MICHAEL ABELS
Michael Abels has gained widespread recognition for his orchestral music, most notably Global Warming and Dance for Martin's Dream. Abels was Composer In Residence with Cornerstone Theater Company through a grant from the Meet The Composer New Residencies program, during which he wrote songs and incidental music for Cornerstone's production of Lisa Loomer's Broken Hearts: a BH Mystery and Alison Carey's For Here Or To Go. He is the recipient of grants or awards from the NEA, ASCAP and the USC Thornton School of Music, as well as commissions from the National Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, and Los Angeles Opera. For more information visit www.MichaelAbels.com.
TAMADHUR AL-AQEEL
Tamadhur Al-Aqeel first worked with Cornerstone in 1993 in the play Ghurba. Since then, Cornerstone produced three of her short plays as part of various festivals, she toured her one woman show nationally, and was seen in Cornerstone's bridge/holiday show For Here Or To Go? (Mark Taper Forum). Tamadhur lead storytelling, playwrighting, and poetry workshops for kids with Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood. She won a Golden Mike Award for a commentary written for KPCC-FM, Pasadena and her adaptation of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp was produced at Cal State Northridge.
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LONNIE RAFAEL ALCARAZ
Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz is an Associate Professor at UC Irvine and a professional lighting designer. He has designed at various regional theatre houses, such as South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Laguna Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Selected shows include The Prince and the Pauper, Blue Door, Man from Nebraska, ,Play Strindberg, and Sidney Bechet Killed a Man (for which he received a Drama-Logue Award). He designed Culture Clash?s The Birds at both South Coast Repertory and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, along with their national touring show, Radio Mambo, which has been seen in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona, New York, Seattle and Washington, DC. He was a designer for Universal Studios, Japan, where he designed the live shows Terminator 2 in 3D, and Monster Makeup, the attractions "Jurassic Park the Ride" and "Snoopy Studios," along with exterior architectural facades throughout the park. Shows with Cornerstone include Warriors Don?t Cry, LETHE, I Ask You - Ladies and Gentlemen, Farewell to Manzanar and Waking Up In Lost Hills. He is a member of the United Scenic Artist/IATSE - Local 829.
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STEVEN ARGILA
Steven Argila is a graduate of the Juilliard School and works as a composer, lyricist, pianist, organist, and producer in Los Angeles and New York. He has collaborated with such companies as The Actors' Gang, Cornerstone, Indecent Exposure, and ASK Theater Projects. Film scores include Mad Song, Under the Blue, and The Wizard of Id. Solo organ and piano performances include Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and St. Martin in the Fields in London. He is the co-founder of Rumblewood Music, a production company involved in the development of original music projects for theater and film.
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TIMOTHY BANKER
Timothy Banker is a freelance director, writer, and teacher. He has worked at the American Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Pittsburgh Playhouse, among others. He was awarded an NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship in 1997-1998. He co-writes and co-produces the national public radio program, From the Top, which features the stories and music of America's most outstanding young classical musicians. He has authored several adaptations for theatre including the musical, The Lady From Maxim's. He has taught acting and directing at Harvard Extension School, Emerson College and Middlesex Community College.
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AMY BRENNEMAN
Amy Brenneman was among the founding members of Cornerstone Theater Company in 1986, working exclusively with them during the subsequent 5 years. Her Cornerstone roles include Juliet, Clytemnestra, and Natasha in Three Sisters from West Virginia. Amy has also performed at Classic Stage Co., Yale Repertory and Lincoln Center Theatre, among others. Her movie appearances include Casper, Heat, Fear, Bye Bye Love, Daylight, Your Friends & Neighbors, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Off the Map, and Nine Lives. On TV, she is currently appearing as the psychiatrist Violet Turner in Private Practice. She previously starred in Judging Amy for 6 seasons (3 Golden Globe nominations, a People's Choice Award, 3 Emmy
nominations, and winner of the TV Guide Award for Best Actress in a New
Drama Series), plus guest appearances on NYPD Blue (2 Emmy nominations) and Frasier. Amy continues to support Cornerstone Theater Company, believing passionately in its enduring mission and unique role in American theater. Amy is married to director Brad Silberling and has two children, Charlotte Tucker and Bodhi Russell.
