SEEMA SUEKO-LOW is a theater director, writer, and consultant. Her current projects include adapting the novel SONG OF THE EXILE by Hawaiian writer Kiana Davenport into a play with jazz music, serving as Managing Co-Curator for DNAWORKS LLC, and providing administrative and legislative support for the Hawai`i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

 

Between 2004 and 2020, Seema served successively as Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego, Associate Artistic Director of The Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California, and Deputy Artistic Director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. She directed world premiere plays, classics, musicals, and online films at these institutions as well as at Asolo Rep, Denver Center, Ford’s Theatre, Native Voices, The Old Globe, and others.

 

She codified a methodology called Consensus Organizing for Theater, which cultivated mutually beneficial cross-sector and cross-community collaborations. With the support of the inaugural “A-ha! Think it, Do it” grant from Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Seema created the Green Theater Choices Toolkit. In partnership with University of California, San Diego, she published research on the efficacy of theater to improve empathy, compassion and well-being in older adults. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seema created the Theatre Artists Marketplace at Arena Stage. Upon receiving the TCG Alan Schneider Director Award, she organized virtual Solidarity Economy Learning Circles for the theater community.

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Seema’s theater writing includes the original play REMAINS, commissions from Mixed Blood Theatre and Baltimore Center Stage, as well as articles for AMERICAN THEATRE magazine.

 

She has received awards from Actors’ Equity Association (Ivy Bethune Award for Mo`olelo), American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Theatre Wing, Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theatre, California State Assembly, NAACP San Diego, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, Theatre Communications Group, and others.

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Her volunteer work includes the Fish Coalition, past service on the boards of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) Foundation and SDC union, San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition, and San Diego Association of Nonprofits.

 

Seema grew up in Honolulu, graduating from the University Laboratory School. She received her bachelor’s degree from University of Puget Sound and her master’s from University of Chicago. Seema began her theater career as an actor, performing at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory, and various storefront theaters in Chicago, earning her three "Jeff" Awards. Seema maintains her membership in Actors' Equity Association and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Alongside her theater journey, Seema has also worked at a mortuary, an investment advisory firm, and as a mail carrier for the United States Postal Service. These jobs, along with caregiving for her parents, have provided teachings that inform her work in the theater in robust ways.