Alya-Joy Kanehailua (Kea’uleinakahi) has been casted to play Kea’uleinakahi, one of Kapepe‘ekauila’s warriors. She is a senior this year at Kamehameha Schools Hawai’i High School. She grew up in Hilo, Hawai’i and has been performing for many years in both hula and theater productions. She has danced hula for Johnny Lum Ho (winner at this year’s Merrie Monarch Festival) since the 4th grade, one performance being in Nagoya, Japan in September of 2014. She found her love for theater when she entered the Kamehameha Schools in 6th grade. Alya has performed in all of the high school’s productions since 2013, outstanding roles having been Anita in this past fall’s West Side Story and Anakē Meleana in E Paepae Hou ‘Ia Na Pohaku (Hō’ike 2015). She was also onstage dancing hula in the Hō‘ike 2013, The Battle of Kuamo‘o. In 2014, she was cast as a vendor in the University of Hawai’i at Hilo’s production of Miss Saigon. Alya is one of the twenty students taking this great production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She, just like the rest of the cast, is buzzing with excitement and cannot wait to share her culture, ‘ōlelo and mele with an audience so far from home. Alya sends many warm thanks to all who have contributed to the production and her participation in it: to the teachers, Mr. Stack and Mr. Mahelona for their hard work, hours awake and at school, she thanks the cast for amazing her and making her smile, and last but not least, her parents for being so patient.