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VALERIE CLAXTON
Valerie Claxton resides in Pennsylvania and is working as Production Stage Manager at Sight & Sound Ministries. It is one of the largest Christian Dramatic Theaters on the East Coast. She has been there for 5 years, enjoying what God is doing in her life. She is presently working on the story of Daniel, which includes 76 cast members, live animals and no real lions, just animated ones. "I miss the gang. I love you all and thank you for preparing me for what I am experiencing now. Blessings to all and congratulations for all your success."
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KATHLEEN COYNE
Kathleen Coyne has worked with Cornerstone as an actor on The California Seagull, as an actor/writer/director on Traveling In Time at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and as an artistic coordinator on the Festival of Faith. She has received 2 LACAD individual artist grants for her work with the elders of Angelus Plaza. Currently Kate is working with Imagination Workshop leading acting groups with long term chronic and forensic patients at Metropolitan State Hospital. Kathleen is indebted to Uta Hagen, William Ball and Anne Bogart's SITI company. She has appeared in over 50 plays in New York, Los Angeles and regionally, in film, on television, and has received a Dramalogue Award and an Emmy nomination.
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QUENTIN DREW
Quentin Drew passed away from renal carcinoma on April 20, 2005, just two weeks shy of his 42nd birthday. Cornerstone met Quentin in Watts when the company was doing Sid Arthur. He became our de-facto Ambassador to Watts and also played the lead in the play. He was a beautiful man whose smile would brighten an entire room and whose integrity and presence would inspire an entire community. Quentin embodied the mission of Cornerstone completely in that he was both a representative of the community he lived in as well as a gifted artist and activist. He did many more shows with Cornerstone, went on to co-found the Watts Village Theater Company, received the Bridge Award from Cornerstone for his continuing activism on behalf of the people of Watts and made an indelible impact on everyone who came in contact with him. His dream was to bring an end to violence in the neighborhoods and schools in which he was raised and taught, and also to utilize the arts to allow the expression that often was stifled for that very same constituency. He lived three lifetimes in his short 41 years. All of us who knew him are so much the better for it and only hope to aspire to the kind of goodness that he brought to this world. Rest in peace, dear friend. We at Cornerstone love you and will dearly miss you. Your bright light may have left this earth but your spirit will continue to illuminate our hearts.
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JOHN J. FLYNN, Ph.D
John Flynn is a founding partner at Timeline Films who has written, produced, edited, and/or directed a number of productions including documentaries about United Artists, the DeMilles, Clara Bow, Marion Davies and others. In 1995 he completed a Ph.D. in theater at UCLA where he was given the Pendleton Award for excellence. Dr. Flynn is also a past Regent's Scholar and the recipient of a Community Service award from UCSC. He teaches theater history and theory classes at Cal State Los Angeles. His scholarship and articles have focused on interculturalism, Japanese theater, fight choreography, and high technology. He has also filmed almost all of Cornerstone's productions for the last five years and created video segments for several of them.
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TAMAR FORTGANG
After graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Tamar toured with the Pickle Family Circus and has performed in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Recent roles include Patti Smith in The Slow and Painful Death of Sam Shepard (Zoo District/recipient of Backstage West's Garland Award), May in Samual Beckett's Footfalls (Cornerstone's Foot/Mouth), Zillah Katz in the LA Premiere of Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day (Theatre of NOTE), Claire Devoto in The Two-Character Play (Zoo District), Melissa in Mayhem at Mayfield Mall (the Drive-In Drama) and the Whore in Spurt of Blood (Wolfskill). She is a founding member of Zoo District.
