Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company

History

Mo`olelo began operations January 5, 2004 with the purpose of broadening the scope of San Diego's cultural environment. Through our professional, socially-conscious theater productions and arts education programs, Mo`olelo responds to community needs for greater diversity on stage; enhanced educational opportunities for our youth; increased paid theater employment for resident professional artists, and eco-friendlier practices on stage that do not damage the long-term health of our communities. We are deliberate to provide cultural enrichment opportunities to in-need populations. In our eight-year history we have produced 16 full-length plays that have focused on San Diego's diversity by telling stories featuring African American, Asian American, Latino/a, Middle Eastern, military and veteran, refugee and immigrant, and/or disability voices. We have served 26,977 audiences, ages 7 to 88, created 167 seasonal, professional jobs for artists; and developed 3 arts education programs.

Specialties

Mo`olelo's core programs and services fall under four categories: Producing plays, Consensus Organizing, Educating youth and public, and Innovating the field. Specifically, we produce three full-length theater productions annually. We select plays that offer significant roles for actors of color and the opportunity for Mo`olelo to outreach to communities that are traditionally underserved by mainstream American theater. Using the script as the launching point, we dedicate 3 to 18 months prior to each production for our unique Consensus Organizing process. We build relationships with the play's target communities, and explore how the production may serve their needs. In addition, we offer an arts education program called Three Part Arts; Finally, we innovate and advance the practice of theater. In 2009, we developed the Green Theater Choices Toolkit, a reference guide for creating environmentally-friendlier theater productions, which has been used by theaters from Australia to Broadway.