The great majority of theater repertoire has not caught up with the constantly changing fabric of our world.  There is a need to tell the stories of the people who truly represent the diverse make-up of the world we live in.  We feel it is important to include youth at the center of the works we present because it is the children of today who will be leading the way for society tomorrow.  We want to instill in them the importance of exposure to our diverse history, acceptance and understanding across varying life experiences, and the wherewithal to provide equitable representation and treatment of all people.  Ohana Arts aims to answer the questions, “Who are the youth heroes in our history?  What issues and life circumstances are youth confronted by in their every day lives?  How can we raise awareness, cultivate cross-cultural understanding, start conversations about diversity, and give voice to those who are underrepresented on the stage and in the media?  It is our belief that establishing a home and creative space for these new works will help carve the path towards a more peaceful world as it will educate, share stories from the universal human experience, and help build an open line of communication between people across a vast array of life experiences.

The Ohana Arts Youth Theatre Company launched in 2014 with the premiere of Ohana Arts’ first original musical inspired by the life of Sadako Sasaki, “Peace On Your Wings”, which soon after embarked on a statewide tour, as well as tours to New York City and Los Angeles in 2015 and 2016, San Francisco and San Jose in 2017, and Sacramento in 2018.  In the summer of 2020, Ohana Arts began work on a new musical, “Class of 2020,” based on the experiences of high school seniors whose promising lives and futures were put on hold due to the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, scheduled for a livestream premiere in the summer of 2021.  Future plans for the Ohana Arts Youth Theatre Company include continuing to commission, produce, and tour new works from the vantage points of youth with the aim of building cross-cultural understanding, and raising awareness of underrepresented groups in the performing arts. .

Ohana Arts plans to make its new works available to schools, community theaters, and other nonprofit performing arts organizations nationally and internationally to further our mission of cultivating peace through the arts, and providing opportunities for underrepresented groups to have their stories told around the world.