NEWS RELEASE
Students take to Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to share Hawaiian opera
Posted: August 7, 2016
KS Hawaiʻi students took to the Fringe's Royal Mile hub to share their culture and promote their show.
Mara-Jayde Hiwa Brown dances hula as part of an ensemble to the mele ʻĀina Hau.
Edinburgh, Scotland— Students from Kamehameha Schools Hawai‘i campus took to Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to share their culture, tell their story and generate interest in the opera they will perform over the next three days.
The Royal Mile is the hub of activity for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts festival. Of the 4,300 shows featured over the month-long festival, most performers take to this street to try and entice visitors to purchase a ticket to their show.
Students performed a portion of two numbers of their opera, shared mele and hula and passed out lei and Big Island Candies to onlookers. They handed out fliers promoting their opera and encouraged the audience to come to their performances the next week.
The KS Hawai‘i students are participating in the American High School Theater Festival program as part of the Fringe. Their original Hawaiian language opera, Hā‘upu, debuted on Friday, August 5 at the festival, making history as the first Hawaiian language production and first production to feature hula and oli (chant) in the nearly seven decade old history of the Fringe.
Nineteen students from KS Hawai‘i are taking part in this experience. The school was selected to participate in the festival in May 2015, and have been busy preparing for this moment over the past 15 months. The production featured in Scotland is adapted from the school’s Hō‘ike, which was performed in March 2016.
Hā‘upu tells the legend of Kana and Nīheu and their daring rescue of their mother Hina, from a Moloka‘i chief who kidnapped her in attempt to barter a peace and preserve the way of life for his people. It has been compared to the myth of Helen of Troy.
For more information on the Fringe, visit www.edfringe.com.
For more information on the production, trip to Scotland or performing arts group, visit www.ksbe.edu/kshhoike.
