Cornerstone and Guest Artists at 2018 Institute

this list is in-progress. a few more people will be added and maybe more bios for some whose stories aren't included here.  *most recent updates: 6/28/18.

Check back again later...  

Cornerstone people who will be in residence (or otherwise be present) in Queens this summer--
Nephelie Andonyadis, Costume Designer & Community Engagement Associate.

Michael Garcia, Company Manager. 

Geoff Korf, Lighting Designer.

Cameron Squire, Associate Producer.

Juliette Carrillo, Director, is a nationally recognized theatre director, writer, and award-winning filmmaker from Los Angeles, CA. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. As a Cornerstone ensemble member, Juliette has directed community collaborations including Los Faustinos by Bernardo Solano, As Vishnu Dreams by Shishir Kurup, Touch the Water by Julie Hébert, Lethe by Octavio Solis and It's All Bueno by Sigrid Gilmer and Bliss Point by Shishir Kurup.  She wrote Plumas Negras for the 10^th Cornerstone Institute with the East Salinas, CA community and Ghost Town for the Venice, CA community. She is very happy to be collaborating once again with Cusi Cram and is thrilled to be learning about a community she has lived next to, but knows little about.

Sage Clemenco, Associate Institute Director, is Cornerstone Theater's Manager of Community Partnerships, supporting playwrights and collaborating communities as they get to know each other and work together to create new plays. This is Sage's eighth Summer Residency and she is excited to be returning to New York City, where she lived before moving to Los Angeles in 2013. She will be in residence with her wife Julia Taylor (2009 Institute alumni) and their daughter Mira.  

Paula Donnelly, Institute Director, was a union stage manager before she joined Cornerstone’s staff.  I plan and produce the Intensives and Summer Residencies; I’ve been in residence at all of the previous Institutes. As Director of Engagement, my broader focus includes strengthening our relationships, engagement practices, and efforts in contributing to expansion of the field of community-based theater. While I feel most at home on the west coast, I’m very excited about being a temporary resident of Queens.

Michael John Garcés, Artistic Director, has been an ensemble member since 2006.  He's directed two summer residency projects for the Cornerstone Institute, attraction by Page Leong in downtown Los Angeles and Plumas Negras by Juliette Carrillo in Salinas.  He also directed Alison Carey's California: The Tempest, which was created in collaboration with community members from the first ten communities of the Institute, from Holtville on the border with Mexico to Eureka in Humboldt County.  Michael lived in Queens for many years and is excited that Cornerstone will be in residence there.  

Peter Howard, Cornerstone Actor.  Peter is a founding member of Cornerstone Theater Company. He graduated from Harvard College with a degree in English and American Literature and holds an M.F.A. 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 around the country. As a playwright, his Cornerstone credits include Zones (an interactive play exploring interfaith themes), an American Muslim adaptation of You Can't Take It with You (the first adaptation ever approved by the Kaufman and Hart estate), a bilingual adaptation of Lorca's Blood Wedding (Boda de Luna Nueva: New Moon Wedding), and Lunch Lady Courage, inspired by Brecht and set in the world of public high school food service.  His regional theater work includes productions at the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Woolly Mammoth, American Repertory Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf, and the Guthrie.  Peter has served on staff of the National Conference for Community and Justice, and works 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.

Lynn Jeffries, Puppets Designer. Hi all!  I'm a founding member of Cornerstone Theater Company, and I will be designing puppets for this Institute production. In my Cornerstone career, I have designed sets, costumes and puppets for over 60 shows.  These days, it's mostly puppets.  Outside the company, I work as a freelance puppet designer at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, and other places.  I also create satirical puppet spectacles with my artistic partner, Paul Zaloom.   In my free time, I'm an avid birdwatcher, and I'm trying very hard to learn Spanish

Page Leong, Cornerstone Actor, Hey ~ I’m Page, originally from San Francisco. Migrated to Los Angeles to get degrees in dance. Started talking and ended up in theater. Been a Cornerstone ensemble member 25 years now, mostly performing, also writing, directing and choreographing. Time flies! I have a 15 year old daughter, Tala, who will be at the Institute for most of the time as well. Looking forward to creating and sweating with you all in Queens!

