The Ohana Arts Youth Theatre Company is one of the country’s only theatre companies dedicated to producing and touring new works written for all-youth casts based on literary works and historical events, and which promote important messages relevant to today’s youth. The company launched in 2014, with the premiere of Ohana Arts’ first original musical inspired by the life of Sadako Sasaki, “Peace On Your Wings”, which soon after embarked on a statewide tour, as well as tours to New York City and Los Angeles in 2015 and 2016.
Ohana Arts invites talented youth between the ages of 6 and 18 from the San Francisco Bay Area to audition for the 2017 Ohana Arts Youth Theater Company cast of “Peace On Your Wings.”
General auditions will take place on Saturday, March 4 in San Francisco and Sunday, March 5 in San Jose. You can sign up for an audition time and location at https://ohanaarts.wufoo.com/forms/r10j4vfu1idvc1u/ by Wednesday, March 1.
The San Francisco audition location will be at Kanbar Performing Arts Center, 44 Page Street, San Francisco.
The San Jose audition location was not available at the time of this printing. Please check their website for updated information.
Call-back auditions will take place from 3 to 8 p.m. on Monday, March 6 at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple, 2751 Louis Rd., Palo Alto.
Younger students ages 6-9 are required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian on the tour. Prior musical theatre experience and background in Ballet, Jazz, contemporary and/or acro is a plus but not required.
Ohana Arts recently formed a partnership with Stanford University to create an accompanying curriculum and teachers’ guide to “Peace On Your Wings”, and plans to launch this curriculum on a west coast school tour to San Jose and Seattle in partnership with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, and the Japanese Cultural and Community Centers of Northern California and Washington, and with support from the Buddhist Churches of America in the fall of 2017.
Future plans for the Ohana Arts Youth Theatre Company is to continue producing and touring new works written for all-youth casts based on literary and historical works, accompanied by a curriculum and teacher’s guide that can be implemented by schools that participate in all educational and outreach performances. These curriculums will be made available on the Ohana Arts website for schools, youth theater groups, community groups, and teachers to have as a resource, along with the option to license and perform “Peace On Your Wings” and future original works in their community. This will provide educators, artists, and community groups a complete stage-to-classroom educational resource for years to come.
In addition to providing resources for schools, Ohana Arts Youth Theatre Company provides talented youth the extremely rare opportunity to experience being a part of a pre-professional touring theatre company, which includes getting mentored by members of the professional community, getting a taste for the demands of a professional touring schedule and working with a professional staff. As actors, students will be challenged to often times originate roles that have never been performed before. Throughout the program, Ohana Arts emphasizes the importance of developing good time management, being accountable, learning to think on their feet, work as a team, and be flexible in a changing environment. Students also learn hands on though this real-world opportunity skills such as interviewing with the media, recording in a studio, performing and speaking at events, traveling, and more.
About Peace On Your Wings
Peace On Your Wings is an original musical inspired by the life of Sadako Sasaki which juxtaposes her story and the events leading up to her death in November 1955 with a fictional story about a group of her friends who rallied support from around Japan to have a monument built in Sadako’s memory to honor the children victims of the atomic bomb. The fictional elements of the musical provide an opportunity to weave in issues such as bullying that affect children in middle school today. This groundbreaking show premiered on Oahu in November 2014 to a sold-out crowd. The cast then embarked on a sold-out statewide tour in 2015. The overwhelmingly positive response has led to an encore performance in Honolulu, as well as continuous plans for US and Japan tours. In September of 2015, the cast and crew of Peace On Your Wings traveled to Los Angeles, California for its exciting North American premiere, co- presented by the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center at their 880-seat Aratani Theatre. The show was incredibly well received by audiences, as the cast received standing ovations at every performance. Most recently, the cast and crew traveled to New York City for the debut of Peace on Your Wings at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in September of 2016. In just a short time, Peace On Your Wings has already received many awards and recognitions, including a Certificate of Commendation from the City Council of Honolulu, an award from the United Nations Association of Hawaii, and a proclamation from Mayor Caldwell, who announced August 6th, 2015 as “Peace On Your Wings Day” prior to the opening night performance at Hawaii Theatre. Peace On Your Wings has also been the subject of two mini-documentaries by NHK (Japan’s largest news network), and has been featured on KTLA news, Broadway World, Huffington Post, and MidWeek (cover story) amongst others.
Peace On Your Wings is more than a musical theater play. It is part of a continual movement to educate children and adults alike about the important global message of peace. It is a way to get people to connect with an under recognized piece of history more than any textbook could convey. Music is a universal language everyone understands which touches people’s deepest vulnerability and emotions. Music has been utilized for centuries as the most visceral way to personally connect people with current events and past atrocities so that history will not repeat itself. Responses to the world premiere of “Peace On Your Wings” have been overwhelmingly touching and positive. Audience members who were not familiar with Sadako’s story have now taken her message to heart. Other audience members were victims of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki themselves, and were moved deeply by our cast of children, saying that they truly paid homage to Sadako and others like her who suffered the after effects. Many audience members were children, and we were told by their parents that the musical both entertained and moved them. The goal of Peace On Your Wings is to bring Sadako’s story to many more audiences, to show how it is the little gestures that make a big difference, and to teach the lesson of “Ichigo Ichie.” It is a show that will educate audiences of American children and adults alike about a piece of history which greatly affected those in Hiroshima.
About Ohana Arts
Ohana Arts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and producer of Peace On Your Wings. Founded in 2010, Ohana Arts has a mission to inspire and engage people through high caliber educational and professional arts programs, and to cultivate an international family (Ohana) in the Pacific by promoting world friendship and peace through the universal language of the arts. In addition to producing the world premiere and tour of Peace On Your Wings, Ohana Arts offers an intensive performing arts camp with world-class faculty serving children and young adults ages 6-21 in musical theater and songwriting in Honolulu, Hawaii. Future plans include opening its doors to mainland and international students in the summer of 2018, as well as the opening of Hawaii’s only specialized “high school for the performing arts.”
No tuition or fees are required to participate in the 2017 “Peace On Your Wings” west tour. Ohana Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit performing arts organization is currently fundraising, in partnership with the supporting organizations such as the Japanese Cultural and Community Centers of Northern California and Washington and the Buddhist Churches of America to cover necessary costs to make this tour a reality. The cast is expected to contribute to fundraising efforts by performing in benefit concerts and dinners as requested.
Ohana Arts will cover airline travel to/from Seattle for on Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, for all cast members. Ohana Arts will also arrange local travel, housing, and food for cast members while on tour, which may include homestays (in pairs) arranged with the help of partnering organizations such as the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington. Students between the ages of 6-9 are required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian on tour in Seattle.

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