Our first annual Charity Showcase was a long time in the making and a big hit with kids and parents!
When initially planning this production we wanted to build something around Nagoya Players Junior’s Act In English Workshop. The children in the workshop were learning performance skills in an immersive English environment while also rehearsing an original play, Town Mice & Country Mice. We also wanted the children to have an opportunity to display both the English and acting they learned.
Nagoya-renowned magician Magic Joe and rakugo artist Hiroyuki Ota joined our cast and designed special performances to entertain child audiences in English. With ESL Magic, The Zoo, and Town Mice & Country Mice in place we felt confident we had a fun and educational experience to put on stage.
Magic Joe kicked off the Showcase with a story of how he learned magic as a child. He took us back in time to when he learned his first card trick. His family and friends were so impressed they had to shout, “That’s amazing!” He then made handkerchiefs disappear with magic eggs. Mysterious, colorful pom-poms moved wherever they pleased. Ropes grew and shrank between his hands. And to end ESL Magic we were treated to a beautiful routine featuring classic Chinese linking rings. The kids are still wondering how he did all those tricks!!
Next we had Kids English Rakugo with Mr. Ota and an original script written by Shōn Sensei for younger learners called, The Zoo. Mr. Ota’s rakugo was mesmerizing! He transformed from a zoo manager, to a tiger, to a child, a mother and a lion…all without any props or costumes! With a powerful command of his voice and body he created an entire cast and storyworld. This new style of rakugo is very interesting, and we’re looking forward to working with Mr. Ota again on new shows in the future.
To end the Showcase, Nagoya Players premiered an original, custom-designed script to teach both English and acting skills, Town Mice & Country Mice. The story is based on Aesop’s famous fable, and reminds us we don’t always need fancy or new things to be happy. We must remember to appreciate the wonderful people and things we already have in our lives. The cast featured children from ages 4 to 13. They spent over a year together learning the show and improving their performance. We are so very proud of them. It is a huge accomplishment to go on stage in front of strangers and give them a good show. And they did it in a second language too!
We are so grateful to Naudia Patterson for directing this show and molding these young actors. We couldn’t have imagined a better premiere!
And thank you to the many parents who brought the children in to rehearsal week after week and trusted us to teach them. This show could not have happened without your support.
And a very very big thank you to Yoshiko Matsushima and IPE Academy. They were our Show Sponsor and the driving force behind this fantastic production!
We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the Showcase. And there’s a lot of interest in our performance based workshops like Act In English, Dance In English, and Sing In English. We are currently making plans for 2021 and announcements will be coming soon!
One final message…
The Charity Showcase has been designed to serve a few different functions. It is a vehicle which NP would like to use to teach, entertain and most importantly give back. 2020 has been an extremely challenging year and our fundraising efforts through the Showcase did not meet our desired goals. We had to change plans and scale down the production to meet the guidelines for the prevention of COVID-19. This greatly impacted our show budget and expenses making it very difficult to generate the charity funds we were planning for. So, we will be adding 2020’s charity funds together with 2021’s and hopefully provide a sizable donation to local charities working with children in need at next year’s event.
Thank you to everyone who attended the Showcase!! We hope to see you again next year!!
Sincerely,
Shawn Mahler
Artistic Director, Nagoya Players
Show Program
ESL Magic 2020
The Zoo
Rainbow Connections: The Land of Kindess
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