La Jolla Announces SDAART as Its 2010 Resident Theatre Company

La Jolla Playhouse is proud to announce its 2010/11 season resident theatre company: San Diego Asian American Repertory Theater (SDAART). This marks the third year of The Playhouse's landmark Resident Theatre Program, and the newly-appointed company will be in residence in the Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre (formerly the Mandell Weiss Forum Studio) in August/September, 2010, during which they will present Julia Cho's heartwarming drama BFE. SDAART will return to The Playhouse again in May/June, 2011, when they will present their second annual Short Play Festival: Innerviews.

Spearheaded by Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, the Resident Theatre Program aims to encourage the artistic development of up-and-coming theatre companies, while advancing and contributing to the San Diego theatre scene as a whole. The program is also designed to address San Diego's lack of available, affordable performance spaces by providing a temporary home each year to one of the many local theatre troupes without a permanent venue.

"The Resident Theatre Program has become an integral part of The Playhouse's programming, and we are ecstatic about its growth and success over the last three seasons. We received an extraordinary number of applications this year, proving once again that San Diego is a hotbed of exciting theatrical energy, and from that field we were delighted to choose the San Diego Asian American Repertory Theater as our Resident Theatre Company this season."

"We are so pleased to have been chosen as La Jolla Playhouse's 2010/11 Resident Theatre Company. One of the most difficult parts of producing plays for us has been securing venues on a limited budget. The Residency will allow us to stage a heart-warming drama, entitled BFE, about race and family relationships by nationally acclaimed playwright Julia Cho. It will also allow us to produce a short play festival that explores Asian American perspectives for new playwrights with local directors, actors and designers who might otherwise not have the chance to produce their work in mainstream theatres," said SDAART President Elise Kim Prosser, Ph.D. "We are so grateful to The Playhouse for giving us this opportunity and serving as mentors, guiding us to the next level with their expertise. An Asian expression of gratitude for a golden opportunity is to work as hard as one can to fulfill its potential. We plan to maximize the Residency with diligence, passion, and appreciation."

SDAART celebrates and gives voice to the Asian American experience. It has contributed to cultural diversity and education in San Diego for fifteen years, producing 35 plays including five world premieres. SDAART recently won the prestigious Pon Award bestowed by the National Association of Ethnic Studies for its "wonderful history and collection of theater works that present Asian American culture with bounty and beauty." It gives local audiences a chance to see Asian Americans as simply Americans - beyond race, preconceptions and boundaries. Recent Popular Productions include Joy Luck Club and Hip-Hop Kim-Bop: A Korean Herstory in the City of Angels.

SDAART was formed in November 1995 by five local Asian/Pacific American artists. Pooling talents in performance, dance, playwriting, design and directing, this small ensemble built the foundation of today's full Production Company, now overseen by President Elise Kim Prosser, Ph.D., a marketing professor, playwright and actress; Vice President Peter Cirino, theatre professor and director; and board members Gina Ma, Monique Ho and Yunhui Chae-Banks. SDAART strives to give expression to under-recognized Asian American plays and stage works by new and established artists to help bridge cross-generational and cross-cultural gaps. For more information, please visit www.asianamericanrep.org

The Resident Theatre Program is an annual appointment at La Jolla Playhouse. In addition to the performance space, The Playhouse provides lighting and sound support and is available to provide marketing and development advice.

La Jolla Playhouse has enjoyed a long tradition of sharing facilities, as demonstrated by its relationship with the Theatre and Dance department at the University of California, San Diego. Since its inception, The Playhouse and UC San Diego have collaborated, creating an integrated environment for the exciting and internationally-acclaimed theatre produced by The Playhouse and the nationally-renowned theatre training program offered by the Department of Theatre and Dance.

The Playhouse's Resident Theatre Program is supported this season by The Parker Foundation, Gerald T. and Inez Grant Parker.

The nationally-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including Big River, The Who's Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jersey Boys, The Farnsworth Invention, Cry-Baby and 33 Variations. Located on the UCSD campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-Art Theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

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