Mo'olelo named resident theatre

San Diego's Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company – the 4-year-old troupe known for socially relevant and emotionally searing productions – is the La Jolla Playhouse's newly appointed Resident Theatre Company, launching a groundbreaking initiative that will shine the spotlight on up-and-coming ensembles.

As resident company at one of the region's leading arts institutions, Mo'olelo (pronounced “mo-oh-leh-low”) will present two productions during the Playhouse's 2008-09 season. While the Playhouse won't provide artistic direction or funding, it will supply rent-free performance space, advice about marketing and development, and information about Mo'olelo in its season brochure.

“We are ecstatic – and that's an understatement,” said Seema Sueko, the actress-director-playwright-producer who is Mo'olelo's co-founder and artistic director. “It will be a transformative experience for us.”

Her group was selected from nine local companies, all of whom submitted applications detailing their operations and explaining how they would make use of the opportunity.

“There's a wealth of theatrical energy in San Diego – it's really a hotbed,” said the Playhouse's new artistic director, Christopher Ashley, who's now in his first season at the prestigious institution. “Many groups move from space to space because they cannot afford a permanent home. It's hard for them to get an identity and continuity. So, this is a perfect match. We'll pick one company a year and show how special they are.”

In return, the Playhouse will tap into a new audience.

“The residency is good for us, too,” Ashley said of Mo'olelo, which will be based at the Playhouse from Aug. 18 through Sept. 21 of this year and May 12 through June 14 of 2009. “Seema will bring a whole different group of people here. Her company has this huge well of energy and excitement. I'm really glad to share it.”

Mo'olelo, which takes its name from the Hawaiian word for “story,” presents the kind of unconventional productions that appealed to Ashley, managing director Steven B. Libman and other Playhouse staff members involved in the selection process.

“Part of our mission is trying to be a safe harbor for unsafe work,” said Ashley. “And Mo'olelo is really an adventurous company.”

The troupe has explored such topics as adoption (“The Adoption Project: Triad,” presented last year), the “lost boys of Sudan” (“Since Africa,” 2006), women who served in the Vietnam War (“A Piece of My Heart,” 2005) and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (“Remains,” 2004).

During the Playhouse residency, the company will present two other works.

On Sept. 5, Mo'olelo will officially open a 20-performance engagement of Susan Yankowitz's “Night Sky,” a play about an astronomer's struggle with brain injury and aphasia. Still to be announced is the second play, which opens in May of next year.

Both productions will be presented at the Mandell Weiss Forum Studio Theatre, the 99-seat “black box” that's one of the Playhouse's seven performance venues.

It will serve as the home base for Mo'olelo, which previously performed at such sites as downtown's 10th Avenue Theater and Balboa Park's Centro Cultural de la Raza. The donated space will also save precious dollars for Mo'olelo, whose $175,000 annual budget is a fraction of the Playhouse's current budget of approximately $13 million.

With the money Mo'olelo saves on rent, it will be able to allocate funds for other needs. They include hiring an associate producer for “Night Sky” who will oversee the box office and patron services as well as some aspects of marketing and outreach.

“It's tremendous,” said Sueko. “It will help us raise the bar.”

Ashley has great confidence in her, whatever she's planning.

“She's a charismatic and compelling presence,” he said of the 35-year-old Linda Vista resident, who's the daughter of a Pakistani father and a Japanese mother. “Her theater is beautifully run. This is an opportunity to take a big step forward.”

Theater has long fascinated Sueko, who acted and sang in high school and college productions. But it wasn't until she was a University of Chicago graduate student that she decided to make theater her career.

“That's when I realized how important it was to me,” said Sueko, who received a master's degree in international relations, with an emphasis on Middle East politics. “I wanted to effect change, whether through politics or performance. I felt that, for me, there was a greater opportunity through performance.”

After years as an actress, Sueko teamed in 2004 with lighting designer Kim Palma to form their San Diego-based company. Having first met when they were both sixth-graders in Honolulu, they decided to call it Mo'olelo because, as Sueko puts it, we “wanted to tell powerful stories as diverse as the islands of Hawaii.”

Along with social awareness and diversity, the company places a strong emphasis on educational outreach efforts, paying actors Equity wages, and following environmentally friendly practices in everything from sets to program booklets.

Yet Sueko admits to being concerned about the competition when Mo'olelo applied for the Playhouse residency.

“San Diego has a number of wonderful theater companies without homes. We could all very much benefit from the residency,” she said. “I never felt we were a shoo-in. I thought we would give it our best shot and hope it worked out.”

That it has, giving Mo'olelo a while new story to tell.