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JOSE CRUZ GONZALEZ
Jose Cruz Gonzalez served as Project Director of South Coast Repertory?s Hispanic Playwrights Project for 11 seasons. His produced plays include September Shoes, Always Running, Cousin Bell Bottoms, Panadero: The Baker?s Tale, Salt & Pepper, The Highest Heaven, Manzi (The Adventures of Young C?sar Ch?vez), The Magic Rainforest (An Amazon Adventure), Marisol's Christmas, La Posada, Harvest Moon, Calabasas Street, Spirit Dancing and Odysseus Cruz. His Mariachi Quixote was part of the A.S.K?s Common Ground Festival (Los Angeles, CA). He has written for PAZ, a series produced by Discovery Kids for the Ready Set Learn! block on The Learning Channel. In 2004 his Lily Plants A Garden premiered at the Mark Taper Forum?s P.L.A.Y. program. Jose was a recipient of a 1997 NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights. In 1985, he was a National Endowment for the Arts Director Fellow. He is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where he received his MFA in Directing. He teaches theatre at California State University at Los Angeles. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. and a national board member of ASSITEJ/USA.
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JOSEPH GRIMM
Joseph Grimm is a long time member of the Los Angeles based theater company The Actors' Gang where he has appeared in over twenty productions including The Seagull, Mephisto, Dreamplay, Mein Kampf, and Little Man in the Box. Favorite appearances with Cornerstone include Malcolm in Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, Amphitryon in Gods and Shoppers and Hayman in An Antigone Story. Joe is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a summa cum laude graduate of the UCLA theater department, as well as a recipient of the LA Weekly, Backstage West and Dramalogue Awards for acting. Numerous film and television credits include the lead role in the 2001 Academy Award nominated short film Seraglio.
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JAMIE HANES
Jamie Hanes has acted in over seventy plays, including Cornerstone's Twelfth Night and several shows at LA Theatreworks and the Pacific Resident Theatre. In Shahrazad at Powerhouse Theater, he won a Dramalogue Award for Sound Design and sustained several injuries performing with Balinese shadow puppets. At Pacific he directed his adaptation of Othello; at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., he directed Shim Chong - A Korean Folk Tale. Of American and Italian parentage, he spent much of his childhood in Bologna. He announces for television and radio, and is represented by ICM's voice-over department. He is married to Tamadhur Al-aqeel.
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YEHUDA HYMAN
Yehuda Hyman's work explores the intersection of theater, dance, poetry, myth and mysticism. His career began when he traveled to Brussels, Belgium at age 16 to attend Maurice Bejart's movement-based theater school, MUDRA. Following a career as a dancer and choreographer, Mr. Hyman met playwright/poet James Carroll Pickett who became his writing mentor. Mr. Hyman's plays include: The Mad Dancers, Center of the Star, Swan Lake Calhoun, I Ask You, Ladies and Gentlemen (adapted from the novel by Leon Surmelian), and Max and Rapunzel and the Night. His work has been produced at San Diego Repertory Theater, Theatre J, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Beast Theater Festival, Taper Too, The Marsh, Greenway Court Theater, Mixed Blood Theater, Cornerstone Theater Company, and Piven Theater, among others. His plays have also had workshops at McCarter Theater, Arena Stage and the Mark Taper Forum. Honors include the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, Heideman Award (Actor's Theater of Louisville); residencies at The Millay Colony, Djerassi Foundation and Mishkanot Sha'ananim (in Jerusalem) and grants from the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. He was a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights' Center of Minneapolis and a National Endowment for the Arts/Theater Communications Group Playwright-in-Residence with the Cornerstone Theater Ensemble of Los Angeles. He is collaborating with composer Daniel Hoffman on a new musical called David in Shadow and Light which will premiere at Theater J in Washington, DC in Spring 2008. His poetry and prose have been published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Northern California Jewish Bulletin, Minnesota Monthly and an upcoming anthology from Wayne State University Press. He lives in Los Angeles.
