Summertime At Paliku: Hot Place To Be
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John-Paul “JP” Tai (right) with mentor Ron Bright
after ‘The King and I.’ Now a member of the
Paliku Players, Tai will direct Paliku Theatre’s first
keiki summer drama camp starting June 12, two
days after the Bright-directed revue (June 8-10)
for the five-year-old theater at Windward
Community College. Photo from John-Paul Tai.
Paliku Theatre will be alive this summer with homegrown talent of all ages - starting with a benefit review by veteran troupers and ending with a musical by a new crop of performers just getting their feet wet.
The theater will mark its fifth year with Spotlight on the Arts, a revue directed by Ron Bright and set for June 8-10. Two days later, on June 12, Paliku will begin its inaugural Summer Theatre Camp for Kids.
Pivotal to both productions is John-Paul Tai, 24, who joined the Windward Community College theater program when Paliku opened and has grown to be an asset there both on and off the stage. Tai and his fellow Paliku Players also created the curriculum for the summer camp, which he is directing.
“It’s a whole new experiment; it’s like we’re creating our own farm club,” said theater manager Tom Holowach, who has watched Tai and other former WCC theater students blossom through the years.
“We’ve talked about it for awhile,” added an excited Tai. “Now it’s time to dig down and start working.”
The “campers,” in grades 5 to 12, will meet in the theater complex from noon to 5 p.m. weekdays from June 12 to July 21 to learn about theater, inside and out. All students will be in the cast for a finale production of Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids July 20 and 21. Fee is $250 plus a $50 lab fee. For enrollment information, call Tai at 383-6765.
“This fits (WCC drama professor) Ben Moffat’s vision of Paliku as a learning center for all ages,” declared Tai, whose initial step was to sign up for Paliku Theatre’s first play, Fiddler on the Roof. He was assistant director to Bright for that one and gradually moved up to take on expanded roles as stage manager and the go-to student for sound and lighting decisions.
“Five of us have been in every show since,” he recalled. (Tai was most recently the Green Grasshopper in James and the Giant Peach.) “We’ve become a part of Paliku, we work hard, we’re like a family.
“Mr. Bright has helped me dream big. Now I want to get a teaching degree, and I want to be a director.”
The summer camp, Tai added, is an opportunity for lower-income kids to learn about theater - thus the low tuition fee, and also a good way to gain backstage experience.
“Paliku is very intimate, new and innovative. It makes learning about the whole production process easier.”
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