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Filipino youth perform

Children from the Larawan Youth Ensemble will perform in "Banyuhay," a repertoire of Philippine folk dances at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Hawaii Theatre.

Tickets, $10 and $25, are available at the Hawaii Theatre Box Office, with proceeds to benefit free folk-dance classes and purchase costumes, props and musical instruments for the Larawan Center for Performing Arts, based in Kalihi.

The performers, ages 6 to 12, are scholars of the Larawan Philippine Folkloric Program for Youth, founded and directed by Leo Rojas Gojar, a former dancer of Bayanihan, the premiere Philippine folk-dance ensemble. The children receive free lessons as part of Larawan's mission to immerse children in activities that celebrate Philippine traditions.

Call the Larawan Center at 230-0088.

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LARAWAN CENTER Lecia Ramirez, right, and J.J. Saribay perform the Tagalog region's tinikling, one of the most popular dances of the Philippines, in which dancers perform between two bamboo poles.

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Healthy secrets

Carolyn Choi, a 92-year-old health enthusiast, will share "Secrets to Living a Long and Healthy Life" at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Kapolei Public Library.

Choy, author of "Health Through Chinese Foods," will talk about diet and Chinese herbs. She will also focus on simple exercises that can be done before getting up in the morning, as illustrated in her other book, "Do It in Bed: Tips for a Healthier Lifestyle."

Admission is free. Call 693-7050.

Christmas tales sought

Honolulu Theatre for Youth and Kumu Kahua Theatre are looking for stories and songs for "Christmas Talk Story 2005," their annual Christmas co-production.

"Christmas Talk Story," a collection of songs and original monologues by local authors, has been presented since 1999. Each story tells of a holiday experience from a child's point of view in Hawaii. HTY's actors tell the stories to nearly 10,000 schoolchildren, teachers and families in December.

Stories or songs must:

» Be themed on Christmas or other winter holidays in Hawaii (including Thanksgiving, New Year, Chanukah or Kwanzaa).

» Be told in the first person, from the point of view of a youth 4 to 12, not an adult looking back on childhood.

» Be dramatically active. The most successful stories are "monodramas," not narratives about the past. The ideal story contains dramatic tension between storyteller and the audience; the character is changed by the telling of the story and through a personal discovery.

» Deal with all experiences: funny, sad, touching or bitter.

» Be between 350 and 700 words and appropriate in vocabulary and content for children.

HTY will pay $100 for each story selected; all rights remain with the author. The collected stories will be presented in December at Tenney Theatre. HTY will also publish the scripts for distribution to schools and libraries, and Hawaii Public Radio will broadcast the stories.

Authors receive complimentary copies of any publications, tickets to the performances and invitations to rehearsals. Once stories are selected, HTY will work with the authors to make them stage-appropriate.

Deadline for entries is June 1. Send submissions to Honolulu Theatre for Youth, 2846 Ualena St., Honolulu 96819-1910, attention Mark Lutwak; or e-mail mark@htyweb.org. Call 839-9885, ext. 17.

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