Evan Anderson (Master Electrician)
is a recent graduate from the University of Washington with a B.A. in
Drama Production. Lighting design was his focus and is a serious passion
of his. In addition to doing theatre, he plays in a couple of rock and
roll bands. He’s very much excited to work on this project and meet you
all!
Nephelie Andonyadis (CTC Ensemble/Scene Designer) is an ensemble member who first worked with Cornerstone Theater Company as a guest artist in 1995, when she designed the set for Sid Arthur, in collaboration with the community of Watts. Her approach to the design invited the community’s children and seniors directly into the process as they created dozens of paper art works that were integrated into the scenic concept, bringing a unique life into the design. Since then her relationship with Cornerstone has continued to evolve. She has designed the set or costumes for Order My Steps, 3,7,11, Los Illegals, Three Truths, The Unrequited(Between Two Worlds) and most recently for Café Vida, working with and within various communities throughout Los Angeles. Some of her favorite CTC experiences have been Institute projects, including Boda de Luna Nueva in the Central Valley for which she designed costumes, Jason in Eureka for which she designed the set and last summer’s Fowler residency for which she was company cook. In addition to her work with CTC, Nephelie has designed at South Coast Repertory and many other regional theatres from coast to coast for over 20 years. She is a Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Redlands as well as an active leader at her son’s Charter Montessori High School in Redlands, (where she sometimes cooks lunch), a member of the Redlands Chapter of Slow Foods and a sometimes breakfast chef at the The Grove School Saturday Farmers’ Market.
Sean Cawelti (Properties Designer) is a Designer, Builder and Director and a graduate from the University of California Irvine, where he received his BA in Drama with honors in Stage Direction. In 2002 he had the chance to live in New York for the summer and study puppetry at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU which was where he thinks he really decided he would live the artists life. He has self-identified as a puppeteer since he was just a boy after picking up his first puppet at a swap meet in Orange County when he was 3. His 'day job' is as the Artistic Director for the performance group Rogue Artists Ensemble, which creates Hyper-theatrical productions, incorporating puppetry, masked acting, original music scores and theatrical effects. Over the years he has been awarded a Technical Achievement Honor for Puppet Oriented Theater Design by the OC Weekly, a Los Angeles Drama Critic’s Circle award for his adaptation of Mr. Punch, a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated Dave McKean and was honored with a UNIMA Citation of Excellence for Gogol Project. Although this is his first time working an Institute project He has had the chance to see many past Institutes perform their work. He’s overjoyed to be a part of this collaboration and can't wait to roll his sleeves up, grab a water bottle and get building crazy props.
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Sage Alia Clemenco (Co-Company Manager) lives in Brooklyn, NY and is currently finishing her studies as a graduate student in Applied Theatre at CUNY. A jackette-of-all- trades, she is a licensed massage therapist, arts based facilitator, and avid gardener and home cook. She works in the Education department at Vital Theatre, a children's theater company in NYC. This is Sage's fifth institute summer, first as a student in Holtville and since on staff in Eureka, Pacoima, Fowler and now Arvin. She is excited and privileged to be back for another Institute and is looking forward to meeting this years crop of exceptional students.
Paula Donnelly (CTC Ensemble/Director of Engagement) began working with Cornerstone in 1998. She worked as a professional stage manager for many years. In 2003 she became Cornerstone’s Institute Director, planning and producing the annual Institute Summer Residency and Intensives. As Director of Engagement, Paula's broader focus is to continue sharing Cornerstone’s methodology, to strengthen Cornerstone’s relationships post-production, and to guide Cornerstone's efforts in contributing to and facilitating expansion of the field of community-based theater. Paula loves the state of California, the city of Los Angeles and the many people and stories contained therein. She's really excited about the South Kern communities- especially the young people-- and the play that we'll create together.
Marcenus M.C. Earl (CTC Ensemble/Actor)
first came to
Cornerstone as a community member back in 1993 during the company's Watts
Residency when he appeared in Love of a Nightingale and Breaking
Plates. Other community collaborations M.C. has appeared in include Broken
Hearts, For Here or To Go?, For All Time and the ongoing Beyond
the Diagnosis, Cornerstone's partnership with Gilead Sciences, Inc. to
promote HIV/AIDS awareness through theatre. M.C. is a graduate of USIU San
Diego's BFA Acting Program.
