Hawaii Opera Theatre Production Coordinator Jordan Sasaki typically works behind the scenes to make sure productions flow smoothly. But she will soon be on the other side of the curtain.
Sasaki will act the role of Lysander in the Hawaii Shakes Festival mid-August production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her involvement with opera through HOT has helped her prepare for the role, she said.
“I think to myself that I want to act with the same finesse that opera singers sing with,” Sasaki said. “As actors, we’re kind of obsessive about our voices, but being a singer is this whole other level of discipline.”
The role will challenge her, she said, as the play will be presented in two invented languages, forcing the actors to rely entirely on physicality, tone, and delivery to tell the story. Sasaki prepared by watching a previous HOT season’s Italian opera, II Trovatore, without paying attention to the English supertitles, and found that she could still follow the story without reading along.
“My hope is that A Midsummer Night’s Dream can achieve that, because we won’t have supertitles,” she said.
In rehearsal on Monday, Sasaki looked over her script and reminded herself of a line she sometimes had trouble remembering. With her heavy sword clanking against her hip, she prepared to take the stage.
Sasaki, 26, has found that she gravitates toward classical art forms. Her affinity for Shakespeare began at Florida International University, where she earned a bachelor’s of fine arts in theatre performance.
“There’s so much to benefit from – especially in these older art forms,” Sasaki said. “There’s a reason they’ve stuck around all these years.”
When Sasaki was younger, she said, some of her friends and family encouraged her to pursue traditional academics instead of the arts. They were concerned about her career opportunities if she only focused on theatre, she said.
But it’s clear now to see that Sasaki’s degree has been far from limiting. On top of her work with HOT and the Hawaii Shakes Festival, she is also writing two plays, and she hopes to submit one to a local play writing competition this year.
“The skills you learn doing performance I think you can apply almost anywhere, which I don’t think everyone realizes,” Sasaki said. “It isn’t stuck in a little box.”
Back in rehearsal for a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sasaki took deep breaths from her diaphragm to project Lysander’s emphatic lines.
Without any amplification or English translations, her voice carried across the room – much like that of an opera singer.
By Allison Kronberg