mike lawler

Mo`olelo owes a lot to Mike Lawler, the man behind the ecoTheater blog.

Back in 2007, he was one of the first journalists to write about Mo`olelo’s GREEN Theater Categories and Sustainable Guidelines, and he attached a name to the work we do at Mo`olelo: solving for pattern. I had never heard of this phrase before I e-met Mike. Solving for pattern is a concept coined by Wendell Berry. It’s the idea of taking a holistic approach to solving problems and minimizing the creation of new problems. Mike wrote an entry on his blog in August 2007 describing Mo`olelo’s approach as solving for pattern. Finally! Mike helped Mo`olelo with something we had been struggling with for a long time: how to explain that our commitments to paying Equity wages to local artists, representing diverse communities on stage, engaging in in-depth community outreach and education programs, and discovering ways to create theater that doesn’t cause long-term damage to the environment were all fueled by the same fire: our mission to serve our community.

Mike has a number of new and wonderful projects he’s engaged in now. You can read about them here.

I consider Mike a driving force behind the authentic green theater movement. Keep your eye on him if you want to know the latest in this area.

Cheers to Mike!
Seema