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The students who participated in the first Cornerstone Institute residency were eighteen wonderful individuals of diverse ages and backgrounds. Students ranged in age from 21 59 and came from Brooklyn, Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis, Arizona, Virginia, and the Los Angeles area. Some are undergraduate or graduate students in theater programs. There was a social worker, a filmmaker, a few educators and professional theater artists. They are at different points in their career paths but all came to Cornerstone Institute with eager and open minds and hearts and a sense of adventure.
All the students and seven of the Cornerstone staff/faculty lived in
shared classrooms on the campus of Lost Hills Elementary and Junior
High School. We used the boys & girls locker rooms for showers and
shared meals in the teachers lounge. We held classes and meetings and
rehearsed in the schools cafeteria.
The program was four weeks long, and we hit the ground running.
Introductions were barely made when we ventured into public areas of
the community of Lost Hills to encourage people to audition. We held
auditions, cast the show and held the first rehearsal before our fourth
full day in Lost Hills was over!
Waking Up in Lost Hills included 28 community participants, 13
Institute students and one Cornerstone artist and two Cornerstone Guest
Artists as cast and musicians. Two students worked hard as stage
managers (a first for both of them) and ran the deck during
performance. Others worked extensively with the technical teams and
helped run the show from backstage.
Although the students production related assignments varied in size,
work-load and formal structure, everyone collaborated with the director
to solve staging and other artistic challenges. Everyone carried the
responsibilities of mutual mentor-ship with community collaborators,
which in many ways was the greatest joy of the process.
A typical day at Institute One began with self-serve breakfast in the
teachers lounge followed by- sometimes simultaneous with- rushing into
a 30 minute Optional Physical Warm-up led by a classmate. This was
followed by a 3 or 4 hour class that might include a slide show, guest
(not-in-residence) faculty, some hands on activity, and/or guided
discussion. Lunch break was an hour long. Afternoons were often spent
at various tasks, either in rehearsal or doing production work like
building puppets, building or painting the set, hanging lights, or
creating props. Dinner was prepared on the premises by a renowned
local cook or by a volunteer guest cook. Evenings were primarily about
rehearsal. Those not called or required in rehearsal often
participated voluntarily as a stand-in actor or by playing with the
young ones waiting for parents or siblings, or by continuing to build
puppets!
Each day ended with an optional End of Day pull-together to discuss the
events of the day and challenges and scheduling for the next day.
Additionally, there was a weekly Company Meeting and a weekly
Production Meeting.
There are lessons learned with this first Cornerstone Institute, to be
sure, and elements to improve upon with I-2. However, Institute One
had many outstanding joys and triumphs.
The Institute Summer Residency experience will vary with different
communities. Adjustments and changes to the basic schedule as well as
resident staff and production needs can be expected. Being flexible as
unknown factors present themselves is an inevitable and integral part
of the Cornerstone process.
Graduates of Cornerstone Institute 2004 are available to discuss their
experience either via correspondence or telephone. If this is of
interest to you, please contact Paula Donnelly to set-up an
introduction.
Read an article by students about their experiences with Cornerstone Institute in Lost Hills:
http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2005/02/wide_awake_in_l.php
Paula Donnelly
Institute Director
Cornerstone Theater Company
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