Membership Spotlight – June 2024

I recently finished a 5 week residency with a community partner that supports the growth in behavioral and social skills of neurodiverse young people. We took the new sensory-friendly musical What if Wilhelmina and used it as source material to develop sessions that introduced them to puppets, the process of devising original dance pieces, as well as sessions that generally encouraged a sense of play and imagination.

I recently read a new TYA play called The Golden Loc by Prentiss Matthews III, and am very excited to see the world premiere later on this month at Detroit’s Obsidian Theatre Festival. Prentiss has written such a beautifully structured play about afrofantasy, afrocentricity, self-love, healing, and sisterhood. The journey that the main character, Zia, goes to find her power and inner strength and the community that she develops along the way is so impactful! The types of stories that I like to tell and create with and for young people typically involves a strong base of social-emotional discoveries and community; The Golden Loc does this in such a beautiful way!

I’m currently working with playwright Melvin Tunstall III on a new musical adaptation of the popular children’s book Yellow Dog Blues by Alice Faye Duncan. It’s a beautiful story about a little boy in search of his best friend, Yellow Dog, and the lesson he learns on his epic journey about making space for something new. The musical is set in the Delta South and is filled with rich history and melodic blues tunes that is sure to set audiences a blaze, and empower young people to search within!  We are currently looking for producing partners, so please do get in touch if you’d like to learn more!

What I love about TYA is its power to inspire, educate, and bring joy to young audiences. Through my previous experiences as a teaching artist and theater facilitator, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of TYA to captivate young minds, foster empathy, and cultivate communication skills.

I’m having a blast collaborating with Melvin on expanding and further developing the world of Yellow Dog. He is a wonderful human and a great collaborator. He brings really big, bold and imaginative ideas to the table with a strong foundation of voice and narrative.

I’ve had so many wonderful mentors throughout my career thus far, but a big shoutout to Taylor St. John and Dionne O’Dell! Taylor is the Education Director at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis Tennessee and is spearheading incredible programs for young people and communities across the Greater Memphis area. Dionne is Faculty at Michigan State University and specializes in Theater for Young Audiences and Sensory Friendly Theater for neurodiverse audiences. You both have been such huge supporters and contributed to my growth, thank you!

My website is live, but is still being updated at the moment. Feel free to reach out there at https://grantura.wixsite.com/ural-grant, or if you’d like to follow my personal journey feel free to get in touch via Facebook or Instagram @UralGrant.

My most recent project is The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac that I wrote and directed for Honolulu Theatre for Youth. The project was a 2024 NEA Grant recipient, has completed 94 performances to date for young people and families on Oʻahu Island and will continue a statewide, neighbor island tour in the fall. The show is a love letter to my Chinese grandparents who are with us in spirit and weaves a Chinese familyʻs New Year celebration with the re-telling of one of the most beloved tales in Chinese folklore. I hope this play is not only how I pass on this story to a new generation, but part of the healing we are still doing after the terrible Asian-hate during the pandemic. The Chinese in America have a complicated and often dark history. Growing up in Hawai’i has taught me that healing starts with aloha and delight in one another’s cultures. Stories connect us all. This play celebrates being Chinese, and I share it with joy and aloha.

I recently saw a one woman show by Breaking Wave Theatre Company rooted on the island of Guam called For the Love of Spam, created by CHamoru/Filipina artist Sierra Sevilla. The piece was a brilliant, hilarious, heart breaking exploration on how “canned meat symbolizes modern-day colonialism, and threatens the very livelihood of a whole civilization in these ‘West vs East’ political games.” Although I am vegetarian, I almost ran out to buy a can of Spam as an act of solidarity and revolt against colonialism after seeing the show!

My next project is directing Lovey Lee by my dear friend Moses Goods for Kumu Kahua Theatre in Honolulu. This show is based on  the real-life story of an amazing human. It is also a beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking queer story.  The play is set in the 1970s, a time of reclamation and discovery in Hawaiʻi and centers around main character, Lovey Lee, who is a young, queer Hawaiian looking for the meaning of “home” and where they belong. It is an exploration of mahu culture in Hawaiʻi. The story is dark and gritty and sometimes hard to bear witness to– A story that I have never seen depicted on stage before. I feel very grateful to bring it to life.

I think young people should be included in every important conversation. I believe we make change by serving our youth. It is a great honor, delight, and responsibility knowing that one of my TYA shows might be the very first show that a child ever sees. I also really love listening to the giggles of the littlest keiki and watching the show with them.

For The Great Race, I worked with martial arts friends from the Hawaii Lion Dance Association. I love collaborating with masters and cultural practitioners to create inspired movement, music, or design for a show. We used kung fu and Lion Dance as part of the movement for the show and created our own Lion Dance music by using found objects on stage.

Shout out to the amazing Dr. Tamara Hunt-Montgomery who started me on my TYA journey and encouraged me to get my masters in her world-class program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. Mahalo, dear Tammy!

I love connecting! My email at Honolulu Theatre for Youth is reiko@htyweb.org, my instagram handle is @redlotushawaii, and website: www.reikoho.com.

I just wrapped up the 38th edition of the EQT Children’s Theater Festival based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The gathering was a huge success and inspired thousands of young theater goers and their grown ups.

Each edition of the festival welcomes between 6-9 performances from around the globe. Both performing and visual art (and some free activities and a scavenger hunt) draw over 10,000 attendees annually.

I have been fortunate to work collaboratively on this amazing festival since 2003.

I recently had the pleasure of presenting Plexus Polaire’s Moby Dick directed by Yngvild Aspeli. The piece fuses theater, puppetry, music, and projection to create a multi-dimensional version of this classic story. The show delves into life’s mysteries through the storms of the sea and the soul with the help of 7 actors, 50+ puppets, an incredible score and a whale-sized whale.

I am hanging up my Pittsburgh Cultural Trust badge in mid-June to recreate, recalibrate and relaunch an industry service organization for touring TYA or AYA, if you will–Touring Art for Young Audiences. Huh? Think ready-to-tour performing and visual art of any genre that resonates with babies, children, teens, their grown people and the young at heart.

This passion project is based on the foundation of what was formerly International Performing Arts for Youth. The organization went through many phases, but was always an incredible resource for getting tours out in the world–especially across North America. I served on the board and selection for more than half of my career and was heart broken when it didn’t survive the pandemic.

My goal is to launch a beautiful new organization that serves the touring TYA industry–those who make it, fund it, study it and present it. It will be a place to gather, learn, celebrate and instigate touring work for young audiences. I look forward to welcoming you into this community. More information is coming very soon!

Despite studying dance, music and art as a child, I vividly remember the first time I went to a performance of Peter Pan as an audience member. I was changed (mostly for the better) by each and every show. Thanks to an incredible academic advisor, I discovered theater admin and programming during my under grad time at Bloomsburg University.

I believe that the theater and art in general are core elements to a child’s growth. Good theater makes all of us think, wonder and discuss. TYA inspires family togetherness and conversation. I particularly love TYA that speaks differently to each audience member at various points of the performance. And I love when theater crosses the line to meet visual art and outdoor adventure.

Shout out to my pal and colleague Simon Shaw at Shaw Entertainment. Besides being a delightful human, Simon has been my co-conspirator for many years. He has a terrific eye for engaging, quality performances. We have been fortunate to travel the world together and separately seeing shows and discovering new work.

My greatest mentor was the fearless Maranne Welch. She created the Children’s Theater Festival, instigated the former International Performing Arts for Youth and and was a dear friend.

pamkomar@gmail.com.