Examination Intentions

Stage

HOW IRONCLAD is a donor’s legacy? Determining a benefactor’s intent decades after his or her death can produce a tangle of legal and moral questions. And that’s the central issue in Permanent Collection, the latest offering from plucky little Mo‘olelo Performing Arts Company (February 22–March 16, 10th Avenue Theatre).

But Thomas Gibbons’ drama deals with much more. Based on an actual controversy, the play details a dispute between the newly installed director of a philanthropic foundation and the official in charge of its museum, which houses a bequeathed art collection. The director, who’s African-American, discovers some pieces of African art in storage and wants to put them on display. The museum officer, who’s Caucasian, refuses, pointing out that the foundation legacy stipulates that no pieces are to be added to or moved in the museum’s “permanent collection.”

A journalist picks up the story, and the private conflict mushrooms into a major public controversy about race, art and——as all too often—— the influence of media coverage. Seema Sueko, company founder and artistic director, terms Collection “a perfect fit for Mo‘olelo’s mission. It has all the earmarks, plus some really good acting opportunities for people of color.” She also admires the script because of its different perspectives. “The spine of the play,” she says, “is teaching others how to see from another viewpoint.” Each of the six characters sees the situation differently, she points out, adding, “Art is a lovely metaphor for that. Who decides what is art?” The issues of legacy and donor intent, she says, add “a whole other dimension.”

Such meaty plays have been a Mo‘olelo staple since its debut in September 2004 with remains, Sueko’s own script about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The company produces two plays a year, in spring and fall, geared to the school year. “Mo‘olelo also wants to educate,” Sueko says. “This schedule offers lots of opportunities to work with schools.”

Will the company expand to a full season? Not right away. By doing only two plays a year, Sueko says, Mo‘olelo is able to pay the actors more. “Our business model is nontraditional. We’ve always paid Equity wages, even to the non-union actors. And we always hope to attract top talent.”

She concedes, however, that the limited offerings sometimes make it difficult to find a venue. “We like the 10th Avenue Theatre, but it’s not always available.” Her dream, she says, is to create a flexible green space, “where people would come to see theater in a zero-energy environment.”

IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME, theater was totally a male domain, to the point of men playing women’s roles. Well, we’ve come a long way——arguably not so far as we should have——and women, particularly in playwriting, are getting close to their equal share of stage time. Two good examples are on tap: Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House at the San Diego Rep (February 23–March 23) and Zsa Zsa Gershick’s Blue Bonnet Court, a teaming of the Moxie and Diversionary companies (March 20–April 13).

Ruhl, winner of a 2006 MacArthur “genius grant,” is one of the country’s hot new writers, and House was a 2005 Pulitzer finalist. It’s an offbeat comedy centering on a busy doctor who wants her home cleaned and a housemaid who has a laissez-faire attitude toward dirt while aspiring to be a comedian. Quickening the quirkiness are an obsessive sister, who believes housework should be personal; the doctor’s philandering husband; and his lover, who’s older and a dying cancer patient. Rep artistic director Sam Woodhouse oversees the zaniness.

Court, directed by Moxie’s Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, is another type of romance, a 1940s love story about a female New York reporter heading across the country and finding surprising love and unsurprising discrimination near Austin, Texas. As might be expected with a Diversionary co-production, her paramour is a woman.

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