Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - Feb 8, 2023

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3 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
with Sadako’s surviving friends and tour Nobori-cho Elementary School, which Sadako attended.
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Poignant Production Sheds Light On Dark Period
FROM PAGE 4
in the southern Japanese city, in May.
there for kids water down a lot of the emotional content because they think kids can’t handle it,” Rubin says. “But when you think about it, kids undergo so many harrowing experiences.
Aiko, a fictional friend of Sa- dako’s.
of this story to tell.”
The cast also plans to meet
But first, audiences here in the islands will have a chance to see it again, when it returns to Hawai‘i Theatre this week, Feb. 9-11.
When they and the rest of the cast go to Hiroshima, they will visit the Children’s Peace Monument, which commem- orates Sadako and other child victims of the atomic bomb- ing, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is dedicated to documenting the blast.
“It was very eye-open- ing,” she says. “I had read the book Hiroshima (by John Hersey) back in high school. But it’s one thing to read about it and another to actu- ally go there and see the arti- facts and read the stories told by people who were there. It stuck in my memory and that’s a big reason I thought
As for the show itself, Taira and Rubin say bringing it to Hiroshima feels like a home- coming of sorts.
For those who saw the original, this rendition prom- ises to be a new experience.
“These (changes) don’t make her story any sadder, by the way,” she continues. “They just make it really poignant and actually more uplifting.”
“The play starts different- ly, there’s a couple of songs that we deleted, and we added one new song,” says Rubin. “I think it tells the story more clearly and poignantly.”
Adds Taira, “(Sadako) was so full of life and had such a will to live, this illness was not going to stop her. She was just one of these people who never took a day she was alive for granted.
Taira first visited the muse- um in the early 2000s.
“We are nervous to see how the Hiroshima people are go- ing to react,” Taira says. “But I think just bringing this from the U.S., it’s a beautiful thing. Hopefully on the Japan side, they will feel there is some recognition that we are tell- ing her story, and they know we share this wish for peace. We’re on board for there to be peace in this world.”
Viewers can also expect updated lighting and chore- ography, and new set designs.
Although Rubin and Taira began collaborating shortly after meeting as students at Yale School of Music in 2004 — Rubin is an opera singer and author of the autobiography Do You Dream in Color? about growing up blind; Taira is a composer, pianist and clar- inetist — Peace On Your Wings was their first full- scale musical. Many of their adjustments were a result of Paudience feedback and les- sons learned by taking the show on the road.
“She did whatever she could to make the most of every single day without know- ing, necessarily, ichigo
Learn more at ohanaarts. org. To purchase tickets, visit hawaiitheatre.com.
eace On Your Wings is still centered around 12-year-old Sadako
bin wrote their musical. Masahiro actually saw the earlier version of their play and praised it, but Taira and Rubin seized the opportunity
Sasaki. A real-life victim of the bombing, she was made famous by the children’s book Sadako and the Thou- sand Paper Cranes by Elea- nor Coerr.
to refine their work.
“A lot of material that’s out
Paper cranes adorn a children’s hospital in a scene from a 2017 production of Peace On Your Wings. PHOTO COURTESY ‘OHANA ARTS
er, Masahiro Sasaki, who co- wrote The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki and The Thousand Paper Cranes with American author Sue DiCic- cio. It was published in 2018, four years after Taira and Ru-
E
ni High School, were cast for the lead role of Sadako. (Taira and Rubin chose two actresses in case one of them came down with COVID-19.) Wyatt Tamamoto, a junior at ‘Iolani School, will be Ma- sahiro, and Maya Nakamoto, an eighth grader at Hawai‘i Technical Academy, will play
ichie but just living that.”
mi Sampson and Jenelle Wong, both juniors at Kala-
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RATING: GOLD
When Sadako is diagnosed with leukemia — known at the time as “the atomic bomb disease” — she is determined to fold a thousand paper cranes so that her wish to be cured will come true.
our But Rubin and Taira dug n. deeper, incorporating materi- al from Sadako’s older broth-
o