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CJ JONES
CJ Jones is a CEO, producer, director, writer, actor, comedian, teacher, and an internationally known deaf entertainer. He has been captivating and delighting audiences young and old for 20 years with his lively performances. CJ traveled with the National Theater of the Deaf, appeared in Children of a Lesser God on Broadway and NBC's A Different World, and is host for Happy Hands Kids Klub videotapes. CJ completed his first lead role as a deaf hitchhiker in a movie called The Ride. He founded Sign World TV, Inc. His vision continues to expand, and he persists in seeking roles as an actor with television, stage, films and movies. Read more about CJ on about.com. CJ is also a member of the Deaf band, Beethoven's Nightmare.
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MICHELE MAIS
Michele Mais appeared in Body Snatchers at the Odyssey and has worked at The Mark Taper Forum, Pasadena Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, Center Stage, Long Beach Opera, San Diego Repertory, and The Public Theatre. She has appeared on Broadway in Zoot Suit, El Bravo, and Hal Prince's Roza. She toured Nationally and Internationally in Godspell and One Mo' Time. "Maisey" won a Garland, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and an Ovation nomination for The Last Session. Films include: Trading Places, Contract on Cherry Street w/ Frank Sinatra, PBS' Losing Ground, AFI's Emily and Gitta, and Billy Hayes' Southside.
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LYNN MANNING
Lynn Manning is an award-winning poet, playwright, actor and former World Champion of Blind Judo. Lynn's plays and poetry have garnered him numerous grants, fellowships and awards. Most notably, his one-man play, Weights, won three NAACP Theater Awards in 2001. Cornerstone's 1995 production of Lynn's adaptation, Central Ave. Chalk Circle received an Ovation Award for Best Small Theater Production. Lynn co-founded Watts Village Theater Company with fellow Cornerstone Associate Artist Quentin Drew, and is also President of the Board of The Firehouse Theater Company - dedicated to the inclusion of persons with disability in all aspects of the theater arts. Read morea bout Lynn at http://www.lynnmanning.com.
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CHRISTOPHER LIAM MOORE
Christopher Liam Moore is a founding member of Cornerstone. A graduate of Harvard College, where he was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize and the Jonathan Levy Award, he performed in over forty of the company's productions. He is the author of Token, Alien, a site-specific play performed on a public bus. He also directed Foot/Mouth, an ensemble repertory production, Body of Faith, a community collaboration with GLBT people of faith, and two productions for Cornerstone's education program, I Ask You, Ladies and Gentlemen and Farewell to Manzanar. He has served on the Board of Governors of Theatre L.A. and was an adjunct professor of theater at the University of Southern California. As an actor, he has been nominated twice for L.A. Stage Alliance's Ovation Award and won in 1994 as Best Leading Actor for his performance in Cornerstone's Twelfth Night, or As You Were at Taper, Too. Moore has received Garland, Dramalogue and LA Weekly Awards and was nominated for Washington, D.C.'s Helen Hayes Award and the Connecticut Drama Critics Circle Award. He has performed with the American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. His film and television appearances include: Friends, Third Rock From the Sun, It's Like, You Know, EZ Streets, The Cherokee Kid, Simone, Memron, two appearances on Star Trek: Voyager, and a recurring role on Judging Amy. He was a series regular on Murder in Small Town X, playing the very angry Frank Kovick. He is a regular on the TBS series, Ten Items Or Less.
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DORI QUAN
Dori Quan is a local LA Costume Designer and has designed for East West Players Theater for over 12 years. Her productions include: Sisters Matsumoto, Year of the Dragon, My Tired Broke Ass Pontificating Slapstick Funk, Bejing Spring, Carry the Tiger to the Mountain, Lava, Heading East: The Musical, The Taste of Kona Coffee, House of Sleeping Beauties and The Maids. Dori has also designed productions for Mark Taper Forum, Cornerstone Theater Company, Latino Theater Company, San Diego Repertory Theater, Japan America Theater, KCET, Virginia Avenue Project, Inner City Cultural Center, California Youth Theater/Migrant Education Program and Shakespeare Festival LA/Will Power to Youth.
