On Friday evening, a skeleton crew from the cast of Oliver! visited a Children's Home in Shibuya. This home has about 40 residents from age 2 to 18. These are children who for reasons of poverty, abuse, neglect or abandonment have no where else to go. It seemed a happy place- (unlike the Workhouse in the story of Oliver!) and it was noisy and busy when we arrived. About 10 of our kids showed up to perform with Nancy, Bet, and Fagin. My friend Dorina helped me lug my huge keyboard over and back and was a great help. The kids were beautiful and I wanted to take them all home with me. I noticed a lot of rather rowdy older boys. A tough situation to be sure. We will be supporting the Home and School by holding a raffle at every performance.
We performed "Where Is Love?," "It's a Fine Life," and "I'd Do Anything." They presented our crew with bouquets of mini roses. A couple of our little boys exclaimed that they had never received flowers before and seemed really pleased. We had a sing along at the end. I have introduced Tokyo Players to the warm up, "Zing-a-zing-a-zee." This is a fun 5 part warm up with crazy motions to go along with the different parts. Well, when we started, a couple of the youngest audience members roared with laughter. We sang each part to them and encouraged them to sing it back. They rather got the motions but not the words. The song is comprised of English nonsense words and difficult for the wee Japanese speakers. I had a warm satisfied experience while it was happening. I had the realization that I have shared a little bit of who I am, and what I do with Tokyo Players, Tokyo orphans and others. I will be leaving soon, and I hope I will leave a little bit of good behind. Leaving will be bitter sweet for so many reasons!
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