Theatre--Performance

On the morning of August 6, 1945, two year old Sadako Sasaki was playing in her home in Hiroshima, Japan. Her happy morning was instantly devastated by a noise louder than a hundred thunders and a blaze of light brighter than a thousand suns. While she “survived” the atomic bomb’s blast, eight years later, as a result of her exposure to nuclear radiation, the ten-year old girl was diagnosed with leukemia.

According to a Japanese superstition, if someone folds 1000 origami paper cranes, he or she will be granted one wish. Young Sadako had only one “simple” desire - to survive her terrible infirmity, to live. Alas, her wish was not granted because, shortly after the rapidly weakening youngster folded 644 cranes, leukemia took yet another victim. In her memory, her schoolmates folded the remaining 365 cranes.

At Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, located at Ground Zero, there is a monument in honor of Sadako Sasaki, built as a result of money collected by school children from all of Japan. At the top of the monument stands a statue of Sadako, holding a crane in her hands. In homage, not of her death, but of her courageous young life, every day thousands of origami paper cranes arrive in Hiroshima and are placed at the statue’s base, a tribute from people all over the world

This June, some of the young students from Lafayette’s Firelight Performing Arts Academy are traveling to New York to perform A Thousand Paper Cranes, a one-act play honoring not only Sadako, but all victims of leukemia – both those who have survived and those who have fallen. Performing at 1:00 p.m on June 12th at the Off-Broadway Shelter Studios Theatre 54 on West 54th Street, the cast includes 25 young troupers representing 5 Acadiana parishes. In addition to their considerable talents, the young actors and actresses will bring a thousand paper cranes with them. After their performance, they and their artistic director, Laura Blum, will place the origami birds at another ground zero, where the Twin Towers once stood, praying, as Sadako Sasaki once did, for peace and hope.

In addition to the younger performers, 5 of the older students will perform a re-enactment of a 1950’s radio show, Candy Matson, P.I.: The Cable Car Murder. Candy Matson was the private eye star of Candy Matson, YUKON 2-8208. The troupe will recreate the sights and sounds of a mid-20th Century radio broadcast center, complete with sound effects, singing talent, and commercials.

The third element of the show will be singing selections performed by the academy’s Broadway Singers. Prior to the troupe’s departure to New York, they will perform A Thousand Paper Cranes and Candy Matson locally-- at Cité des Arts on June 8th and at Acadiana Open Channel on the 9th. Both presentations will begin at 7:00 p.m. Admission to either show is one paper crane.

For information about the play, the group’s New York adventure, or for directions on how to fold cranes, contact 857-6991.