damali ayo - Manager of Community Partnerships
Paula Donnelly - Institute Director
Ramy Eletreby - Communications Manager
Kerry Farmer - Production Manager
Michael John Garcés - Artistic Director
Lorena Moran - Teatro Jornalero Associate Artistic Director

DAMALI AYO

(Manager of Community Partnerships) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . damali comes to Cornerstone after 12 years of being an independent artist, author and performer. damali ayo was a founding member of defunkt theater company, now in its tenth season in Portland, Oregon. She is also the creator of the Women's Prison Project which brought Brown University students into the Rhode Island Women's Prison to use theatre as a tool for self expression. This program became a national model for university/prison theatre collaborations across the country. She's taught art and theatre to underserved urban and rural youth at Caldera Arts. She lectures across the country on solutions to racism. She is an individual artist, writer and performer, taking her work to the street through national participatory performances, stage in one-woman shows and lectures, and on the microphone through stand up comedy. damali has written two books that use satire to explore race relations in the United States. damali's first book How to Rent a Negro was acclaimed as "one of the most trenchant and amusing commentaries on contemporary race relations." It was granted a 2005 Honorable Mention in the Outstanding Book Awards from the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. Her radio work "Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations" won a Silver Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Her newest book Obamistan: Land Without Racism, Your Guide to the New America is due out April 2010. www.damaliayo.com

PAULA DONNELLY

(Institute Director) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Paula began working with Cornerstone in 1998 as a stage manager and joined Cornerstone's Ensemble in 1999. Community-collaborations she has stage managed for the company include Los Biombos in Boyle Heights, AKA in Beverly Hills, For Here or To Go?, a city-wide bridge show, at the Mark Taper Forum, Peter Pan in Cleveland, and Crossings at St Vibiana's Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles and the Festival of Faith. She also was the stage manager for Cornerstone Ensemble shows Foot/Mouth (produced in multiple malls around Southern California) and Erik Ehn's Mary Shelley's Santa Claus. As a stage manager she has worked on a variety of productions with Taper, Too, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PCPA TheaterFest and other regional theaters. As Institute Director for the company, Paula plans and produces the annual Institute Summer Residency and 2-Day Intensives. Through the Insitute Summer Residenices, Paula's love for Cornerstone and for California's people and places has increased exponentially.

RAMY ELETREBY

(Communications Manager) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Ramy joined Cornerstone's staff in the fall of 2008 after having been a community participant in previous Cornerstone projects Someday in 2008 and A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters, the Faith-Based Bridge Show in 2005. Since graduating from the University of California-Irvine with degrees in Drama and English, Ramy has performed with various theater companies in L.A. including Unknown Theater, Uprising Theatre, and the Grand Guignolers in 2007's smash hit, A Very Grand Guignol Christmas. Ramy spent several years working as a freelance writer/journalist/reporter for several publications, including IN Los Angeles Magazine. A native of Southern California, Ramy is humbled and thrilled to be part of the Cornerstone family and to aid in bringing theater to various communities that are ripe for artistic collaboration and open to the transformative theatrical process.

KERRY FARMER

(Production Manager) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Kerry joined Cornerstone in 2005 and his first project was the Faith-Based Bridge Show, A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters. Prior to joining Cornerstone Kerry held similar positions with Willy Bietak Productions, Walt Disney Entertainment, Encore Attractions, NetWorks Productions, Renaissance Entertainment and the German production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express. Most recently he has been involved with creating seasonal ice rinks and Production Managing the national tour of Broadway on Ice. In addition to his work with Cornerstone, Kerry is a Lighting Designer and Technical Director for the L.A.-based, site-specific performance group Collage Dance Theatre. He is the proud father of two adorable and talented children, Kristy Lynn and Ronald Richard who wish he still had his old job as Jungle Boat Cruise Guide at Disneyland.

MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS

(Artistic Director) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For Cornerstone, Michael has directed Someday by Julie Marie Myatt, attraction by Page Leong, and The Falls by Jeffrey Hatcher (at the Guthrie Theater), and will be directing Naomi Iizuka’s 3 Truths, the Bridge show of the Justice Cycle, this June at Grand Performances.  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.  Other directing credits include, most recently, Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy at CalArts and the break/s by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which co-premiered at the Humana Festival (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and the Walker Art Center, and which toured the U.S. to venues such as REDCAT, Under the Radar and The August Wilson Center for African American Culture.  Other theatres at which he has directed include A Contemporary Theater, Hartford Stage, Woolly Mammoth, 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 and serves on the Ovation review Committee for the Los Angeles Stage Alliance. His full-length plays include points of departure (INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center) and Acts of Mercy (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); short plays include tostitos, (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays) on edge and the ride (Humana, "The Open Road Anthology"), audiovideo (The Directors Project) and sandlot ball (Mile Square). His solo performance piece, agua ardiente, ran Off-Broadway at The American Place Theatre, and he performed in and wrote for "The Borges Project", which was presented at the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the 31st World Congress of the International Theatre Institute (UNESCO).  He collaborated with composer Alexandra Vrebalov on the oratorio Stations, which received its premiere at the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and was recently performed at the NOMUS Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia.  Michael is a recipient of the Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, and a TCG/New Generations Grant. He is a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

LORENA MORAN

(Teatro Jornalero Associate Artistic Director) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Lorena was born in Guatemala City, and moved to Los Angeles two years ago. During the time she has been here, she has worked as a day laborer, and as such has witnessed and experienced the marginalization and oppression of this community as laborers and as immigrants. Because of this, she made the decision to do something for her community, and discovered that through theater as a pedagogical tool people express the realities of the day laborer and the different types of issues which are being faced. Her believe if that it is possible to effect change in society, and that Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras can be part of that change through our work. I would like to acknowledge and thank my teacher and friend Brent Blair, a professor at USC, who has inspired me and reaffirmed my commitment to work with and for my community.