Amanda Novoa, Stage Manager. Amanda was introduced to Cornerstone Theater Company during graduate school at UC Irvine. Her passion for community-engaged theatre led her to work with Cornerstone. Her first production with the company was Urban Rez - an experience she will never forget. Since then, she has joined the Ensemble and worked with Cornerstone on Ghost Town, fellowship, The Magic Fruit, and What Happens Next. Amanda believes that theatre is a powerful art form with the capacity to change our communities and our world and she is excited to be on this journey with the Cornerstone family.

Imogen Wanlass, Puppets Intern. Hi, I am a upcoming sophomore at Polytechnic High School in Pasadena, CA. I lived in New York for the first ten years of my life before moving to California but never really got around to Queens much. At school, I enjoy studying english and math as well as the arts programs provided. On my own, some of my favorite things to do are write and illustrate; however, I prefer to tell a story with my art and paint a picture with my words. As for my work in theater, I have been associated with it my whole life and aspire to bring my knowledge of storytelling to any and all productions that I participate in. 

Megan Wanlass, Managing Director. joined Cornerstone as Managing Director in January 2014. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Ms. Wanlass was the Executive Director of SITI Company. In her nineteen-year tenure with SITI, Megan helped to create over 35 productions touring to 88 cities, 32 states and 19 countries. She began working with Anne Bogart and SITI Company during The Adding Machine at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Modern Masters Festival. She has an Arts Administration Certificate from New York University, attended the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders at Stanford University Business School, was a member of the Arts Leadership Institute Charter Class at Teachers College, Columbia University, participated in the National Arts Strategies Executive Leadership Program, and holds a B.A. in Theater from Occidental College in Los Angeles. Megan has served on the board of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and as the PTA President for the Pearls Hawthorne School in Yonkers, NY. Megan currently serves on the board of the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Foundation.

New York Artists & theater-makers who will mostly commute to spend the summer with us--- 

Jimmy Amor, Technical Director.

Meghan E. Healey, Scenic Designer. 

Nelly Reyes, Properties.
Megan Rutherford, Costume Design Assistant.
Kyle Soble, Lighting Design Assistant.
Edisa Weeks, Choreographer.

Ralph Carhart, Production Manager, is a professional production manager and baseball historian. He has worked at Queens College for 11 years and shepherded over 60 productions in that time. For four years he served as the artistic director of the Queens College Summer Performing Arts Festival. His baseball-themed photo essay entitled, “The Hall Ball Project,” has been featured in the New York Times and on the CBS Evening News. www.thehallball.com 

Cusi Cram, Playwright. is a playwright, screenwriter, educator and an advocate for women in the arts. Her plays have been produced by: Primary Stages, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Denver Center, Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts, The Echo Theater, The Williamstown Theater Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Atlantic Theater, New Georges, and on stages large and small all over this fine country. She is a 2018 recipient of a NYSCA commission in collaboration with Rattlestick Theater for her play, Novenas for a Lost Hospital, which looks at the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital in NY’s West Village. She's also written many teleplays for both kids and adults. She received three Emmy nominations for her work on children’s program, Arthur. Cusi recently directed her first film, Wild and Precious, through AFI's Directing Workshop for Women where it won awards and played at over twenty festivals nationwide. She has taught at Fordham, Columbia University, and Primary Stages Einhorn School of the Performing Arts, where she was recently honored for her dedication to the school and its students. She is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Cusi is a graduate of Brown University and the Lila Acheson American Playwright’s Program at Juilliard.

Winsome Jacobs, Costume Intern. Hi everybody, I’m Winsome! I’m from Staten Island’s north shore, and am preparing to go to SUNY Purchase for Theater Design (costume) this fall. I was introduced to Cornerstone through Nephelie Andonyadis. At seventeen, I assume that I’ll be the youngest of the staff, but I look forward to working with all of you!

Heather Lindemann, Scenic Design Assistant.  Hello, my name is Heather Lindemann. I am a student at Queens College and I enjoy doing work backstage for shows. The aspect I enjoy the most about backstage work is building sets. I have helped build the past few years shows here at queens college and I am excited to be working with Cornerstone this summer.

Community Engagement for Queens Project

Meghan Healey and her colleagues spent many weeks reaching out to various departments on campus to let them know about Cornerstone's residency and to help them see how a community engaged project could serve the work happening in each discipline: Urban Studies, Art and Social Practice, the Aaron Copland School of Music,...  She worked with administrators and board members at Queens College to secure facilities resources that could allow for Cornerstone to commit to an Institute Summer Residency across the country from where we live. The support Queens College offered to the project helps defray some of the cost of the Residency.

