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Written by Ramy Eletreby
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Cornerstone Theater Company’s sixth annual Institute Summer Residency took place in the Humboldt County city of Eureka, CA, on July 9 through August 9, 2009. This year’s students- 12 women and 5 men- ranged in age from 19 to 60, and joined us from New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, Kentucky, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. Six participants are California residents.
We worked together to produce Jason in Eureka: an epic adventure in search of golden fleece and other local treasures. The script, a Eureka-specific adaptation of the mythic tale of Jason & The Golden Fleece, was written by founding Cornerstone ensemble member Peter Howard and adapted in part from chapter 2 of Charles Kingsley’s The Heroes. The play was directed by ensemble member & Associate Artistic Director Laurie Woolery. It was performed by a cast of 42, including 34 community members, 6 Institute students and 2 professional Cornerstone actors. Additionally, we had 5 community crew members help run the show.
In addition to Peter and Laurie the production’s artistic staff included Cornerstone Ensemble members Geoff Korf (lighting design) and MC Earl & Andres Munar (actors), as well as Nephelie Andonyadis (scenic design), Meghan E. Healey (costume design), Ben Cobb (sound design) and Marisa Fritzemeier (stage manager). Production Manager Kerry Farmer played a key role in transforming our site-specific venue into a safe and spectacular theater. Tinamarie Ivey and Dan Stone of community partner organization Sanctuary Stage also joined the staff to help make the vision a reality.
Jason in Eureka was performed at a unique venue: Blue Ox Millworks and Historic Park, which also served as a community partner for the project. The Blue Ox occupies a multi-acre area of land right on the shore of Humboldt Bay and includes a variety of structures and working shop areas, as well as housing 2 oxen, 2 horses, one Great Pyrenees pooch and many barnyard cats. The Blue Ox is seeking new ways to reach out to and serve their Eureka community.
Our third community partner for this project was The Ink People Center for the Arts, a public benefit community cultural development organization. The Ink People helped us meet the community, hosted auditions and connected us with many resources.
The Institute company lived and studied at St Bernard’s Catholic School, about 3 miles from The Blue Ox.
Peter DiMuro (D.C.-based dancer, choreographer & administrator) was in residence for 10 days as Choreographer and led a multi-day workshop for the students that included dancing in a redwood forest and culminated with a small participatory performance for the rest of the company and invited community friends.
Jason In Eureka performed for about 500 people. We had doorprize giveaways of donations from local businesses before each performance. The play began with local barbershop quartet singing the basic plot of the Jason myth and cast members simultaneously illustrating the song with a puppet show. The audience enjoyed this prologue and the first scene of the play while standing in the front entry area of the Blue Ox. After these first 10 minutes or so, Eric Hollenbeck owner of the Blue Ox (and barbershop singer) invited the audience to venture further onto the grounds, and the audience then migrated to take seats on bleachers in a usually private working area of the millworks. A raised, open-sided saw building served as a proscenium stage, enhanced by a built-out platform and various staircases. The mill’s Gerlinger-manufactured forklift was cast in the role of the serpent/dragon that guards the golden fleece, and Jason’s efforts against Gerlinger offered a very suspenseful climax to play’s mythic plot.
Institute students with the specific Community Engagement Associate job assignment had many thoughtful ideas and met regularly to discuss them and plan events that they determined to move forward. Successful projects included a “Eureka Local Treasures” interactive mapping project, and a recording community stories interview project. The students designed and created a large map of the city of Eureka and visited local farmers’ markets to invite the community to identify their personal treasures of Eureka—places, people and events important to them in Eureka. Their responses were written onto index cards which were displayed and numbered to correspond with a pushpin identifying the mapped location of each treasure. The map was displayed and added to by audience in the “lobby” before the play’s performances. Student Julia Taylor who has radio and interview experience, recorded interviews with four community members involved in the production and edited them into a 30 minute radio-ready program. The interviews were then shared with all the project’s company and will be broadcast on Blue Ox Community Radio for all Humboldt County to experience.
Institute staff and students gave back to our generous venue hosts by helping clean-up and organize parts of their property. We used the letterpress printing press at Blue Ox to create a very special show poster. Student Documentarian Victor Vazquez created a weblog to share the experience with friends and family far away. Five staff members this year are graduates of previous Institute Summer Residencies. Student Community Engagement Associate Marcus Renner reached out to the local independent business association which brought in donated production materials and services as well as doorprizes and greater project awareness. The founder/owners of The Blue Ox are inspired to host more events and theatrical productions in their space. Institute students and Altvater Fellow Mieke Duffly facilitated a “Future Projects” discussion with our community cast and crew members about how they might like to do more, maybe similar, projects together in the future.
View photos from our Summer Residency in Eureka via these 3 sources:
Cornerstone’s Flickr Page
Student Photographer Victor Vazquez
Student Photographer Stacia Torborg
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Last Updated on Friday, 22 January 2010 02:05 |