TALI PRESSMAN

(Managing Director) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Tali joined Cornerstone's staff in summer 2007 after serving as the Special Projects Director at Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) where she was responsible for strategic outreach to 20 and 30-somethings, branding and major public programming. In 2003 while at PJA Tali created and secured funding for the Jeremiah Fellowship, a year-long program that educates and trains emerging Jewish social justice leaders, now in its third year. She helped expand the Jeremiah Fellowship to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2006. In June 2007 she was awarded The Mark Meltzer New and Innovative Programming Award from the Jewish Communal Professionals of Southern California for her creation of the Jeremiah Fellowship. She also produced PJA's annual event Vodka Latka: Festival of Rights that brought together culture and social justice through musical performances and a candle lighting with local activists, politicians and artists. In 2005 Vodka Latka was produced in San Francisco, New York and Boston. Prior to PJA, Tali was the Director of Yiddishkayt Los Angeles where she created and spearheaded the AVADA Initiative, an innovative project to engage people under 35 in Yiddish language and culture. Her 2003 screening of The Dybbuk at Hollywood Forever Cemetery attracted more than 800 people. Tali is a participant of Reboot, a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring contemporary Jewish culture, and previously the Los Angeles coordinator. A graduate of University of California at Santa Cruz, she studied theater and Modern Literature. She has studied writing, acting, and directing for years.

SELENE SANTIAGO DE NASSERI

(General Manager) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Selene, a native Angeleno (just east of the river, Boyle Heights), is a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley in Theatre/Chicano Studies (BA); California State University, Los Angeles in Theatre (MA) and recipient of La Opinion's "Mujeres Destacadas" award in Arts & Culture for 2008. Her most recent arts management positions have been Acting Managing Director of CASA 0101 Theater, Company Manager of Regina Klenjoski Dance Company, and Administrative Manager of Latino Theater Company.  Selene is a Chicanoir Artist (Director/Designer/Writer), Producer and co-founding Teatrista of the performance art group, Tongue in Chíc*ana (TIC).

(Associate Director of Development) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Sabrina is delighted to join the Cornerstone family after working as an actor in Someday and For All Time. She is a 2005 graduate of Florida State University where she earned her B.A. in Theater and Creative Writing. After working in regional theater and playing overseas for a year, she moved to Los Angeles to further her career in the arts. She has also worked as a Production Manager and Student Outreach Coordinator at the Odyssey. As a director, her credits include Twelfth Night and Raised in Captivity. Sabrina hopes to continue to grow as an artist and theater practitioner by working for such an inspiring company.

ASHLEY WALDEN

(Altvater Management Fellow) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Ashley Walden is an emerging theater producer, manager and administrator. Currently, she is a second year candidate in the Master of Fine Arts Producing Program at California Institute of the Arts and a 2009/2010 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Fellow. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Walden has interned at the Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk, Virginia) and Arena Stage (Washington, District of Columbia). Her CalArts credits include the World Premiere of Dice Thrown (Producer), In the Blood (Co-Producer),  Adam and Eve (Assistant Producer),  Funnyhouse of a Negro (Producer), The Angel of History (Producer), Smoke Lilies and Jade (Assistant Producer), AH! Opera-No-Opera (Associate Producer) presented at REDCAT. Walden was the Director of Audience Development for the ODU theatre department during the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 season. Other ODU credits include Uplifted (Producer), MacBeth (Stage Manager), Mourning Becomes Electra (Stage Manager). Walden has also worked in Austria with the Elizabeth River Theatre Company on Black Battles with Dogs (Stage Manager).

LAURIE WOOLERY

(Associate Artistic Director) Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Laurie is the Associate Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company. As a director for Cornerstone, she has collaborated on many new works including Jason in Eureka written by Peter Howard as part of the Institute Summer Residency in Eureka, California, For All Time written by KJ Sanchez as part of the Justice Cycle, A Holtville Night's Dream written by Alison Carey as part of the Institute Summer Residency in Holtville, California, 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. Cornerstone Theater Company commissioned her solo play Salvadorian Moon/African Sky for its citywide Festival of Faith. Several of her plays Scouting Reality, Bliss, The Hundred Dresses and Orphan Train: The Lost Children have received world premieres at South Coast Repertory. As a director, playwright, educator and actor, Laurie has worked at South Coast Repertory (as Director of the Theatre Conservatory), Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Deaf-West Theatre, fofo Theatre, Highways Performance Space, A Noise Within, Sundance Playwrights Lab as well as the Sundance Children's Theatre. Ms. Woolery worked with Bill Rauch on the world premiere of Lisa Loomer's Living Out at the Mark Taper Forum and SCR's Lovers and Executioners. She directed Amor Eterno - Six Lessons in Love (an anthology by six Latino playwrights) for the grand opening of the Ricardo Montalban Theatre. She also directed 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. She is a long time artist with the Virginia Avenue Project and artist-in-residence for Hollygrove Children's Home. Laurie on faculty at California Institute of the Arts, Citrus College and Glendale College and serves on the Board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.

Contributing Photographers: Bruce Botnick, Paula Donnelly, Paul Gregory, Rachel Jendrzejewski, Brooke Minters, Gregory Pacificar