Cornerstone's Artistic Director Michael John Garcés met with many of those QC people, including the president of the college, on a visit to the campus in early February 2018. He visited some classes and met QC staff, faculty and students. It was a chance for him to see campus facilities first hand and to consider which of the many performance space options would best suit as venue for the Institute's performance venue.

United Community Center in Grayson, CA

Cornerstone Theater Company loves to make a performance venue out of unique spaces. Half of the Institute productions since 2004 have been performed outdoors: on a basketball court, the street of a city block, on site of a working mill, in a community garden, in the park of a small agricultural town, in the park of a city neighborhood with a small town energy.

Oakwood Park in Venice, CA

atTraction in LA Arts District

He was intrigued by the idea of utilizing the amphitheater which is nestled in the middle of arts buildings.  Outdoor venues can really enhance the community connection factor for a theatrical endeavor. Preparation of the space and rehearsals onstage are in public view and draw attention and inquiry. What's going on over there? A public outdoor space also eliminates boundaries for a lot of people. If there are no doors or ushers or assigned seats, I can sit where I want and leave if I don't like it....  

But this amphitheater isn't in a public public space. It's on campus and you have to look for it. It's enclosed most of the way around. Apparently it isn't used very often except as a bit of a hideaway.

This is the Institute SUMMER Residency, it can be grueling to build a theater as well as the set and other design elements outdoors in some adapted, often public, space. So being indoors for a project is sometimes the best choice for our financial and human resources. It is true for this summer.

A goal of this project is to increase connections between Queens College and the community around it. I think it will be one of our tasks while in residence to create the right invitation to get local folks on campus who might not feel welcome there. I don't think there's any animosity -- not that we've found yet-- but for many reasons an institution like a school campus might not feel welcoming to some people, even neighbors. Most places have boundaries that people navigate constantly, often without even realizing it.

So we'll have to find ways to make the invitation to participate as appealing as we can, even for people who don't ever spend time on campus, and maybe don't ever see any of the music, dance or theater performances offered at The Kupferberg Center for the Arts.

The best choice for this time and this project is to perform the play in the Goldstein Theater.




Meghan also introduced to us a campus organization called CERRU: The Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding. (link in sidebar)

2018 - Queens College

Hey all you Cornerstone Theater 2018 Institute company!

This is the starting point of a weblog about the progress so far with Cornerstone Theater Company's project in Queens, NY.  We want to catch you up and bring you in to how things got started, how they are coming together and ideas and information about Queens that we have been learning along the way.

This year, 2018, is the 12th Institute Summer Residency. From 2004 through 2013, we it was an annual program, and after the first Institute we started referring to each one as "I-2" or "I-10," partly because it was a nice short-hand but also we love creating a unique vocabulary. It's an odd thing for a group of people who focus so much on inclusivity, but it's true. Maybe it started with me because I love naming things so the named thing has a special and specific resonance. More on this another time. -- But now this program is on an every-other-year plan. We are also experimenting more with some of the structural elements of the Institute Summer Residency. In 2016, we worked in Venice, a neighborhood of our home city, Los Angeles, with intentionality toward accessibility for Institute participants and company members to commute rather than everyone moving to the community for the 32-day residency.

This year is our first Institute Summer Residency taking place outside of the state of California. Not only are we not staying in California, we are going the other side of the country! 

Cornerstone has friends and family in New York and in nearby east coast communities. In the first 5 years of the company- 1986 - 1991-- we brought a few of our productions on tour to New York City. In 1997 our first community collaboration in New York was with the students of Seward Park High School and hosted by the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. The Too Noble Brothers, written by Alison Carey, was an hour-long adaptation of Fletcher and Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen.

We were invited by Queens College of the City University of New York and their Drama, Theater & Dance Department Chair Meghan E. Healey, to spend our 12th Institute Summer Residency in New York.   Meghan is a frequent artistic collaborator with Cornerstone, having designed costumes or sets for half-a-dozen or more productions with us.  Here is part of her initial invitation:

DTD is in serious consideration of next year's season. One of the themes we are discussing in depth is the idea of "community." Obviously that is a really broad theme, so one of the ways we have talked about narrowing it down is to focus on plays that can celebrate and explore our community of Queens/Flushing. [We] have been talking...about having a community based theater company in residence or have them do a summer program that bridges 2017-18 and 2018-19 ...

