We are back

It's been a while since we posted on our blog . . . with Disney's Camp Rock The Musical and a number of performances, we got kind of busy.  But we are back and here is the latest updates.

WE ARE GOING TO THE FRINGE!  No doubt, thanks to hundreds of people, organizations, and businesses, we raised enough monies to take 10 students and 8 alumni staff to London and then Scotland.  We are so grateful to everyone and we will do our best to represent the West Side, Hawaii, and the United States.

The show we will be doing is "Under the Influence" by Ron Parker.  Yes, some of you may be wondering about "Ma'i Ho'oka'awale, The Separating Sickness" well we ran into some last minute problems with one of the co-authors of the book we were adapting the play from.  We contacted him last September and received approval and agreement on royalties and even script approval.  But a week and a half before we had to give our absolute final decision on what play we were going to do to the Fringe, we received a call from one of his reps saying he wanted us to pay for his air fare from Thailand to Scotland as well as sell copies of his book and pay for his ticket to the show.  We agreed to selling copies of his book and the ticket but absolutely refused paying for his airfare.  We never received any response till two days before the deadline when we got an email from an attorney he retained which list new demands including allowing us to do only one performance in Scotland and that he would own the rights to the play.  Since we are scheduled to do four performances in Scotland, we couldn't agree to the demands as well as giving over the copyrights to the script to him.

We are a bit disappointed as we felt this was a strong play that brought some history of Hawaii to the world.  We also had many community people supporting us with this play and were trying to get us to Kalaupapa to experience the setting and to meet some of the patients.  But everything happens for a reason.

But make no mistake, "Under the Influence is a powerful show . . . NPAC did it over 15 years ago and the response was strong . . . the play deals with substance abusers but focuses on the those affected by the abuser and not the abuser themselves.

On to last weekend . . . What a weekend it was.  Disney's Camp Rock The Musical may have been one of NPAC's most successful shows.  Almost 1000 people came over 7 nights and many were first time audience members. The Cast demonstrated "Heart and Soul" as it donated the proceeds from the second weekend of shows to the Japan Red Cross Disaster Relief fund.  NPAC raised over $1500 for Japan.

On Wednesday, the NPAC performed at the Waianae Public Library for Library Appreciation week.  Again, we were honored by those who came out to see us and who gave donations.

And finally, today was our Kalua Pig pickup fundraiser . . . spent the whole day distributing kalua pig to those who purchased tickets.  But the NPAC also had fun playing volleyball, relaxing, talking story, catching frogs, and do all kinds of other fun things.

Well, that's it for now and we will keep you posted each week as we get closer.