Miss On-Scene is Back On-Scene (Part 2 of 4): Miss On-Scene hits the stage...and gets to sit at the fun table!

Hey beautiful people, I'm back again with the second installment of my "look at me, I'm back and better than ever!" blog.  And boy, am I better than ever.  So many wonderful things have happened, even since my last blog, posted almost two weeks ago.

I am happy to tell you that since my last blog about my job at Station Bar & Lounge and its weekly open mic night, Honolulu Weekly magazine released their 2012 Best of Honolulu issue and named Station "Best Place to Catch Promising Musicians at an Open Mic."  I couldn't be more proud.  You can read the nice little blurb the Weekly wrote about us here.

And now it's time for my second blog installment!

Part 2:  Miss On-Scene hits the stage...and gets to sit at the fun table!

As many of you may know, I am a bit of a part-time thespian.  In 2004 I was bitten by the acting bug when I took my first acting class at Leeward Community College and saw their mainstage production of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, directed by the beloved and much-missed Paul Cravath.  Since then I'd had the privilege of acting in several LCC productions, both on the mainstage and in the lab theatre, and last year finally broke through my LCC box and made my Hawaii Shakespeare Festival debut.  It was through the Hawaii theater community that I made friends with local director, actor and playwright, Troy M. Apostol.

Back in June I received an email from Troy with the subject line, "Hitting the Stage." The first paragraph of Troy's email went as follows:

Given your experience and enthusiasm towards theatre, blogging, and reviews, I would like to invite you to be a contributing writer for our new peer-to-peer theatre review site, Hitting The Stage. The site is slated to go live very soon, and we're looking for good, forthright writers and reviewers to express their mana'o about Hawaii's plays, theatres, and theatre community."

Needless to say, I was excited to come on board.  I have to admit I was a little intimidated at first; as Troy had also brought on such Hawaii theatre heavy-hitters as Stu Hirayama, Jason Taglianetti and Dusty Behner.  But even though my contributions to HTS.com have been minimal so far, it's an honor to be a part of something that our community has needed for decades now:  a peer-to-peer review site providing more than just one voice for theater in Hawaii.  That's about as much as I can say without going in to detail about what urged Troy and webmistress Kylie Coonse to start HTS.

Thanks to Troy and HTS, I had the honor of attending my first Po'okela Awards ceremony!  For those who don't know, the Po'okelas is an annual ceremony that the Hawaii State Theater Council holds to honor the best of the theater season.  Not quite on-par with the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, but still a fun, glamourous and pseudo red-carpet event in my book.  Troy and I planned on bringing swag to the party, dressing up as a pimp-and-ho.  Now that's class!

Troy and myself, and former Poki winner Tafa'i Silipa at the Po'okelas.  Photo courtesy of Troy Apostol.

The ceremony took place at the Ko'olau Ballroom located on the beautiful Windward side of Oahu.  With banquet-style seating, themed centerpieces, and catered food and drinks, it felt a lot like high school prom.   Most of the attendees were dressed in evening gowns and suits, although Troy and I were not the only outlandishly-dressed ones there.  A few Poki veterans reassured me that I was indeed not dressed inappropriately, and that this ceremony seemed "tame" in comparison to previous years.  We are, after all, a bunch of crazy thespians!

The theme of this year's ceremony was "Stars' Night Out," and we sure felt like a bunch of stars that night.  I got to eat food, drink wine, schmooze it up with a bunch of people in the theater community, from old friends, to people I had only heard of and was honored to meet for the first time.  I did not personally win any Pokis that night, but Hawaii Shakespeare Festival did take home a few awards for Henry IV.2, my first non-LCC play.  One significant thing that made this year's Pokis different from all the ones before is that two more theater companies had just been adjudicated this year, Kumu Kahua Theatre and UH-Manoa's Kennedy theatre.  

Myself, Hawaii Shakespeare Festival director Tony Pisculli, and just a few of his awards.  Photo courtesy of Troy Apostol.

I jumped and screamed with joy as my friends and fellow actors' names were announced, including fellow LCC-born actress Elexis Draine, when she was honored for Best Lead Female in a Play for her breakthrough performance in Kumu Kahua's Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre.  

I may not have taken home any plaques, but I did get to take home half a centerpiece, great memories, and this amazing lesson:  always try to sit at the fun table in the banquet hall of life.  Like prom and other similar events, it's not about whether you win an award, be it a Po'okela or the title of Prom Queen.  What matters is that you had a great time, saw all your friends, and it doesn't hurt to get a little belligerent and loud either.  Do you really want to be the cheerleader spending the entire night worrying about your hair and whether or not you'll win the crown, or would you rather be the guy who hired a high-class escort to be your date, spiked the punch, and left during the principal's boring speech to get high behind the gym?  I'd personally prefer the latter, but even if you don't go all the way, the point is just to have a great time with all your friends, laughing, eating, drinking, and cheering, and not caring about pomp and circumstance.  Always be at the fun table:  the table that laughs the loudest, looks the happiest, and gets everyone else to say, "I wanna be at that table."  And in my own world, the Hawaii theatre community IS the fun table, and  many thanks go out to Troy Apostol, Paul Cravath, Tony Pisculli, and everyone else that invited me to sit with them. :)

Links:
hittingthestage.com
HTS's complete list of 2012 Po'okela Honorees
Honolulu Pulse feature on the 2012 Po'okelas

Miss On-Scene is Back On-Scene! (Part 1 of 4)

I promise to start blogging more often...so that my posts are less like this.

