Lauren Mau

My Reflection

Ever since I became a student at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, I had so many experiences that I wouldn't want to forget in the future. University of Hawai'i at Manoa has a great theater program. I started getting involved with UH's theater department when I became a shadow puppeteer for The BFG. The BFG was on the main stage and when I saw the audition paper on the board in the theater, I just had to try it. Getting a part as a shadow puppeteer wasn't my first choice. But I wanted to help with this play as much as I could. The first day I was called in, I met with Margot Fitzimmons and Kelsey Faamausili. We looked at silhouettes Margot had printed out as examples of what different puppets we were going to use in the play. Later on, a new member of the team, Shannon Iriarte, helped us with the puppets. Cutting the silhouettes out onto black stock paper was fun. What made me excited was testing them out on a screen with a flashlight. We figured out how to make the helicopters fly in a group by taping them to a thin sort-of-plexiglass and two people moving it in front of the light source. I had learned how to have the shadow puppet enter and exit and how positioning the puppet in front of the light can make the shadow look big or small. Finding how to not be seen behind the screen during performances was tricky. There are some things that can't be avoided.

Working with Margot Fitzimmons was a blast over the couple of years I have know her. Helping with one of her devised shows, Patience, as a shadow puppeteer was an honor. The play was based on this famous story in Korea. We performed this piece in Fall 2015. When the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region VIIII was happening in the Kennedy Theater in the Spring 2016, she and her co-devisers decided to try out their play in this festival. It was tricky to remember what we did months before and we only had about the night before to set up the projector and music and practice. We performed well the next day and with all of our hard work, we won an "Outstanding Ability to Captivate & Transcend Through Performance" award.

I auditioned and got the part as a puppeteer for the rabbit character in Rose and the Rime. Getting on board in my first Chaminade play was an interesting experience, especially performing in a theater I never been in before. The first thing I noticed was that the theater at Chaminade is way smaller than the main stage at Kennedy Theater. With the guide of our director, Nathaniel Niemi, we pushed through and found a way to not step on each other's toes. This was my first time being in the process of a play from the beginning. Usually, the crew members or the dressers enter in the middle of the process or near the end because they are not needed in the beginning. In the BFG, we worked separately from the actors and was called in about halfway through. But being in the whole process in the beginning, I created more of a bond with the actors than before. Working with a puppet with only a movable head was a challenge. I am used to puppets with movable heads and limbs. Using a rabbit with not so much freedom of showing emotions with mobility of the hands and the head took me awhile to figure out how to show emotion without moving the puppet too wildly. In the end, the stiff bunny became the magical "guardian" of Rose and aided her in her adventure.

Hearing that UH was going to have a Kyogen mask class in the Fall, I just had to take it. They brought in a guest teacher from Japan, Hideta Kitazawa. The class was about a month and I used all of those long weeks to slowly carving my mask. There was the option of creating two or three masks during his stay here in Hawai'i, if you were fast enough. At first, I thought that having two masks would be great. But after day one, cutting and carving into wood made me change my mind. While my arms and hands argued with me, creating this beautiful mask made it all worth it.

After my four long years of being a student here at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, these experiences helped me to understand the world of TYA and how puppetry works with children and adults effectively. Being an actor in Western-style plays expanded my acting skills and helped me grow. Designing a Kyogen mask helped me understand a part of the Japanese culture. Helping out in both Western and Indonesian plays as a crew member and a costume dresser, it helped me understand how each culture is different to each other. Looking back, these skill will help me become a better person and a better performer.