Membership Spotlight – August 2024

One of my favorites is HEART STRINGS, a play that uses string figures (like cat’s cradle) to tell the story of adoption and chosen family.

I recently went back to studying hula after being away from dancing for most of my adult life. It is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. Along with the physical, intellectual, cultural and social benefits that come with learning, practicing and performing with a group, I have found the deep meaning behind many of the Hawaiian mele (songs) and the hula way of life to be inspiring for both my work and my daily actions and decisions. Hula dancers talk about “living aloha” and that is a profound concept that I am learning day by day.

There’s a true story that I love about a group of school kids from Iowa who waged a campaign to get a museum in their city to return a little table that once belonged to Hawaiian royalty. I’d also love to work on a play about kids who learn differently.

I have so many answers to this question! First, I am home-based in Hawaii where we have the amazing Honolulu Theatre for Youth, which produces season after season of innovative, beautiful original work. Any time I get to work with HTY, I jump at the chance. Second, I am mom to a theater kid, so I have an in-house dramaturg and someone sitting across from me at the breakfast table who loves to talk about story ideas. Third, and most importantly, young audiences are honest audiences. They won’t pretend to like something that isn’t good. As a writer, honest feedback is so valuable to me. I love to sit in the audience at a TYA play and watch the audience watch the play. The looks on the kids’ faces… oh my gosh, there is nothing better.

Sean-Joseph Choo and I have worked on several TYA pieces together, including SUPER AUNTY for the National BIPOC Superhero project. He’s the kind of artist who is incredibly generous and supportive of other artists.

Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl is a brilliant playwright and teacher who shaped the way I think about the discipline, work ethic, practicality and bravery required to be a working artist.

www.leecataluna.com

This past season, I got to work on a new musical called The Dragon King’s Daughter, by Marcus Yi and directed by Chongren Fan, with Kennedy Center TYA, and it was a huge show from a projection design standpoint. It was also my 5th new work with KCTYA (with a 6th in process currently!), and I’m just really honored to get to be a part of the world premiere shows they develop- they really exemplify why I love TYA. The material is always challenging, creative and engaging, really pushing what’s possible to give young audiences something unique. It also meant a lot to me to get to uplift AAPI stories and artists, which always feels special when I get to honor that part of my own identity. Also, we got to make multiple dragons fly all over a magic kingdom and create a TikTok dance montage, of course it was a fun show!

Art that really resonates with me right now are things that feel like they’re tapping back into the mundane magic of storytelling. I’m obsessed with the gorgeous films from an Irish studio, Cartoon Saloon, who made Wolfwalkers, Secret of Kells, and Song of the Sea- all films that feel like brilliant pieces of TYA.  I’m also fascinated by a resurgence of puppetry- on so many different scales and forms, there’s just something so magical about the art form, and it feels fundamentally theatrical. Small puppets, large puppets, shadow puppets- there’s a lovely dance duo from France I found on social media that do shadow puppet dances that are brilliant- @claire_et_antho. So, really, I’m just constantly searching out new inspirations from anywhere all over.

I’m very excited to be working on a new adaptation of Emil and the Detectives as a creator and playwright, not just a designer. We’re still developing the show, but after only two workshops, we’ve got a great script, puppet prototypes, and creative movement/choreography- it’s been a magical room thanks to my brilliant collaborators. The adaptation was conceived with local DC artistic director, Jason Tamborini, our workshops have been directed by DC actor/director/dramaturg Natalie Cutcher, and our puppetry director is actor/director/puppeteer Betsy Rosen, from Broadway’s Life of Pi and more. I am just in awe of this multimedia, theatrically magical and fun adventure story we’ve created. It’s already clear that we’ve unlocked something unique and wonderful. We have a lot of exciting conversations ongoing about next steps, and it’s a project I honestly can’t wait to share with the TYA/USA community.