Michael John Garcés (CTC Ensemble/Artistic Director/Faculty) For Cornerstone he has directed Café Vida by Lisa Loomer, Making Paradise, a musical by Tom Jacobson, Shishir Kurup and Deborah Wicks La Puma, 3 Truths by Naomi Iizuka, Someday by Julie Marie Myatt, attraction by Page Leong, and The Falls by Jeffrey Hatcher (at the Guthrie Theater). He also wrote Los Illegals, the first play of the Justice Cycle, created in collaboration with communities of day laborers and domestic workers and which was subsequently produced by Teatro Bravo in Phoenix, Arizona. Los Illegals was published in the summer, 2011 issue of Yale’s THEATER Magazine. Directing credits at other theaters include, most recently, red, black and GREEN: a blues by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which premiered at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and which is currently toured the U.S. to venues such as The Walker Art Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. Other theaters at which he has directed include A Contemporary Theater, Hartford Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, The Children's Theatre Company, Second Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Cherry Lane, The Atlantic Theater Company and Repertorio Español. He has twice been in residence with a consensus-run collective, Sna Jtz'ibajom, in Chiapas, Mexico, collaborating in the creation of community-engaged work with members of the Mayan community. Michael is on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. His full-length plays include THE WEB (needtheatre), points of departure (INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center) and Acts of Mercy (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); short plays include catch (Active Cultures), hymn in three parts (Chalk Rep), in the Zone (Red Fern Theatre Co.), tostitos (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays) on edge and the ride (Humana Festival, "The Open Road Anthology"), audiovideo (The Directors Project) and sandlot ball (Mile Square). Michael is a recipient of the Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, and a Rockwood Arts and Culture Fellowship. He is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.
Meghan E. Healey (Costume Designer) Recent work includes Cafe Vida (Cornerstone, dir. Michael John Garces) and the world premiere of Undone by Andrea Thome (dir. Tamilla Woodard, NYC). Also for Cornerstone, Someday (dir. Michael John Garces), Jason in Eureka (dir. Laurie Woolery) Making Paradise (dir. Mark Valdez/Michael John Garces), and THE UNREQUITED (dir. Shishir Kurup). Ms. Healey is the recipient of the 2007 ACE Award and the 2007 HOLA for Best Costume Design for Zanahorias (Duke Theater). Other recent work includes: Najla Said's Palestine (dir. Sturgis Warner, Twilight/NYTW), the American Premiere of Lars Norén’s WAR (RPT, dir. Anders Cato), and world premieres of Rob Handel’s The Knights (Target Margin, Aristophanika Festival), Milk-n-Honey (Lightbox Theater Co., dir. Ellen Beckerman), Week 52 of Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays for the Public Theater (dir. Joanna Settle), Greenzone by Rob Handel (Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, dir. Alec Duffy), points of departure (dir. Ron Daniels), Kissing Fidel by Eduardo Machado (dir. Michael John Garcés, INTAR), and Blues for a Grey Sun with Nilaja Sun (dir. Louis Moreno, INTAR). She is a professor of costume and scenic design at Queens College.
Bill Honigstein (I9 Production Manager) just finished his first year in TD grad school at CalArts. He's worked every Institute Summer Residency except I-6 in Eureka, as a TD, Production Manager, Facilities Manager, carpenter/electrician/crew/etc. and he volunteered with strike in 2004 because his g.f.-now-wife was Costume Design Assistant. (Blanca is Cost Des Assist again this summer, too!)
Blanca Honigstein (Costume Design Assistant)
has been an important part of
all the Institute Summer Residencies except for one. She’s served as Company
Manager a few times as well as Costume Design Assistant. She is a
graduate of Cal State Northridge, a designer, a performer, an amazing cook and mother.
