurie Rubin teaches a voice class which includes multiple students in their different age groups. One by one, she lets the students sing in front of their peers and receive feedback.
By Robert Ramos What better way is there to learn music and singing than from two of the most talented and most knowledgeable people I know? When it comes to learning about music as written on paper, learning about harmonies, pitch, beats, what notes sound like, and reading music by looking at the musical staff, Ohana Arts offers Ms. Jennifer Taira, the perfect teacher to learn all these stuff from. One of the first things we learned from her
class is the Solfge, in other words Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do as well as hand gestures that go along with them. With this, we were able to practice harmonies, pitch, as well as what notes sound like in different keys. We also got in different groups and practiced chord progressions through arrangements of different songs we mixed together. Added to all this, we learned about beats, different keys, reading music, blending and more. In Ms. Jenny's class. The fun never ends.
Speaking of fun, after we get through all the music education stuff, we work on songs that we sing as a group. We practiced singing songs like "Count On Me" by Bruno Mars, "Fix You" by Coldplay, "Vogue" by Madonna, "Another Day" from Rent, and "True Colors" by Cindy Lauper. All of these songs were songs we got to perform weeks later at our musical showcase, "True Colors." Working with Ms. Jenny was a lot of fun. I felt like I had a really good
opportunity to improve my singing and knowledge of music as an art. I learned that there is a lot of factors that go into music whether it's playing an instrument or using your voice. My most favorite part of all would be to sing with my friends. I felt like learning music and singing together really created a bond between all of us Fellows and it really helped when it came time to perform the songs we've worked hard on in this class.
SINGING
THE OHANA ORACLE By Robert Ramos Ms. Laurie Rubin has this quality as a teacher that just makes you believe anything is possible. She is so supportive and relaxed when she teaches you that even if you're facing a challenging lesson, you feel happy and you enjoy whatever you're doing. That's how I felt when I took her once-a-week twenty-minute private voice lessons. It all starts with breathing exercises, pitch exercises, scales, and a few other warm-ups, and you're good to go. It's one thing to be learning how to sing around other people, and another to be with only Ms. Laurie. You don't feel afraid to take risks since she's the only one who can hear you and you don't feel the pressure of being judged. That is another benefit from the private voice lessons. You get to learn how to sing even better. Added to the wisdom of Ms. Laurie, the private voice lessons can really make you a better singer if you remember not to miss any of them. All of the private voice lessons will not only be useful for "Footloose" and "True Colors," but for the Voice Recital that gives students the opportunity to exhibit what they've learned
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Members of the Ohana Arts Young Artists' Fellowship after the Voice Recital held on July 13, 2013. (Back row, from left) C-Jay Quinto, Chantelle Sonoda, Caitlin Pang, Emily White, Megan Viloria, Kiana Tom, and Harold Calipjo. (Front row, from left) Diana Chan, Robert Ramos, Sarah Daniels, Jessabeth Aggacid, Brendan Hiyane, Anthony Lee, and Jarren Amian.
with Ms. Laurie. One by one, each student who've taken the lessons will have a chance to take the stage and do a full song by themselves in front of people who decided to attend the recital. I think the recital is one of the most important things about Ohana Arts since it really gives everyone a chance to shine and it is an opportunity for everyone to have a moment to shine. I personally loved it even more since I a week before the recital, I took a trip to Nashville and couldn't go to my last private voice lesson before the recital itself. At the day of the recital, I was panicking because I wasn't able to work with Ms. Laurie. However, somehow the adrenaline of performing in front of people just took over. I kept my cool, and sang my song exactly like how Ms. Laurie taught me to sing it. I forgot everything I learned from her when I took a week break, yet when I performed at the recital, it all came back to me. I felt satisfied and extremely grateful for everything she's done.
Robert Ramos performing a song, "Grow For Me," from Little Shop of Horrors during the Voice Recital held on July 13, 2013.
SINGING
THE OHANA ORACLE
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Members of the Ohana Arts Young Artists' Fellowship after the Voice Recital held on July 13, 2013. (From left) Emily White, CJay Quinto, Diana Chan, Chantelle Sonoda, Robert Ramos, Caitlin Pang, Sarah Daniels, Jessabeth Aggacid, Megan Viloria, Kiana Tom, Anthony Lee, Harold Calipjo, and Jarren Amian.
ABOVE: The Creators, a.k.a. The Warm Pockets, perform an original song during the Voice Recital. LEFT: C-Jay Quinto performs "Love Changes Everything" by Andrew Lloyd Webber during the Voice Recital.
SINGING
THE OHANA ORACLE
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Gracie performs "Sing" from Sesame Street, with Laurie Rubin on the piano.
Carson Davis performs "Being Alive" from "Company." Anthony Lee performs "Giants In The Sky" from "Into The Woods."
Megan Viloria performs "In His Eyes" from "Jekyll and Hyde."
DANCING
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(From left) Diana Chan and Liz Piccoli, the most energetic, spunky, yet challenging, dance teacher.