I know it's been awhile, and hopefully you miss me!  Haha.  I think the funniest thing about blogging is the more you have to write about, the less time you have to write.  But before I get even busier, I thought I'd give you all a quick update on what's been going on with me, and of course, with the Hawaii scene! This blog will be coming to you in 4, hopefully not-too-spaced-apart installments, the first one about my new gig at Station Bar & Lounge, the second about my new (unpaid) gig as a writer for hittingthestage.com, the third about this awesome new show I'm rehearsing for, and the 4th to update you all on my ongoing adventure with Brandon Apeles, Sing the Body, the whole Alternative HI/Amakua Records ohana. :)

Part 1:  How a Guy Named Blane Gave Me the Best Job Ever

Back in May, my friend Blane Nishizawa, owner of Station Bar and Lounge (which was already my favorite local venue) brought me on board as a barback.  Opening up back in December 2011, Station has still been going strong as a live venue and night spot.   Having roots deep in the local rock scene (anyone remember Soundhouse?), Station has now its weekly event schedule to include everything from acoustic showcases, DJ nights, free karaoke and of course, rock shows with full lineups--there's something going on practically every night!

Besides sweeping floors, cleaning toilets and washing glasses, I've learned the basics of running sound, lighting, and event promotion...all things I've wanted and needed to learn for the longest time!  But the biggest learning experience for me at Station has been hosting our Monday Open Mic nights.  Station had previously been running weekly open mics long before I ever became employed there...because why not; the bar is fully equipped with a P.A. system great acoustics and usually an experienced sound tech.  When I first started working in May I asked Blane how the open mics were going.  Sadly, he said that they had recently discontinued it.  At the time, turnout was low and there was no one available or willing to host or run the event.  I expressed interest in bringing it back and a few weeks later, he asked me to host for the first time.  Basically, I had to do the job of a promoter, emcee and sound tech all at once, not to mention the possibility of playing a few songs myself as filler if the turnout was low.  Seemed scary at first, but I had the help of some experienced Station staff and regulars, and an unmeasureable amount of support.

The first couple of weeks were a little intimidating, with only a few performers each time.  But with the power of social media and old fashioned word-of mouth, it got better and better every week.  And even when the number of performers was low, the amount of talent and originality never was.  If you know anything about open mic nights, it's that it can often be hit-or-miss.  Well, in my book, it was never a miss.  Even with varying degrees of experience and talent, every single person that got on my stage was entertaining, talented, and captiviating.  Not once have I had any bad performers on stage.  Not once have I had that awkward task of tactfully having to kick anyone offstage because they were crazy or just plain sucked.  Thank god!

Perhaps my best Open Mic night so far was just two Mondays ago, on July 30th.  I actually thought that particular night would bomb.  At the time I had no access to a computer or the internet, not even a smartphone, and social media is pretty essential to my job.  I confirmed with Blane that I could still do my job as a host, but that I could not do much to promote.  I did, however, text everyone I could using my archaic flip phone that I had at the time.  Among the people I texted was my friend, the multitalented actor, singer/songwriter and comedian Harold Wong.

"Open Mic tonight at Station.  If can,"  was the text I sent him.

"Just made an FB post," he texted back instantaneously.

My spirits were instantly lifted and I knew it was going to be a good night, if for nothing else, because I knew at least one exceptionally talented performer would be there.

That night, for the first time in my month-and-a-half or so of hosting Open Mic, we had our first performer come in and sign up before 8pm!  A gentleman on vacation from New Jersey with his lady friend from South Korea, who had walked in on our acoustic showcase the week before, thinking it was an open mic night.  We told him to come back on Monday, and I was pleased that he actually did.  He kicked the night off with some soulful Al Green and Bill Withers covers, and equally soulful originals.  During downtime I talked to him and his lady, got to know them a little and shared a few stories or my own.  They were absolutely pleased with everything about their vacation, the bar, and Station's unique version of Hawaii hospitality.

Besides my new friends, we also had another walk-in performer, two of our Open Mic regulars (Jay Wolf and Isaac Waters,) and of course Harold.  And if that didn't make me happy enough, a bunch of my friends from college theatre came to show their support.  Many songs were sung and many rounds were bought.  I haven't had a night that good or better yet, but all other nights have been pretty darn close.

(Backwards Shaka performing at Station Open Mic Night.  Photo by Malia Baloyot.)

What I love the most about running these open mics is being able to see local talent when it's still new, raw, and the artists are still starting out and hungry for exposure.  It is especially an honor to feel partly responsible when they do indeed become successful.  Sing the Body got their start at Ong King's open mic night, and Sweet Corn and Peanut (look out for them!) played just a couple of our open mic nights before we booked them for an actual gig.  My inner hipster will admit to beaming with pride when I say, "I saw them before they were cool."

Blane didn't just give me a job, he gave me the biggest opportunity of my life.  I feel with Station Bar & Lounge, Nishizawa has given Honolulu's artists the perfect venue and platform from which to move forward to bigger and better things...I just hope they all continue to come back!

Open Mic nights held at Station Bar & Lounge every Monday night.  Happy hour from 6-8, Open Mic portion of the night starts at 8, with signups starting at 7:30.  For more info, message Station Hawaii on Facebook.