Ellie Honigstein (I9 Baby in residence)
Peter Howard (CTC Ensemble/Actor and Faculty) is a founding member of Cornerstone Theater Company. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard College with a degree in English and American Literature and holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Department of Drama of the University of Virginia. With Cornerstone, Peter has performed in, written or otherwise collaborated on scores of productions in Los Angeles and communities around the country. As a playwright, his Cornerstone credits include Zones (an original, audience-interactive play exploring interfaith themes) and an American Muslim adaptation of You Can't Take It with You (the first adaptation ever approved by the Kaufman and Hart estate). More recently, Peter has also authored rural community-specific adaptations of Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding and the Argonaut myth for Cornerstone's summer Institute. As an actor, his regional theater work includes productions at the Mark Taper Forum, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf, and the Guthrie. Peter has served on staff of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), working as a facilitator, playwright and director in a variety of youth arts programs that use theater as a springboard for dialogue on challenging human relations topics, such as immigration, hate crimes and the Native American mascot issue. He has directed the participatory youth script development and performance programs of a number of regional theatres including the Mark Taper Forum (The Speak to Me program) and Shakespeare Festival/LA (Will Power to Youth). Currently, Peter directs the Beyond the Diagnosis program for Cornerstone. This program, a groundbreaking partnership with the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, engages communities in conversation about HIV, and uses live theater to engage and educate about the virus in cities across the United States. As a workshop leader and teacher, Peter's experience includes: University of Southern California, CalArts, University of Virginia, Davidson College (NC), Fringe Benefits Youth Theatre, Imagination Workshop and Plaza de la Raza. Since 2004, he has served as faculty, lead artist and mentor for the Cornerstone Institute, a training program in Cornerstone’s unique community-based methodology for theatre artists from around the country.
Nikki Hyde (CTC Ensemble/Stage Manager) began her relationship with Cornerstone as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed LA County intern in 2005 during the Faith Cycle Bridge show, A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters. Shortly after completing a stage management fellowship at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival three years later, she returned to her CTC roots by working on the stage management teams of For All Time and every Los Angeles- based production since, including the first Hunger Cycle show, Cafe Vida. She has had the pleasure of working in New York, as well as with Center Theatre Group, Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, Greenway Court Theatre and Company of Angels, among other LA theatres. A proud Michigan native and a graduate of the University of Southern California, Nikki will be arriving in Arvin straight from her first opera gig in San Francisco and is thrilled to be stage managing her second Institute.
Angie Kamel (CTC Institute Manager) came to Cornerstone as an Institute student in Fowler in the summer of 2011. She is excited to now dedicate herself to supporting this program, which she found so inspirational and rewarding. She sees the world as an educational opportunity and is proud to have received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego.
Melody Kanschat (Faculty)
Geoff Korf (CTC Ensemble/Lighting Designer) has worked professionally as a freelance lighting designer for the past thirty years. His designs have appeared on Broadway as well as at many regional theatres including The Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, The Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Long Beach Opera, The Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, and The Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Geoff first came to Cornerstone as the lighting designer for Rushing Waters in 1992. Since then he has designed 35 Cornerstone productions including: An Antigone Story, Los Biombos/The Screens, Los Illegals, and For All Time. Geoff is the head of the design program at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a native of Southern California, and a graduate of California State University, Chico, and the Yale School of Drama.
Leo Korf (Electrician)
Will MacAdams (Playwright) is a playwright and director who has worked in South Africa, Indonesia, and in communities across the United States. Past projects include: the Black Dirt Cycle, a series of three site-specific plays about farming, immigration, and local soil created with farmers, farm workers and artists in Warwick, NY; Peter Handke’s Kaspar, performed by theater students in Johannesburg at the beginning of the Mandela era (Director); Eye to Eye, an original play about youth-police relations, created with future police officers and young people from New Haven, CT (Co-Playwright, Director); Awaken New Haven, a five-hour, four- neighborhood theatrical event about death and rebirth, produced by Long Wharf Theatre (Co-Playwright, Co-Director); Naomi Wallace’s The Retreating World, produced in Louisville, KY alongside a community dialogue with activists, artists, and scholars about the politics of war and peace (Director); and Cruising the Divide, an interview-inspired play about divides of race and class during the celebration of the Kentucky Derby, performed by members of the Apprentice Company at Actors Theater of Louisville (Playwright). He is a past recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership Fellowship, a civil rights award from Louisville’s Carl Braden Memorial Center, and a Bates Fellowship, which brought him to Central Java, Indonesia to train in Javanese Shadow Puppetry.
