For 44 years, WCC has offered theatre courses that teach students the art of drama and performing while connecting them with resources outside of the school.
Students say the program is fun and entertaining because of the various interactive activities and games that are incorporated into courses like THEA 221: Acting I.
“I really enjoyed that class and felt like I connected with my acting soul sister,” student Bailey Campbell said.
“THEA 101 is a great course to start with,” WCC theatre instructor Nicolas Logue said.
In this course, students study plays and playwrights that are known to represent important time periods of theatre.
“I took Theatre 101 a few semesters ago and was really glad I gave it a shot,” said Kaʻainoa Fernandez. “That course helped me understand where theatre originated from and how theatre can be used in everyday life.”
While most students don’t plan to be professional actors, the courses have also helped launch careers. Students receive opportunities to perform for companies outside of WCC’s theatre program.
Logue and his wife Taurie Kinoshita, who is a theatre lecturer at WCC, have expanded the theatre program tremendously in the five years they’ve been here.
“Our students who take several courses with us appear on stage all over the island, acting with or working for theatre companies downtown such as Kumu Kahua Theatre, the Hawai‘i Shakespeare Festival, Mānoa Valley Theatre and other great companies and venues,” Logue said.
The Hawaiʻi Shakespeare Festival put on a production this summer called The Witch of Edmonton. Thirteen students were involved in the show.
“Students were on stage and behind the scenes doing everything from playing principal roles to assistant directing,” Logue said.
Students have the opportunity to perform in three shows on Palikū’s stage as well as take specialized courses such as the new study abroad program.
Next spring, a special course will be offered, THEA 296: Special Topics, in which students will study Shakespeare in performance and experience a two week study abroad program in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, which is Shakespeare’s hometown. Students will train with world-class performers from The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Logue was born in New York and got involved in theatre at a very young age. He began as a performer and eventually started choreographing fights for productions.
He travelled to eastern China for college as a Fulbright scholar. While there, he performed Jingu, a play about a Japanese empress who ruled beginning in the year 201.
Logue also taught acting at the Central Academy for Drama in Beijing. He eventually received his MFA from UH Mānoa before leaving to help Kinoshita move her company Cruel Theatre to New York.
After staging productions for a year in New York, he received the opportunity to run a theatre program at East 15 Acting School in England before being hired to run the theatre program at WCC.
This semester THEA 260 will feature a production called Metamorphoses, which blends together Greek myths about love and will be directed by Kinoshita and produced by Logue.
The show will run Friday, Oct. 21 through Sunday, Oct. 23 and Wednesday, Oct. 26 through Saturday, Oct. 29.
For production times and more information, visit https://www.windward.hawaii.edu/paliku/.
by Taylor James Kipapa, Ka ‘Ohana Staff Reporter