By Diana Chan Once I step onto that dojo mat for dance class, I know I'm going to have a great day. Dance instructor, Liz Piccoli, is by far the most energetic, spunky, yet challenging, dance teacher I've encountered so far. Even before meeting her I've already heard good compliments about this infamous Ms. Liz. Her warm-ups are killer yet she can maintain a steady breath and a bright smile. Ms. Liz likes to spice up our workout routines by
(From left) Liz Piccoli and Robert Ramos after closing night of "Footloose: The Musical"
alternating between different dance genres --
yoga. There's never a point of time when someone would mourn over the fact of going to her dance class. She also assigned each one of us an autobiography assignment about famous dancers, and lastly concluding the week with several presentations. When the Musical Showcase was drawing near, Ms. Liz transformed to her crazy, creative mode. We collaborated with the creators to come up with an abstract piece of painting on a blank canvas while dancing. The creators devised an original track to complement our choreography while the visionaries brought creative liberty to paint a "grand masterpiece" of chaotic lines and undefined shapes. Ms. Liz later brought in her boyfriend Tom, a painting expert, to help finalize our drawing by creating a more forgiving and fuller picture to put it up for sale in the silent auction. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," by Michael Buble was a lot of fun to dance to because there was a lot of diversity put into it. It can be a little hectic with 50-60 kids doing swing dancing along with partners and lift, but Ms. Liz taught us to perform to our best ability, with a smile!
DANCING
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Liz Piccoli's dance class focused on different styles of dance based on days. Mondays and Wednesdays focused on Swing. Tuesdays and Thursdays focused on Ballet. Fridays are more towards the creative style of dancing such as Yoga in the image.
ABOVE: Ohana Arts students working on some lifts while learning how to Swing dance. LEFT: Ohana Arts students working on a working on a trust fall move while learning how to Swing dance.
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
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By Robert Ramos A week before the last show put together by Ohana Arts, "Footloose," every single student got the opportunity to be showcased and have the spotlight with the Musical Showcase, "True Colors." The showcase consisted of group as well as solo performances put together by teachers and students in the program. Students are separated into different age groups and the majority of the performances are done by these groups: the Believers, the Dreamers, the Visionaries, and the Creators. Everything from acting pieces, dance numbers, to choral songs are performed in the showcase. Some numbers are even done by mixing up the different groups. "True Colors" was divided into five different parts: Fear, pain, love, acceptance, and compassion. Each part starts off with a film created by the Visionaries followed by multiple performances done by students at Ohana Arts reflecting the meanings of and the emotions exhibited behind each part of showing a person's true colors. What came out was a beautiful performance that reached out to the
Ohana Arts students, members of the Dreamers group, rehearsing a number from the musical, "13." PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN A member of the humanity of every audience Believers, Zaffron, member who can interpret rehearses for her part the performances in so in "Fear," a collection many ways. Each performance are sometimes of original vignettes to abstract and not very written and created by straightforward that people Ohana Arts students get so into it and so lost in with the assistance of the performances. Jill Bolstridge. These, I believe, are
the reasons why the Musical Showcase is important. They are performances created and put together by Ohana Arts students that is very different from the Summer Musical of Footloose, where someone else wrote the songs and the lines. "True Colors" allow students to make it their
own performance. Every student worked really hard on the showcase and they all deserve praise for how much they've done for this colorful show.
LEFT
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LEFT: Members of the Dreamers, (From left) Leion, Aidan, and Austin rehearse for a number called "S'wonderful." BELOW: Members of the Dreamers make a formation along with a gesture for their number from the musical "13."
LEFT: Members of the Believers, (From left) Erisan and Isabella rehearse for their number "My New Philosophy" from the musical "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown."
RIGHT: Visionaries (From left) Jarren Amian and Sarah Daniels practice for their little snippet of "Rent" featuring a performance of "Out Tonight" and "Another Day," which featured other members of the Visionaries and the Creators.
FOOTLOOSE
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The Ohana Arts cast of "Footloose" during a rehearsal of the finale number, "Footloose (Finale)."