As a storyteller and a designer, TYA has always just resonated with me because of how it more directly taps into one of the most fundamentally theatrical tools: imagination. I have always loved not just telling a story, but sharing and creating a whole world with audiences. Additionally, if theatre is about serving and connecting to community- what is better than helping our growing, future community members learn how to dream?

There are too many to name! So instead I want to also give props to the people who are not just collaborators on productions, but are more like creative co-conspirators who help me keep grounded and pushing forward, and whose instincts and perspectives make me a better artist- folks like Jenna Place and Cara Phipps- who are both brilliant directors and amazing friends.

I fell in love with and developed my passion for TYA while I was in grad school at The University of Texas at Austin, and was lucky enough to have Dr. Megan Alrutz as one of my earliest mentors. Not only did I take classes with the DTYC students there, Megan actually co-advised my thesis about creating stories with projection and animation in schools. Post school, another champion and friend of mine here in DC has been David Kilpatrick at The Kennedy Center. I am fully aware that I have been blessed with the best mentors, now friends, and anyone who knows either of them know how lucky I am.

You can email me directly at patrick.w.lord@gmail.com, and you can see my shows- or buy my children’s book at www.patrickwlord.com!  You can also follow me on Instagram at @pwlord for show photos and lots of pictures of my dog, Cora.

I am currently directing and choreographing Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical at The Rose Theater, and it is an absolute blast bringing such a strong piece of my childhood to life on stage. I have read all 18 books, and I’m so happy that Greg is being shared with a whole new generation. I am also working on a project called ‘Holla If Ya Hear Me’ for its third year, where we focus on music artists like Tupac, Nas, and Lauryn Hill and how they use poetry as the driving force for their art. At the end of our time working with the group of young people, we put on a concert with the pieces they have created, centered on mental health and freedom of self-expression.

I am extremely lucky that I was able to attend the ASSITEJ International Festival in Havana, Cuba, where I got to participate in a workshop. We worked with a group of students from a local school, creating drawings and sharing stories. Then we spent a couple of days bringing their work to life through a musical theater performance and presented it to them at the end of the week. It was beautiful to see the simplicity of art have such a huge impact on a young person when it was their creativity that sparked it!

Here at The Rose, we are adapting Yuyi Morales’ picture book Bright Star, which is a beautiful piece that focuses on the immigrant experience. Yuyi Morales is an incredible author and illustrator, and this story truly leaves you breathless with so many questions about what you can do to support our friends at the borders. I can’t wait to see this story go from page to stage

Growing up, I was not the most well-behaved kid in the classroom, but if it were not for my 4th-grade teacher Mrs. Misseldine, who told my parents in a parent-teacher conference, ‘He would be good at theater,’ and gave my family the resources to Chino Community Children’s Theater, I would not be where I am today! I am a firm believer in the phrase ‘Be who you needed when you were younger,’ and every day we get to create opportunities for young people of all ages, races, and genders to see themselves in us, no matter what line of work we do in this industry. The ‘why’ is simple: in TYA, I can play, discover, and connect with others. It does not get better than that!

I am forever grateful for the opportunity to work on the world premiere production of Carmela Full of Wishes, directed by Anna Skidis Vargas and adapted by Alvaro Saar Rios. This was the first time in my life that I was in a space full of Latinx creatives, from cast to creative, and I will forever hold a special place in my heart for this production. Only 6% of children’s books feature Latinx characters, and I love being able to represent my community and advocate for more representation like this on stage and in the rehearsal room.

Matt Gutschick has not only been an incredible supervisor, artistic director, and mentor but also, truthfully, a friend. I am so grateful that he took a chance on the then 21-year-old Isaiah and truly opened my eyes to the incredible work and opportunities our industry has to offer. He has always allowed me the space to discover new works, take risks, and push the envelope on what community engagement looks like. I will forever be thankful for him. Anyone who knows Matt knows that he is someone who will lift you up, even on your hardest falls.

You can find me on Instagram @isaiaharuiz, visit my website isaiaharuiz.com, or pop me an email at isaiahruizcreative@gmail.com to say hey and connect.