Lutwak, who has maintained and elevated the national reputation of the state's largest theater group, said he has been a self-employed, hustling entrepreneur and show biz maverick for 25 years, working as a freelance director, dabbling in video, producing music and concerts, and even taking on an occasional political challenge.

"HTY was my first job ever with health insurance," he said. "And when you're working with an institution like this, you need a different temperament. I have kind of a very intense personal style, which I bring to my work, and it's very hard to impose that on a theater company."

Tony Pisculli, president of the HTY board of trustees, said a national search for his successor is under way, and Lutwak will be involved in the selection process.

"Mark will have been with us for six years — and that's a lifetime in this business," said Louise K. Lanzilotti, HTY managing director. "It is our mutual hope that he will continue with us on special projects for many years to come."

That likelihood is pretty good, because Lutwak and his writer-wife, Y York, plan to remain in the Islands.

"This decision has been in the works for a few months; I didn't just spring it on anybody," Lutwak said. "Y and I both hope to keep Hawai'i as our home. This frees me to do work elsewhere (possibly with other theater groups), as well as other kinds of work."

With HTY finalizing plans to embark on a national tour in the 2005-06 season, it's possible that Lutwak might be engaged in that endeavor.

Lutwak is departing on amicable terms. "This has been the job of a lifetime," he said. "The kind you can only dream about. But very selfishly, I want to take my work to a different level."

Harry Wong III, Lutwak's counterpart at Kumu Kahua who has collaborated with Lutwak and HTY in several productions, said: "The saddest thing for me is to lose a comrade in a good fight to make theater available for the people. But I know HTY will survive without him."

Lanzilotti said Lutwak has been instrumental in bringing the works of local playwrights to the HTY stage, through commissions, workshops, playwrights' groups and classes.

Lutwak also has been active in growing the HTY audience. Six years ago, families made up about 4 percent of subscribers. "Last season, I believe, 17 percent of the audience is family now," Lutwak said.

In recent years, HTY twice participated in the prestigious New Visions/New Voices festival held biannually at the Kennedy Center in Washington, in addition to garnering other awards, grants and accolades that have contributed to HTY's national reputation in children's theater.

"Given the opportunity to serve the children of Hawai'i, my personal artistic life has blossomed," he said.

He said shucking his artistic directorship "frees you up; instead of focusing on the artist (actors), you shift your focus on the audience. It's very liberating."

His tenure includes the production of more than 40 plays, many of them world premieres, including commissions by local, national and international playwrights including Lee Cataluna, Yokanaan Kearns, Elizabeth Wong, Russell Davis, Bret Fetzer, Diane Aoki, Susan Lee St. John, Margaret Jones and David Furumoto. Y York, Lutwak's wife, has served as playwright in residence, teaching, writing and helping develop new writers.

Before arriving here, Lutwak worked in New York, California and the Pacific Northwest and has been associated with the New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop, Annex Theatre and the Seattle Children's Theatre, as well as other regional and professional children's theaters nationwide.

HTY was founded in 1955.