Queens is a really amazing larger community, but we are also quite interested to get closer to our local community of Main Street/Flushing. There are large populations of Asian (mostly Chinese and Korean) immigrants, a NYC housing project across the street, and a significant Latino population that we don't always reach with our programming. There are also three public NYC schools on campus all of which have expressed interest in creating a stronger bridge to our program. In addition to all these there is a little India nearby (Jackson Heights), and a large Orthodox Jewish community which we draw a lot of students from. That is just in our little neighborhood of Flushing! 

Meghan, with the support of her DTD Department colleagues, and QC's administrators did a lot of work to be able to offer Cornerstone use of campus facilities, including the gorgeous Kupferberg Center for the Arts and on-campus housing.  We have had challenging relationships with universities in the past, but Queens College really came through with generous and thoughtfully planned resources in order to bring Cornerstone to Queens.

And it is true: Queens is an amazing community! 

Personally, I had only visited Queens once before, for a family wedding in when I was 13. All I remember is the humidity. Since then I've had many visits to Manhattan, been to Brooklyn twice, and once to The Bronx. Now I have the pleasure of learning more about Queens and the people who live there.

As Meghan mentioned Queens is a large community. It is huge! But our residency is only 32 days long. Our play will only be about an hour long. And we have a very full schedule that includes classes as well as working on the production. So our efforts will primarily focus on the neighborhood of Flushing and even more on the community closest to Queens College, our home-base. That is where we start.

[I love this map I found online! I don't know who the artist is or I would credit them.]

Advise about Hotel Living from I-8 class

We've had all kinds of living set-ups for our eight previous Institute Summer Residencies.  Last year, as this year, the students and some of the staff lived in a hotel.  The hotel in Fowler was just two blocks from our home-base / "Nest" location, rather than 14 miles away which is what our situation is in Arvin.

I asked last year's folks if they had any advise for you about living in a hotel while doing the Institute.  Here are the responses:

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TOM C:  TURN THE A/C UP!  +1

BIRDIE J:  hotel laundry is expensive. go elsewhere. also, laundromats are full of town characters.  +2

SABRINA S-T:   bring a few pictures or trinkets to make it feel more like home - hotels can feel a little sterile sometimes.  +2

CHRISTOPHER D:  Live the moment, be present then and now, don't over think things, you truly will only remotely begin to value what you're doing after your done. I make discoveries about my time in Fowler all the time. My time at I-8 and with Cornerstone has proved an invaluable life tool as an artist and a person. It was invaluable in completing and articulating my thesis. 

DANIEL P:  Use the hotel to re-energize and focus. its great to have a place where you know you'll have your own bed and an AC when youre ready to unwind. My suggestion would be to not let it be a place that shelters you from the rest of the experience. Find some way to make the hotel communal, a place where you can unpack the experience with the rest of the group. some of us would meet outside around the pool in the evenings. It was a great time to unwind and share with the group outside of what was happening during the institute. If you have the opportunity to shower in the showers that they built outside, do it! it was amazing. I feel part of the institute experience is to spend time with people that have similar and differing ideas about something that is important in your life, don't let the hotels be a place that can make you miss out on these conversations and experiences. It goes by quick and you'll have a lot of time away from these people, take advantage of the time that you do have to share with them. But no lie, the AC is great.

   *We are not building outdoor showers this summer for anyone so you won't be able to take Danny's advise on that...

MARY T:  try to pack everything you need for that day so you don't have to make trips back to the hotel throughout the day. going back there during the day will just waste time you could be using to focus or spend time with other institute members. Also, it will inevitably take longer to make the trip back than you think, because the nice cold, dark rooms can be very beguiling on a hot summer day.

  *Mary's advise about taking what you need for the whole day when you leave hotel in the morning is absolutely true and necessary this year, because you can't just walk back whenever you want this year.

While he didn't respond to this inquiry, Brent G made the hotel room television into a big of decorative art so as to resist ever turning it on.  I think my advise would definitely include to try never turn on the television in your hotel room while you are in residence.  

Institute Staff 2012 - bios *updates

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!

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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. 

Raquel Gutierrez (CTC Ensemble/Manager of Community Partnerships/Faculty) 

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.

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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. 

Christopher Pheiffer (Technical Director)

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 10^th 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!

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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.