Student Spotlight: Natalie Chowaiki, JCompany Random Acts of Culture

Article by Natalie Cowaiki ('24)

My name is Natalie Chowaiki and I am a proud member of JCompany Youth Theatre at the JCC in La Jolla. JCompany brings at least four amazing productions to the stage every year and every show JCompany Youth Theater has an outstanding program called Random Acts of Culture. Random Acts of Culture is a program that provides underserved and under-resourced communities of San Diego with the joy and experience of live theater free of charge. In short, JCompany opens up the theater for one night for every main stage production and invites nonprofit organizations or the underserved of San Diego to come to the production without pay.

In the past, the Random Acts of Culture show was on a Thursday night. The most recent production, Disney’s My Son Pinocchio, was the first that had the RAOC show on a Sunday. It was two weekends ago on November 10. The managing directors at JCompany realized that having a show on a Sunday would make it much easier for nonprofit organizations and the underserved to attend. For past RAOC shows, there have been many times that the house has been filled up to ¾ capacity, but we could not have anticipated the number of people that would come to this show.

As a part of the show and being backstage I began to wonder why after the stage doors had opened it had taken so long for the show to begin. Word quickly spread backstage that “The house is overflowing.” I looked from behind the curtain and saw that every single seat in the audience was full. There were children sitting on mothers' laps and roughly 50 children sitting on the floor in front of the seats. Although the theater comfortably fits 450 people, there were more than 500 people in attendance. Unfortunately, in addition to the many people in the audience, there were about 60 people that arrived for the show but could not get in because of safety regulations. To compensate, JCompany gave these families free tickets to see any of the remaining productions of Pinocchio or any other RAOC show of the season.

JCompany has given the opportunity for about 600 people to experience live theater, maybe for the first time in their lives. Being able to perform in front of an audience of that size and of that importance made an incredible impact on me. To know that I brought joy into the lives of all of these people who have challenges that I have never experienced warms my heart. Live musical theater allows people to leave their hardships out the door for an hour and a half and be transported to a timeless and worry-less realm and I am so proud to be a part of it.