Never Only Here
Presented February 20 -22, 2003 at UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures;
various performances for middle and high school audiences, February and March 2003.
The WAC 192 Repertory Tour Ensemble class was a two-quarter commitment — Fall 2002 and Spring 2003. During the first quarter, the class responded to various assignments and by the end of the quarter, we had a quite a bit of dance, text and movement motifs that were fairly far along in development. I chose to call the show Never Only Here, and I knew that it would contain a heavy hip-hop presence — both in dance and spoken word forms. I also knew that there would be several themes running throughout the overall piece. These themes of identity, family and culture would stem from and consistently refer back to a quote by existential philosopher Martin Heidegger. Heidegger wrote that “I am never here only, as this encapsulated body; rather I am there, that is, I already pervade the room and thus can I go through it.” I saw that the quote was open to a variety of readings and sufficiently evocative to inspire and determine a broad exploration of locality — on both physical and emotional planes. This felt very useful in terms of the Rep Tour project. Discovering this quote gave me a thread that I felt could tie all of our pieces together. Ultimately, our movement pieces, acting scenes, personal perspectives and reflections, and theatrical transitions were all filtered through the ideas of identification, liminality, perspective, and the act of change — the variability of the “heres” and the “theres” in our lives. The class was comprised of an eclectic mix of WAC majors (freshman, transfers, and seniors), UCLA non-WAC majors, and several community college guys that I had previously worked with as part of my Theatre Workshop program. Considering the unusual mix of students in our cast and the fact that it functioned with a completely experientially driven curriculum and was utterly performance-oriented, I believe it is safe to say that this class was significantly different than the typical university class. And in my estimation it was a great success. I am extremely proud of this show. The cast was extremely talented and open-minded. The show's entertainment value was very high — for both our community and high school audiences, as well as for the varied mix of artists and theorists found within the WAC program. Also, the show was able to give all the cast members their moments to shine and be uniqiue, as well as function as a cohesive troup of young artists with great amounts of energy, intelligence, curiosity and love.
WAC 192 Repertory Tour Ensemble, presents:
Never Only Here
Conceived and Directed by Kevin Kane
Written by the Cast in collaboration with Kevin Kane
Choreographed by Kevin Kane
in collaboration with student choreographers:
Jackelyn Lopez, Tiana N. Liufau, Sarri Sanchez, Tiffany Moore,
Stella Adelman, Yuta Kato, Mike Domantay, Gibson, Karen Runde and the Full Cast
Featuring the Students of Repertory Ensemble Tour:
Stella Adelman, Gabrielle Angeles, Jennifer Anolin, Jeffred Armas, Shaggy Bajrami, Tiffany Burris, Cynthia Castillo, Misuda Cohen, Mike Domantay, Aiko Fujimoto, Cesar Garfiaz, Gibson, Yuta Kato, Jennarose Kerr, Chi Kim, Nic KoneffKlatt, Vanessa KoneffKlatt, Amy Kusolpaisit, Chase Landau, Jeremy Lautan, Lenny Lesser, Tiana N. Liufau, Jackelyn Lopez, Tittus Mendez, Tiffany Moore, Hikari Nishida, Diane Terre Palaganas, Karen Runde, Nicole Rush, Sarri Sanchez, Kaity Shaner, Ellis Tenza, Steven Thaengthong, Jeanie A. Williams
Production Manager and House Manager: Arsenio Apillanes
Lighting Design: Sam Jones
Sound Design: Kevin Kane
Stage Managers: Stella Adelman, Jeffred Armas
Dance Captains: Tiffany Moore, Jackelyn Lopez, Vanessa KoneffKlatt
Costumes: Vanessa KoneffKlatt
Musicians: Chi Kim, Yuta Kato, Tiana A. Liufa, Hikari Nishida
DJ: Ellis Tenza
Original Music: Chi Kim, Lenny Lesser, Ellis Tenza
Assistant Directors: Cynthia Castillo, Amy Kusolpaisit
Production Assistant: Jeff Cain
Postcard and Program Design: Sombat Kriangchaivit