Seema Sueko a Veteran Director
New York, NY – Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, proudly announces that Seema Sueko has been awarded the Alan Schneider Director Award. The Award was established in honor of Alan Schneider’s significant contribution to theatre in the U.S. and his lifelong commitment to the development of career opportunities for freelance directors. It is designed to identify and assist exceptionally talented mid-career freelance directors whose achievements have been demonstrated through work in specific U.S. regions or territories, but who may not be known more widely or recognized nationally.
“At TCG, we have long admired Seema Sueko’s work,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. “From her founding of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, where she developed the Green Theater Choices Toolkit, to her work in Consensus Organizing, to her development of the Arena Stage Theater Artists Marketplace, Seema has always matched her directorial artistry to a transformative vision of what theatre can do and be. She truly models TCG’s mission of leading for a just and thriving theatre ecology, and we’re thrilled to honor her with the Alan Schneider Director Award.”
Recent recipients of the Alan Schneider Director Award include: Daniel Banks (2020), May Adrales (2018), Kimberly Senior (2016), Liesl Tommy (2014), Bart DeLorenzo (2012), and Anne Kauffman (2010). For a full history of the award, click here: https://circle.tcg.org/resources/grant-professional-development-programs/alan-schneider-director-award.
Seema Sueko (she/her) (www.seemasueko.com) is a freelance director focused on building just communities through a practice which includes generative work, consensus organizing, and research and development. Most recently, she was commissioned by Jack Reuler at Mixed Blood Theatre to create an original piece, imagine a u.s. without racism, for which she interviewed 100 strangers across the U.S., two from each state, and wove, hacked, honored, and fictionalized elements from the interviews into a cohesive story, which she directed in April 2022 along with a blog and community pantry.
Past positions include Deputy Artistic Director at Arena Stage, Associate Artistic Director at The Pasadena Playhouse, and Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director at Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. Next, she will direct The Chinese Lady at Denver Center and Silent Sky at Asolo Repertory Theatre. Raised in Honolulu, Seema received her MA in International Relations from University of Chicago and resides in the D.C. region. Seema serves on the Executive Board of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and the Board of Trustees of their Foundation (SDCF) and is currently learning about Solidarity Economy (SE) and exploring how the tools of SE could be applied to theater making.
A prolific director and mentor, Alan Schneider was responsible for over one hundred productions in U.S. theatre, introducing audiences to playwrights such as Samuel Beckett (Schneider directed the 1956 U.S. premiere of Waiting for Godot); Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?); Michael Weller (Moonchildren and Loose Ends); Harold Pinter (The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, and The Collection); and Bertolt Brecht (The Caucasian Chalk Circle).
Schneider taught at Catholic University, the Juilliard School, and the University of California at San Diego; was associated with Arena Stage for thirty years; was the co-artistic director of the Acting Company; and at the time of his death was the president of the Board of Directors for Theatre Communications Group (TCG).
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology. Since its founding in 1961, TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and over 7,000 Individual Members. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year.
TCG offers networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the annual TCG National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people; awards grants and scholarships to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and through the Global Theater Initiative, TCG’s partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute.
TCG is North America’s largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 19 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. TCG believes its vision of “a better world for theatre, and a better world because of theatre” can be achieved through individual and collective action, adaptive and responsive leadership, and equitable representation in all areas of practice. TCG is led by executive director and CEO Teresa Eyring and deputy director and COO Adrian Budhu
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