May 2, Sun – DAY 1
Courtney, Kris, Liz and I flew into the Cleveland where we were greeted by Bryan and Maz(they had flown in a few days before) who came to pick us up. We then drove to Oberlin where we did an Expanding workshop with Oberlin and Icho Daiko. Kris and I were assigned to teach one of the Shime/Okedo set parts. I was really amazed at how quickly everyone was able to pickup the complicated beats, let alone learning four different parts!
May 3, Mon – DAY 2
My roomie for the week, Liz, and I were getting ready in the morning in our very lovely Wyndham hotel room when I turned the tv on to find ‘TAIKOPROJECT” written across the screen. The Wyndham had included us into their main hotel channel! I found this very amusing and exciting! Today was the first day of the residency. For 5 days, 5 hours each day, we worked with 7 high school students: Jacob, Jeni, Erika, Nathan, Zack, Brittany, and Andrew, in a taiko intensive. And let me tell ya, this was DEFINITELY not just an intensive for the students. Everyday consisted of an hour intensive running/warm-up session, lead by a different member each day, that we all participated in. Today was Courtney’s turn to lead warm-ups. Although I was sore for pretty much then entire week, it was a great workout not only for the students but for us “oldies” as well. Today’s instruction focused on taiko basics
May 4, Tues – DAY 3
Throughout the week, Liz and I took advantage of every possible minute of free time we had to go explore the city. There was a FREE trolley that takes you around the downtown area that we loved to ride on. Today was Day 2 of the residency. After warm-ups, which were led by Liz, we jumped right into teaching the 2 songs that the students were going to be performing at the end of the residency. The students were very enthusiastic and worked very hard to learn the pieces in just a few days!
May 5, Wed – DAY 4
Jen flew into Cleveland early in the morning. Liz found a farmers market nearby that had a crepe place so we decided to go in the morning to get breakfast crepes. The crepes, although a bit messy with the oozing chocolate, were amazing! Awesome find Liz! I think many of us were able to get some souvenir/gift shopping done there to so that was great! In the afternoon, we went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum. My favorite exhibit at the museum was a drumset that was titled Sasquatch. As you could probably guess from the name, it was a drumset that was covered entirely with white fur. We weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the museum so I didn't get a picture of it but…It was awesome! Today was Day 3 of the residency and was my day to lead warm-ups. I really enjoyed the idea of having someone different lead warm-ups each day. It was a great way of keeping things fresh and different. I think a different part of my body was sore each day! We continued to work on the two performance pieces today. In addition to learning the beats, we also began to focus a lot on movement, form and stance as well. Putting movement and beats together is pretty difficult to do but the students picked it up really fast!
May 6, Thurs – DAY 5
We were asked to do a short segment for the news so Bryan, Liz, and I went to the theatre in the morning to do a short Nidan performance. Kris came with us to photograph the event. Thank you so much Kris! Although we didn’t get to see ourselves on tv for it was broadcast live, it was still very exciting! Later that morning, we had 2 school shows. This was Liz and my first time doing a school show. I was very nervous for the first show, especially because I had a speaking part. The first show, I felt was really rough, personally. After some helpful tips by the veterans of the group, I felt a little more confident after the second show. Overall, both shows went well! Today was Day 4 of the residency and Jen lead the warm-ups. Today was similar to yesterday where we spent the first hour or so working on form, stance, and striking, and the rest of the time we worked on the performance pieces. 4 days into our intense taiko boot camp and all seven of the students were still showing up! I was afraid that after our daily running and exercising, someone was going to end up hating us. Jacob, Jeni, Erika, Nathan, Zack, Brittany, and Andrew…you guys rock!
May 7, Fri – DAY 6
We had 2 more school shows this morning. The set was the same from Thursday so I was definitely more relaxed than I was the day before. I felt better about my speaking sections today, and I think the shows went really well overall. Today was the last practice before the performance. Since everyone was such a good sport about the running/warm-up all week, we decided that today we would play Capture the Flag…or in our case, toilet paper… instead. Taikoproject versus Atsumari Daiko!
***Atsumari Daiko is the official taiko group name that the students came up with for themselves. Atsumari, in Japanese, means: a gathering of people. They chose this name because they are a group of high school students, who come from different areas in Ohio and attend different high schools, who have gathered together in Cleveland to learn and play taiko.
Guess who won?!...not us. Although we didn't officially keep score, I’m pretty sure we got our butts kicked by Atsumari Daiko. We want a rematch!!! After our hour of being silly, it was crunch time! The remaining hours of practice were dedicated to working on and cleaning up the performance pieces.
May 8, Sat – DAY 7
This afternoon, Atsumari Daiko had their debut performance at the Idea Center in Cleveland! We were originally scheduled to play outside but due to rain, we ended up performing inside at the Idea Center. Despite the weather and some changes made, we had a large audience and both the performances we did went well. Awesome job and congrats Atsumari Daiko! I hope we get to see you guys again sometime! After giving our congratulation and goodbye hugs *sniff* and saying our closing aisatsu, the residency came to an end. Since it was just around dinner time when we finished loading up our equipment back into the trailer, we decided to go eat at a nearby Mardi Gras themed restaurant called Fat Fish Blue. After a quick dinner there, we headed to our next destination…dessert! We found a place called Chocolate Bar that had an amazing selection of sweets that we could choose from. The line to be seated was really long though, so we ended up going across the street to a bowling alley to kill an hour. After bowling, we went back to the Chocolate bar and were finally able to get a table. I think we were all on a sugar high for a few hours afterwards…I definitely was! It was a great way to end our Ohio trip!
May 9, Sun – DAY 8
Jen, Courtney, Kris, Liz and I head back to LA(Thank you Bryan and Maz for the ride to the airport and for driving the trailer all the way to the east coast and back), and Bryan and Maz begin their drive back to the west coast, making stops to do more workshops along the way. I couldn’t believe how fast the week went by! This week was not only just a learning experience for the members of Atsumari Daiko, but was definitely one for me as well. Since it was my first residency, I wasn’t sure what to expect, or how to go about things. Although I know that there is still much I need to improve on, I feel that the next time I get to take part in a residency such as this, I will definitely be more confident and have a better understanding of how things are supposed to run. I had an amazing amazing AMAZING time! Also, thank you SO MUCH Playhouse Square for allowing us to have this residency and letting us use your theatres for a week!
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