By Robert Ramos Where do I even get started when talking about Footloose? The best musical I've ever done? My most favorite character I've ever played? Learning double the choreography, double the lines, and double the blocking? One of the most memorable experiences of my life? I have no clue.... Footloose has challenged my abilities as a performer more than any shows I've done in my time doing high school theater. I've definitely been through a lot, starting from the time I didn't even listen to the songs I was asked to prepare for callbacks until the night before. Fortunately, I was able pull it off and was casted as Ren's goofy best friend, Willard. Already, I knew the part was going to be challenging, knowing that Willard is the comedic character and one of the comic reliefs in the show. A lot of his lines have to catch the audience laughing and timed correctly. Willard was identified as a cowboy, so I had to speak with a hick accent. I have to sing "Mama Says," a song I feel was just out of my vocal range. Worst of all, I have a dance solo in the show! At first I kept telling myself, to quote Willard, "I can't.... do it." However, my most favorite part of the show is how all of my teachers in the program came together, worked hard on me and pushed me to my limit. Combined with my desire to nail Willard straight out of how he was written, I was more than satisfied with how I played this character. Footloose consisted of two casts: A red cast and a blue cast. Being a principal character in the red cast, I made sure I performed as an ensemble character in the blue even better because I know that once I played the principal, everyone would do the same for me. Having two casts gave us double the work, but I only realized it's true impact during the performances. Most of the characters are played by two different people, and no two people do it exactly the same way. People who see both casts can be treated to two completely different versions of Footloose both of which they'll really enjoy. Being in Footloose really changed me as a performer. I was pushed to take risks and try things I haven't tried before. Working with Ms. Laurie and Ms. Jenny on "Mama Says" along with other songs and working with Ms. Liz on numbers such as "Still Rockin'" and "Let's Hear It For The Boy" really gave me a taste of how fun musical theater is. I am extremely thankful will never ever forget this experience.
FOOTLOOSE
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FOOTLOOSE
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(From left) Robert Ramos as Red Willard and Tevan Kakemoto as Blue Willard.
(From left) Leion Von Osdol as Blue Ren and CJay Quinto as Red Ren.
(From left) Robert Ramos and Caitlin Pang as Red Willard and Rusty.
BREAK TIME
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ABOVE: An intense game of Never Have I Ever between the Fellows. RIGHT: The Fellows get some extra work done outside of classes.
BREAK TIME
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
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COFFEEHOUSE
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By Robert Ramos The spotlight is available for anyone who wants it. All it takes is a pen, and the guts to do it. Coffeehouse is a great opportunity for every member of Ohana Arts to show off their skills in acting, singing, and dancing. Every week, the students pick a theme for the event and a sign-up PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN sheet is issued. Anyone who Gianna, a Coffeehouse regular, performs "Rolling In The wants to have a chance to perform a maximum of Deep" by Adele eight minutes can just walk up and write their names. When Friday comes, everyone can come dressed PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN in whatever theme is Jarren Amian, in an attempt to stall for decided, and the open mic time, pulls something out of his pocket. is under way, emceed by two students picked from their different groups. Everyone is very supportive of those who perform at the open mic. PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN Having a good performance is one thing, but having the Believers and Dreamers on Pajama Day guts to get up and take that mic is another.
Raya melts some faces and busts some guts as she rocked out with her ukulele.
Even teachers get a chance to perform as Laurie Rubin graces her students with her beautiful voice.
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
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By Diana Chan How are performing for film and performing for theatre any different? One is in front of the camera, and one is in front of the audience. Everything else is pretty
Ohana Arts offer elective classes, and being a fellow assigned with Film/media class, I approve of it. Although there were some small complaints and issues regarding elective classes, I respect how the teachers were trying to provide more variety to our learning the offer. experience summer beside camps
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
standard classes most other It did create a lot of stress for my peers and I because we had to complete assignments that included knowledge, experience, and accessibility of a technological resource that was a stretch to achieve. The especially instructors, film/media
ABOVE AND RIGHT: Caitlin Pang and Robert Ramos receive some hands-on training on how to use the camera from Brandon Han.
From this class I've gained an insight of
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
cinematography, working in the movie industry, and, of course, acting. There's no better way to top off our MTT showcase with 5 1minute videos reflecting: Fear, pain, acceptance, love, and compassion. Watching all of our handwork show on screen was icing on the cake, and that's why I value film/media class.
PHOTO BY DIANA CHAN
instructor Mr. Brandon, was very helpful and practical about the given situation and taught us a great deal about cinematography. Not only that, but he brought in some famous people from the industry -- producer and editor Kenji and Yama.
Sometimes it isn't always the content of the class that we learn from, but the work Writer, Director, and Editor Kenji along with Producer Yama ethic with others that builds
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SOCIAL EVENTS
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Adults sharing the good times! LANIKAI HIKING AND BEACH DAY - JULY 4, 2013
thought I'd be this close to Emily White, and C-Jay Quinto. the Fellows, but the (Right column, from front) Diana hangout days made it happen.
Beach. BELOW: (Left column, from I would have never front)Carolyn Lee, Kiana Tom,
SOCIAL EVENTS
PIZZA AND MOVIE NIGHT: "E.T: THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL" - JUNE 21, 2013
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CAMP ERDMAN
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other littler ones. The very what to expect from leading first activity at camp to the a large group of kids. The absolute last was filled with fun didn't start at the camp, it started once we stepped onto that bus taking us there. Who would have laughter and team-bonding. I believe the different groups created a friendly
The Ohana Oracle is a photo journal created by students that participated in the Ohana Arts Young Artist Fellowship Program and the Musical Theater Intensive Program during the summer of 2013 as a way to reflect upon their experiences in the program. Reflections and articles are written by Robert Ramos and Diana Chan. Photos are taken by Diana Chan, along with some taken by other people involved with the program. Page layouts are organized by Robert Ramos.