‘New Kid’
By John Berger
entertains while
raising awareness
Special to the Star-BulletinThe New Kid: Presented by Hawaii Theatre for Youth, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23, Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter. Tickets, $10; discounts for high school and college students, preteens and those over age 60. Call 839-9885.
THE unenviable experience of being an immigrant stranger in a strange land is vividly illustrated in Honolulu Theatre for Youth's entertaining and thought provoking production of Dennis Foon's "The New Kid" at Richardson Theatre.
Young Nick (Hermen Tesoro Jr.) comes from "Homeland," a tropical country where English isn't spoken and the people have no knowledge of American culture. When Nick's family immigrates to Hawaii he is thrust into a public school while still unable to communicate in English and with no introduction to local culture.
English sounds like gibberish to him. The American kids don't understand Homelander. They mock Nick's attempts to communicate. His clothes are different. Even his home lunch is cause for ridicule. The American kids say it smells bad.
Foon gives his elementary school audience a good idea of what Nick is experiencing by having Nick and his mother (Cynthia See) speak English while the American kids (Lisa Ann M. Omoto and Sheilah Sealey) converse in a garbled rapid-fire patois. Only gradually does it become clear what some of these strange sounds mean.
Mench (Omoto) gradually befriends Nick, but Mog (Sealey) bullies him unmercifully and taunts him with a word he learns is a crude local epithet for Homelanders. When Nick builds up his courage and invites Mench to see his home he finds his mother prefers to speak Homelander and would be happier if he socialized only within the immigrant Homelander community. Nick and Mench eventually win her over, but playwright Foon makes a valid point. Immigrants can be guilty of prejudice too.
Omoto and Sealey chatter their way through Foon's invented language with convincing authority. Foon shows a notable sense of humor in his choice of words and syllables; for instance, Nick learns that "steamigarfield" is the English-language name for the food he knows as manapua.
A potential problem with "The New Kid" as educational material rather than comic entertainment is most of Nick's painful misadventures evoke gales of laughter from the audience. Director Mark Lutwak helps young people put Nick's plight back in perspective by appending a question-and-answer session to the performance. Omoto becomes the moderator and asks the audience to consider what Nick might do to adjust, and how the American kids might help him.
Kids at the Wednesday performance suggested Nick should learn English as quick as possible, eat local food at school, and change his wardrobe. They thought the local kids could help Nick by sharing their food with him, helping him learn English, not teasing him.
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