Ready for a fun party

MANILA, Philippines - Kids are always fun to be with. This is the reason why Hi-5 members wake up each day with anticipation and even travel to countries to meet up with their young audiences. The musical group led by Stevie Nicholson and Lauren Brant is in town for shows set today and tomorrow, Nov. 15 at the SM Aura’s Samsung Hall. It will bring that familiar, fun house party, which Disney Junior kids know by heart.

 â€œThis is a way of introducing the new Hi-5 to a whole new generation of Filipino children and families who have been very supportive (of us) all these years,” said Stevie in a press conference the other day.

It means Stevie, Lauren and Dayen Zheng will be joined by new members Mary Lascaris and Ainsley Melham in a show full of singing, dancing and playing. Mary and Ainsley have fun working with the rest of the Hi-5 gang — and entertaining kids aged two to five. 

“It’s been great,” said Mary. “It’s all surreal coming from all these different countries. We’ve just come back from Hong Kong. We’re now in Manila. In five days, we’ll be in Singapore. Then, we’re going to KL (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). We’re meeting so many fans and meeting so many people. I still don’t believe I’m doing this.”

For Ainsley, he can’t help but appreciate the joys of doing TV and stage shows for children. “Being a role model to children and being that person they look up to are such an incredible experience and (it is) an incredible feeling when you see children look at you and smile and say, ‘Hi-5.’ I think it has been a fantastic experience being out there to entertain children.”

These children have become their source of strength to recharge their batteries, especially when Hi-5 members have to perform three times a day.

“We’re all humans and we do get tired,” said Dayen. “We travel a lot. So we do get tired. But as soon as we get up on stage and see children screaming and waiting (for us), that energy is infectious.” But another secret to how the Hi-5 hosts-performers keep their fun personality is that “We have lots of laughs, a lot of jokes,” said Dayen. After all, being in Hi-5 is about having fun. As much as the kids have fun watching them, the Hi-5 members have fun, too, entertaining the kids. “We keep ourselves happy and very positive,” she added.

Prior to joining Hi-5, Stevie, Ainsley, Mary and Dayen had ventured into other fields and pursued their own interests. “I was a tennis journalist,” shared Stevie, who has been to tennis tours like the “Wimbledon, French Open. (And) I met Roger Federer and all tennis players.” He also studied Shakespeare and musical theater. Dayen was a ballerina for six years and “I traveled the world doing ballet.” Then, she dabbled in acting.

“I was actually doing Universal Studio in Japan,” said  Mary, who did Marilyn Monroe and Cinderella characters.  She does children’s parties and is into primary teaching. Ainsley, on the other hand, was a tap dancer and “I studied musical theater and acting in Australia.”

How do these backgrounds help them become effective performers for kids?

“I think what makes us relate to kids is our ability to release our inhibitions,” answered Ainsley. “And that comes from training in acting, dancing and singing.”

Stevie said, “It’s not all about how well (they) sing, dance or act. It’s their ability to be themselves. That’s what you do to be able to connect and talk to a child.”

Hosting shows and performing for kids are not a child’s play because it also means constant learning and collaboration on the part of Stevie, Lauren, Dayen, Ainsley and Mary. “I think that was the thing I was surprised when I joined Hi-5,” Stevie said, who works with an early learning adviser and 10 different experts who review the script so “a child of three, four or five can understand” what’s going on in the show. “I’m still learning and evolving as children are evolving,” he added.

The Hi-5 members attended workshops supervised by a childhood specialist, recalled Mary. The workshops were games that would tap their childhood memories of what it is like “smelling flowers and remembering how it was like as a child. It’s coming from a real place.”

This is what children and their parents will experience in the Hi-5 house party. It’s about fun learning.

(For details, visit www.smtickets.com or call 374-9999 and 470-2222.)