Visiting theater company immerses UH Hilo Pacific literature class in community building workshop

Visiting artistic director Ova Saopeng led the students through a series of illuminating theater exercises designed to inspire thought and reflection while building a sense of community.

Group photo of about 20 students with their professor and the workshop leader.
A UH Hilo Pacific literature class and the cast of TeAda Productions’ Nothing Micro about Micronesia gather for photo at the Community Building Workshop. At center front is TeAda Production Company’s associate artistic director Ova Saopeng who led the workshop. At left flashing the peace sign is Associate Professor of English Leanne Day, whose class participated in the workshop. (Photo: Courtesy of the Performing Arts Center/UH Hilo)

By Susan Enright.

A Pacific literature class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo spent their class time last week in a hands-on, body-moving Community Building Workshop led by a visiting theater company that’s dedicated to telling the stories of immigrants, refugees, and Indigenous communities.

TeAda Productions, based in Los Angeles, was on campus for a three-day residency to conduct workshops and present several showings of their production, Nothing Micro About Micronesia, that included two performances for local children in grades 4-8 and a sold-out public performance on Oct. 22.

Two adults and three teens pose for photo.
The cast of TeAda Productions’ Nothing Micro About Micronesia. (Photo courtesy of TeAda))

“This was a really wonderful experience that brought our community together,” says Lee Barnette-Dombroski, manager at UH Hilo’s Performing Arts Center where the shows took place.

Nothing Micro About Micronesia is described as a coming of age story about two Micronesian boys who “encounter an unlikely place after a series of conflicts between them. They must navigate between the directions from elders and the government systems who have had an impact on their current lives and states of being/belonging.”

TeAda produced the play in collaboration with members of the Micronesian community in Hawaiʻi, building trust within that community for over a decade. The company has performed the show and conducted related workshops throughout the Hawaiian islands since last fall.

Leanne Day pictured.
Leanne Day

As soon as UH Hilo Associate Professor of English Leanne Day, who specializes in settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, heard TeAda was coming to campus, she reached out to Barnette-Dombroski to invite the company to visit her Pacific Islands literature class (English 430).

“I was so thrilled they were coming to Hilo and reached out to Lee immediately to set up a class visit,” says Day. “Since my Pacific Islands literature course offers an in-depth engagement with cultural production throughout Oceania, I was excited at the possibility of having TeAda run a workshop for my students.”

Immersive workshop, conscious engagement

The invitation extended to TeAda to come to Day’s class was accepted, and the class was immersed in a workshop led by Ova Saopeng, associate artistic director and producer of the production company, who focused on exercises that strengthen community building.

Ova Saopeng pictured in black t-shirt.
Ova Saopeng

“It was a wonderful workshop,” says Day.

Prior to the workshop, Day’s class had read works by Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner (Marshallese), C.T. Perez (CHamoru), Julian Aguon (CHamoru), Emelihter Kihleng (Pohnpeian), Michael Lujan Bevacqua (CHamoru), and various other writers from Micronesia. “We also discussed the #beingmicronesian hashtag that emerged in 2019 and the issues of anti-Micronesian racism in Hawaiʻi,” says Day.

By inviting TeAda to her class, Day says she was hoping they would model some of their workshop activities in order to give her students the opportunity to experience part of the actual process the company uses to develop their productions. Day explains that TeAda’s objective and praxis to develop “community-based story collection and social justice practices” aligns with how she approaches the classroom as well as the content for the Pacific Islands literature course.

“And, of course, Nothing Micro about Micronesia, directly engages with the subject matter of my course,” she says.

Under the direction of Ova Saopeng standing at the front of the group, students and their professor strike different poses from raised arms to hands on hips, to reaching forward.
UH Hilo students in a Pacific literature class and their professor, Leanne Day (far right), participate in a “sculpture exercise” led by TeAda Productions associate artistic director and producer Ova Saopeng (front right) at a community building workshop. (Photo courtesy of the Performing Arts Center/UH Hilo)

While she expected Saopeng to lead a few workshop activities, Day was not expecting it to be a full class period. The artistic director ran the students through a series of illuminating theater exercises that were designed to inspire thought and reflection as the group moved their bodies and interacted with one another.

“I was delighted, and we all participated and connected in new ways to build community,” says Day. “We ran through a series of theatre exercises from introductions to moving our bodies and responding to prompts about how to move, speak, and listen individually and in pairs. We also reflected on the process, made observations, and came together at the end to recap. This allowed for conscious engagement.”

“Honestly,” adds Day, “we had so much fun being silly, thinking about our shared experiences, moving, and interacting in ways we normally do not do in a classroom.”

Student reflections: “Opened my eyes”

After the workshop, Day asked her students to write reflections on the process.

“It really opened my eyes to the Micronesian culture and the theater world,” writes Kamaka Frasco, a second year English major. “What I found most interesting about this workshop is how everyone is creative in their own way with how they perceive things.”

TeAda Productions logo. Theater of Color. www.teada.orgFrasco found this especially true when the group explored different themes, notably with a walking exercise. “It is like wayfinding, which is what the Polynesians did, and how they had to navigate a certain way with just a destination in mind, even if they were not too sure where their destination was.”

Sharmin Zaman, a fourth year computer sciences major writes that she was unexpectedly challenged by some of the prompts that asked the group to move as arbitrary things that don’t necessarily have movement that’s easy to reenact. She cites, as an example, the sun in Hilo.

“The way in which the energy in the room noticeably increased as we worked through the different exercises, intrigued me,” writes Zaman. “I would say that the exercises are definitely effective at team-building, because they allowed us to break out of our shells without stress or pressure, and without exerting too much energy.”

Fourth year English major Amari Ohara enjoyed the interactive nature of the workshop.

“It helped build the idea of individuality in a community in my mind, even though everyone in the class has different experiences, thoughts, opinions, and backgrounds, we still have common ground like attending the same class,” writes Ohara.

Hazel Nitura, a fourth-year business administration major with a concentration in healthcare management, notes that she experienced a positive shift in her mood after the workshop.

“I felt happier and more energized after class,” she writes. “My mood went up, and it felt good to leave a class feeling like this, which is rare for me, but with all the group activities, it made me happier.”


Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.

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