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DIANE RODRIGUEZ
is an OBIE winning theatre artist who directs, writes and performs. Recently, at the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles, she directed And Her Hair Went With Her by Zina Camblin with Tonya Pinkins and Trace Thoms. For Mattel/Theme Star Productions, she wrote and was supervising director for the international tour of Barbie Live/The Adventures of a Princess. Regionally she has directed at South Coast Repertory, Victory Gardens-Chicago, Phoenix Theatre, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Borderlands Theatre-Arizona, Hartford Stage-Connecticut, San Jose Repertory, Mixed Blood -Minneapolis, City Theatre - Pittsburgh, PA, and in Los Angeles for Cornerstone Theater Company, The Group at Strasberg, Playwrights Arena and the Mark Taper Forum. She won an OBIE for Performance in 2007 for playing multiply characters in Heather Woodburys Tale of Two Cities. She received the TCG/NEA Early Career Award for Directing in 1998 and was nominated for the TCG Alan Schneider Director Award by David Emmes/South Coast Repertory for her work on Octavio Solis Posada Majica. She has developed and directed the works of numerous writers including Nilo Cruzs Hortensia and the Musuem of Dreams, Lynn Nottages Fabulation at Sundance Theatre Lab and Lloyd Suh at Ojai New Play Festival. In 2005 she became Associate Producer/Director of New Play Production at Center Theatre Group which includes the Ahmanson/Mark Taper and Kirk Douglas Theatres. For ten seasons she was director of the Latino Theatre Initiative and resident artist at the Mark Taper Forum. She was a core member and leading actor for the seminal theatre company, El Teatro Campesino and co-founder of the comedy group, Latins Anonymous. Her newest play is titled Under Her Wing. She lives in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles with her husband, Jose Delgado.
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MICHAEL ROHD
Micahel Rohd is founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland, OR, where his work as creator/director/performer includes The Justice Project (in a historic Federal Courthouse), the warehouse performance journey 7 Great Loves (five 2003 Drammy awards including Best Production and Best Director), and Passing Glances: mirrors and windows in Allen County, Ohio, a documentary theatre piece about race and leadership supported by a Ford Foundation Animating Democracy grant. He is a recipient of Theatre Communication Group?s 2001 New Generations Grant, and their 2002 Extended Collaboration Grant (as a playwright) with Atlanta?s Alliance Theatre. He is an associate artist with Cornerstone and an artistic associate with Ping Chong & Co in New York City (where his work includes co-creating Truth & Beauty which was published in American Theatre Magazine, March 2001). A Peter Ivers Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University, he is also founding artistic director of Hope Is Vital, an international theatre and community dialogue resource, and author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue (Heinemann, 1998). For more information on his work with Sojourn Theatre please go to www.sojourntheatre.org
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CELESTE THOMPSON
Celeste Thompson was most recently Production Manager at Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles (where she is proud to be an Associate Artist). While at Cornerstone she mounted or assisted on over a dozen productions, many of them in site-specific locations. She is a lighting and puppet designer whose work has been featured at The Canon Theatre, @Traction and several colleges. She has assisted set and lighting designers at a number of well-known theaters including Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Portland Center Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Canon Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Long Beach Opera and the Getty Museum. She attended California Institute of the Arts.
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BERNARD WHITE
Bernard White is an actor, writer and director who has worked extensively on stage and in film and television. He is thrilled to appear in both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. His solo play John in the Hill Country was in Cornerstone's Festival of Faith and he played Krayon in Shishir Kurup's An Antigone Story. He was the founder of Plymouth, a theatre community dedicated to exploring the sacred in art. He has done over 60 plays.
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TRACY YOUNG
Tracy Young is a writer and director who creates original work for the stage in collaboration with other theater artists. From 1987-2000, she was a member of the Los Angeles based theater company, The Actors' Gang. Original work includes the musical Hysteria (Ovation and LA Weekly Awards for Musical of the Year, Entertainment Weekly's Production of the Year); A Fairy Tale, co-created with Daniel T. Parker and Chris Wells (Garland Awards for Writing and Directions); and Dreamplay, which will premiere in 2003. Other writing credits include Candude, or the Optimistic Civil Servant, an adaptation of Voltaire's Candide for Cornerstone (Garland Award for Adaptation).
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