Spread across the country in Honolulu, Irvine, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and New York, the collaborators included (left to right, top row to bottom row) Ben Walsh (Stage Manager), Hallie Gordon (Senior Associate Artistic Director at Olney), Seema Sueko (Adaptor and Director of Song of the Exile), Miranda Lee (Stage Management Apprentice at Olney), Jason Loewith (Artistic Director at Olney), actors Narea Kang, Amy Hill, Jonah Ho`okano, Jeremy Hunter, Brian Huynh, Anna Takayo Walden, and Sound Designer/Composer Andre Pluess. Springing forward from this workshop will be demos of the text with music to help advance the project toward a full production.

Song of the Exile
Based on the novel by Kiana Davenport

Adapted by Seema Sueko

With music by Andre Pluess

Song of the Exile is a jazz-filled epic, which takes us on an Odysseus-like journey of love, separation, and transformation. Beginning in a nightclub in Honolulu in 1935, Keo and Sunny’s passion for music, art, and each other carry them across nations, through the turmoil of World War II, and back to a changed Hawai`i on the brink of statehood in this tale of longing and liberation.

Mahalo to Olney Theatre, the Vanguard Arts Fund, and these remarkable collaborating artists!

Seema