John Nobori (Sound Designer) is a graduate of the University of California in Irvine with a degree in Drama. He has been member of the theater group Rogue Artists Ensemble since 2007. He has been nominated for several awards for excellence in sound design, including an Ovation Award nomination for Best Sound Design in Intimate Theater for his work on Mr. Punch as well as nominations from both Drama Critics Circle and LA Weekly for his sound design of Gogol Project and HYPERBOLE: origins. John is also an alumni of the Cornerstone Theater Company Institute, having participated in the inaugural institute in Lost Hills.
Tali Pressman (CTC Ensemble/CTC Managing Director)
Leslie Tamaribuchi (CTC Board Member/Faculty) is a Los Angeles-based educator and consultant working with artists and creative organizations to develop strategies to become sustainable, stronger and more deeply engaged with their communities. Director of Advancement and Enrollment of the Theater School at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Leslie teaches in the MFA producing program, leading coursework on fundraising, cultural policy and the sustainability seminar. From 2005-2011 she organized the annual Arts in the One World convenings with Erik Ehn, bringing international artists, activists and academics together to share art and activist practices. Leslie has represented CalArts as a Partnership for Academic Leadership in Sustainability fellow since inception. She worked with Cornerstone Theater Company for ten years serving as managing director from 1995 to 2001, producing dozens of experimental, community-engaged, and site-specific theater projects and leading the company’s financial stabilization and growth. She serves on Cornerstone's board and on the board of the Watts Village Theater Company. Leslie holds a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, an AB in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Harvard College and studied at Kyoto University as a Japanese Ministry of Culture Fellow.
Mark Valdez (Director) is the Executive Director of the Network of Ensemble Theaters, a national coalition of ensemble-based theaters that aims to support and sustain ensemble practice. Current NET projects include the Micro-Fest: USA initiative (theater festivals in Detroit, Eastern Kentucky, New Orleans and Honolulu) and the creation of an artist-to-artist touring network. Based in Los Angeles, Mark has worked as an educator, writer and director. Current directing projects include: Learn to be Latina at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis and the premiere of a new community-based play created with the residents of Arvin, CA for Cornerstone Theater Company. Directing credits include the first ever approved adaptation of the Kaufman and Hart classic, You Can't Take It With You, adapted to LA's Muslim community, and a bi-lingual, Spanish- English, adaptation of the musical comedy, The Pajama Game. Mark has directed world premiere plays by Erik Ehn, Tracy Scott Wilson, Jose Cruz Gonzalez, Peter Howard, Rickerby Hinds, and others. His play, Around Atlanta on $80, an adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days was recently presented through the Alliance Theater’s Collisions Project. Mark has led workshops and participated in panels for TCG, Lincoln Center, Southwest Arts Conference, Leadership for a Changing World, REDCAT, NYU, The New School, ATHE, NEA and the Ford Foundation, and many others. He received an MFA in Directing from UC Irvine and is the recipient of Princess Grace Foundation Award for Directing.
Ashley S. Walden (CTC Associate Producer) is a theater producer and manager. Ashley started working with Cornerstone in 2010 as a Paula Altvater Fellow and then as Institute Associate. She holds a M.F.A. in Theater Producing from California Institute of the Arts and a B.A. in Theatre Studies from Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA). Ashley has recently won a Theater Communications Group (TCG) Next Generations: Future Leaders Grant that supports a mentorship between Ashley and Artistic Director Michael John Garcés. While studying, Ashley has worked with other theater organizations including Arena Stage, Virginia Stage Company and Towne Street Theater. Working with Cornerstone is a delight for Ashley because it allows her to work toward her professional mission to provide access to the arts in under served communities and populations.
Chelsea Weiss (Costume Intern) is from a small town outside of Philadelphia, PA. She attens Queens College in New York. She is 20 years old. She has been involved in theater since 10th grade in high school. She is a Classical Literature major and a Textiles and Apparel minor. She has been sewing since she was about 6 years old. She lives with her two sisters and mother in Pennsylvania when she is not attending school. She enjoys reading, sewing, going for walks, and obsessing over tv shows. She’s really excited for this opportunity this summer and she can’t wait to get started!
