Pacoima Hey!

Cornerstone’s 2010 Institute Summer Residency will take place in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles.

Pacoima is a multi-cultural, working class community located in the northeast San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Adjacent to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and nestled between 3 freeways, Pacoima is about 7 square miles with a population of approximately 80,000. That population includes many families and a lot kids. Even with youth-focused organizations offering resources, gang involvement, violence, and a high drop-out rate are some of the challenges local kids and their families face. Pacoima has industrial and residential properties mixed together which leads to a number of environmental and health challenges for the residents. There is a strong force of civic pride in Pacoima. People work hard and the community cares deeply for its youth. Residents are largely bi-lingual with some monolingual Spanish speakers as well.

In 1993 Cornerstone collaborated with residents in Pacoima to produce a our second Los Angeles community production: a new play called Rushing Waters. It was written by Migdalia Cruz and directed by Bill Rauch. The play was performed at The Boys and Girls Club of San Fernando and featured a cast of 45 actors and musicians.

We're happy to be working with the Boys & Girls Club again many years later. We are gathering support and making connections with other community organizations. We'll be reaching out to see if we can find participants from our previous project. I hope they might come meet us for a story circle and consider giving theater another try.

Cornerstone Ensemble member Sigrid Gilmer is in process with story circles and interviews, getting ready to write the script for this project.