THE cast of TeAda Productions’ “There’s Nothing Micro About Micronesia” worked to further stimulate the creativity of participating students during a workshop held at Kagman High School on Tuesday.
Actors TristanKasy Henry, Kealaula Faifili and Koa Shope, joined TeAda Productions associate artistic director and fellow actor Ova Saopeng in leading students through a workshop session focused on “story building.”
Shope, who plays the character Kai in the play, said the workshop is intended to get the students thinking about who they are as members of their culture, and help them explore their opinions on social and cultural issues they may be experiencing.
Shope said “Nothing Micro About Micronesia” was created in a workshop exactly like the one conducted at KHS.
According to TeAda Productions’ website, the play is a coming-of-age story about “two Micronesian boys who encounter an unlikely place after a series of conflicts between them.” The boys must “navigate between the directions from elders and the government systems [that] have had an impact on their current lives and states of being/belonging.”
The play takes its audience through island life in Micronesia, personalizing stories related to migration, climate change, decolonization, justice, and other issues “connected to the Micronesian experience in Hawai’i, Micronesia, and beyond.”
Shope, Henry, and Faifili were part of the play’s Saipan debut at the opening day of the Flame Tree Arts Festival on Tuesday at the Garapan Fishing Base.
“The effect [of the workshop] is to look for the people that represent the characters, because there are many like us,” Shope said. “There are many like Freedom [Henry’s character] who are taken away from their homes and placed in strange lands and everyday people became strangers … but there are also people like me, like Kai, people who are disconnected from their culture, whether it be purposeful or non-purposeful. The non-purposeful people … never had the time to learn their language because they were taken to an American school and it was drilled into them, the English language, to the point that they lost their Micronesian language.”
Shope said his character, Kai, is based on the “input” that he contributed in a 2023 workshop that took place in Hawaii.
For her part, Faifili, who plays Soso, said the benefit of the workshop is community building with the people who could be the show’s audience.
“I love doing these workshops beforehand because we really get to connect with the Micronesian youth,” she said. “We get to build a relationship, establish some trust in there. After this workshop that we just finished the students felt comfortable enough to come up to us and start talking to us.”
She said “Nothing Micro About Micronesia” is an opportunity for Pacific peoples to be on stage.
As a Polynesian, she said she initially expressed hesitation when she was cast in the role, because it could be “robbing” a part that a Micronesian person could fill.
But when she opened up to a fellow cast member, she was reminded that onstage collaboration was a way to unite communities. She has personally seen what happens when two communities do not unite.
“I see Polynesians, specifically Hawaiians, bullying Micronesians for being on our island. And I’m like, we’re not supposed to do that to each other,” she said. “We don’t discriminate against each other. We’re all Pacific Islanders. We all come from the same ocean, the same islands.”
Henry said being present to view a live play is one way to unite a community.
“Theater is a live action play and being present and watching is really different from watching a movie,” he said. “In a movie you get to skip and go back. You get to rewatch it all over again, but in a play you live in the moment. You see what they’re going through … because it’s on stage. It kind of connects us together. Living in the moment, we’re connecting with each other.”
The first half of “Nothing Micro About Micronesia” takes the stage at 7 p.m. on April 26, Saturday, with the second half following at 7 p.m. on April 27, Sunday.
From left Kealaula Faifili, Koa Shope, and TristanKasy Henry pose for a photo during a workshop at Kagman High School.
Ova Saopeng, TeAda Productions’ associate artistic director, leads an exercise during a workshop at KHS on Tuesday, April 22.