Jeffrey Wells (Co-Company Manager) is a contemporary performance-based creator, performer, director, and composer in Minneapolis, MN. He has performed in works by Chris Schlichting (SooVAC), Paige Collette (Bedlam Theatre), Chantal Pavageaux (Red Eye Theater, Bryant Lake Bowl), Jeffrey Lusiak (Patrick’s Cabaret) and Bright Eye Productions. In 2008, Jeffrey co-founded the dance/theater ensemble SuperGroup and has created and performed in over 20 works, including: Choreographers’ Evening at the Walker Art Center (2008, 2010, 2011); SuperGroup/École de Klein, a durational improvisational installation, part of Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers exhibition also at the Walker (2011); Shouldwetitleitnoworwait, Minneapolis New Breed Series at The Southern Theater (2009); and works-in-progress performances at BAX (2009) and Catch 46 (Bushwick Starr, 2011) in NYC. SuperGroup was nominated for a MN Sage Award for Dance in the category of Outstanding Ensemble in 2011, and will premiere their latest full-length work The Tent Has Been Pulled Down in June 2012 in the Red Eye Theater’s Isolated Acts Series. Jeffrey is a composer and musician and has created original sound for several SuperGroup shows and is currently working with Brooklyn-based performance artist Abigail Browde on instrumental arrangements for her show The Home, By Josephine. Jeffrey holds a BFA in Theater from NYUs Tisch School of the Arts, with training in both musical (CAP21) and experimental (ETW) theater, and holds a minor in Applied Theater. Jeffrey was a participant in the first Cornerstone Institute in Lost Hills (2004) and continues to work with the company on their summer residency programming. he most recently served as Associate Institute Director in Eureka, CA in 2009. Jeffrey’s upcoming projects include two new SuperGroup projects: Hot Liquid Containers, premiering at Studio 206 in Minneapolis in 2013; and KAIROS (working title), a collaboration with Jerome Foundation Playwriting Fellow (and former Cornerstone staff member), Rachel Jendrzejewski. He is also performing in a new work by renowned choreographer Karen Sherman, premiering at Dance Place in DC in Spring 2013.
Laurie Woolery (CTC Ensemble/ CTC Associate Artistic Director/ Curriculum Director) As a director and playwright, she has collaborated on many new works including Rooted: the Greensburg Odyssey by Marcia Cebulska/music by Kelley Hunt, A Man Come to Fowler by Julie Marie Myatt, Jason in Eureka written by Peter Howard, For All Time written by KJ Sanchez, A Holtville Night's Dream written by Alison Carey, 3/7/11: A Lincoln Heights Tale written by Jose Cruz Gonzalez and the students of Loreto Elementary, Nightingale Middle School and Lincoln High School as part of Cornerstone's first Youth Community Collaboration. Recently, Ms. Woolery directed The Language Archive by Julia Cho at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the west coast premiere of Tanya Saracho’s El Nogalar and the world premiere of The Bewildered Herd by Cody Henderson. She has also directed Amor Eterno - Six Lessons in Love (an anthology by six Latino playwrights) for the grand opening of the Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Bryan Davidson's Reflecting Back at the Los Angeles Central Library as part of the National Tour of the American Originals exhibit and Richard Coca's solo piece The Day I Flipped Off Jimmy Carter for SCR's Hispanic Playwrights Project. As a director, playwright, educator and actor, Laurie has worked at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory (Director of the Theatre Conservatory), Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Inge Center for the Arts, Denver Center, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Fountain Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry, Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Deaf-West Theatre, fofo Theatre, Highways Performance Space, Sundance Playwrights Lab as well as the Sundance Children's Theatre. Cornerstone Theater Company commissioned her solo play Salvadorian Moon/African Sky for its citywide Festival of Faith. Her most recent play, Lola in Lincolnlandia had its world premiere at Plaza de la Raza and REDCAT as part of CalArts Community Arts program. Several of her plays Scouting Reality, Bliss, The Hundred Dresses and Orphan Train: The Lost Children have received world premieres at South Coast Repertory. She is a long time artist with the Virginia Avenue Project and former artist-in-residence for Hollygrove Children's Home. Laurie has served on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts, USC, Citrus College and California State University at Northridge and serves on the Board of the Latino Producers Action Network (LPAN), Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET) and the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America.
