We were lucky to catch up with Rina Maejima recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rina, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

The right things my parents did:

1. Make the privileged circumstance

My dad- so bad at sports but has excellent sense of music and arts. (passed away this February)
My mom – so good at sports and loves music but doesn.t know about arts as much as my dad.
When they realized that I have a big voice and love to sing, they both wanted me to become a performer. My dad showed me as much as live performances; musical, opera, ballet, Kabuki and Noh. Even at home, there were Gene Kerry and Fred Astair along with Disney princesses on my TV. They let me learn many things; playing a piano and cello, tap dance, jazz, ballet, etc…
Thanks to them, I set my first career goal – becoming a Broadway musical star-pretty early, probably around 5 years old.

2. Raised me tough and independent

In my family, my mom is the one who earn the money, and my dad is the one who do all the house chores and take care of me.
but when I was 11 years old, my dad diagnosed by brain hemorrhage, got lots of damage on some part of his brains. Since then, the left side of his body got paralyzed, and got no choice but live on a wheelchair.
A few good things were, one- my mom was (and still is) a skilled nurse, one- I am like my dad, means can get along well with my mom.
From that day, my mom had to work three times harder to cover his hospital and everything. It must be really hard, but she never tried to cut my lessons to save a dime.
I, as an only child who had 6 different lessons a week and chosen one of the most unstable careers, only thing I can help my mom was learn hard and do everything by myself along with some house chores.

It wasn’t an ordinary happy life that teenage girl has. But thanks to this, I became tough – I think- and got many different points of view.

3. Love, Cheer, Inspiration

My mom has been living in Miyakojima, Okinawa prefecture where she was born and raised.
Now she is enjoying her second life while taking care of her 103 years old dad (my mighty grandpa!!), and of course still working professionally. She is sending continuously love and support from that tropical island.
She is the one who cheer me up, sometimes with a taunting advice.
If you ask me who is the one inspire me, I answer without a thought. My mom.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Japanese musical theater performer.
It’s been my 10th year in the NYC since I moved.

I grew up watching lots of theatrical performance from around the world. Musical theater, Opera, Kabuki….tons of different music if I name it. So, it was really natural for me wanted to become a musical theater performer. And I was really fortunate enough to be able to pursue that dream.

After I moved to NYC to study musical theater, I struggled with…. language, pronunciation, culture gap, physical type cons, etc.
Long story short, now my English gets so much better, I sound like a native, and more than anything, I take my cons as my pros.
I proud of what I worked on. Now I’m confidence enough to teach voice, English and English pronunciation to my students.

But still, it is true that there are only few opportunities for our Asian performers to be on the stage, even there are some fantastic Asian actors such as Lea Salonga or Eva Noblezada.

So, my new faith is, that I will be the one who open the door for the Asian actors.
And speaking of “the door”, another career goal is to become the door for the young people in a small island of Japan.
When I lived in Miyakojima – one of the isolated islands of Okinawa- with my mom, I realized that I’m not just a young actor who chasing her dream anymore. But the one who can show what the outside world is, what America is, and what musical is.
It can be a pressure. So much responsibility. But at the same time, the more I built up my career in the US, the more thing my people can see.

There are 2 things keeps me driven: people’s smile, and their “Thank you”.
As long as I can see/ hear that by doing what I love, I won’t stop what I’m doing!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Post fun story as much as possible, along with the posts related to my professional field.
When I meet people in the same industry, or anyone who might be interested in, I actively share my SNS.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s about my singing style, which is essential and the most important skill for me.
I studied classical voice at the music college where has the highest leveled education among the arts school in Japan.
Even though, the first thing my voice teacher from the musical school here told me was “you have an unexpectedly big voice, but it’s too heavy”. Then I learned that, there is a completely different voice/ singing technique that people prefer in America.
Especially on the musical theater stage, you have to sing fully 8 times a week. You have to sing powerfully and healthy at the same time.
So, it was really shocking fact for me though, I worked on unlearn my original singing style, then learn to sing lighter and healthier.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rinamaejima.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rinamaejima/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rina.maejima.98
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rina-maejima-5220a3161
• Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/rina.maejima.98
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rinamaejima9075

Image Credits

SyC Photography

atnek_mana_photography