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Written by Ethan Sawyer
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Last week was a busy week.
CENSUS TOUR
The group premiered its brand new pieces -- the comedy and census pieces described below -- at several day labor sites around town. The first piece, "La Cara de la Crisis" (The Face of the Crisis) is a comedy with a dozen or so characters dealing with the economic crisis in their own ways. In my view, the message at the end of the play is that the world is what we make of it and that -- no matter how bad things get -- there's a lot joy to be found.
The second piece, entitled "El Censo" (The Census) is geared toward encouraging participation in the census and was commissioned by the California Community Foundation. The group premiered this piece at a community cultural event on March 26th and has since toured it to a half dozen day labor sites. It incorporates comedic elements, influences of legislative theater and involevs some very awesome audience participation: before the play, actors pass out wadded balls of paper to the audience and -- at the designated moment -- launch them at a corrupt politician who has failed to deliver on promises. (Cue MUCH laughter and loud indignation from the audience -- most of which is in good fun, but -- every time I have seen the piece -- also carries the ummistakble ring of truth.) The politician in the play then explains to the actors (who are dispersed throughout the audience) that the reason they haven't been able to receive better services in their community is because only 60,000 people participated in the last census and now there are over 600,000 people in their district, thus resources have been stretched thin. That's what it's so important, he explains, for everyone to participate in the census.
Fortunately, we were able to capture both of these performances on video; be on the lookout for forthcoming clips on YouTube.
PERFORMANCE WEST FESTIVAL
On Friday and Saturday the group participated in the Performance West Festival, a resurgence of a long-standing performance festival formerly held at San Francisco State University. This year's festival took place at XRTC theater downtown and included a wonderful mix of professional artists, students, faculty and non-professionals from all over the country. The Carpetbag Brigade shared their piece "You Don't Know Jack," a brilliantly physical dream play that sets Jack and the Beanstalk over a WWII background, casting Jack as the son of an alcoholic father. Mondo Bizarro and M.U.G.A.B.E.E. led a series of workshops focused on generating dialogue around race and concluded the festival with a showing of their work in progress, "Race Peace," which they have been developing for over two years.
All the conference participants produced short plays inspired by the workshops and dialogue about race and two of the TJSF group members featured heavily in their group's performances. Gil was the main character in a beautiful piece touching on the themes of language barriers and racial profiling and Juan composed and sang an original love song during his group's piece. Both spoke eloquently afterwards about the importance of working together to "form a more perfect union" (Note: I don't think Gil knew he was quoting the US Constitution when he said this). I don't think I'm over-stating when I say they were invaluable participants in the conference.
This week Lorena and Manuel are off to Texas for the OSHA conference, then Jose and Lorena will speak on a panel at the NALAC conference in San Jose. Meanwhile the group is prepping for performances at several conferences and one at UCLA on May 1. More anon.
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Written by Ethan Sawyer
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I write you from rehearsal on Thursday, March 11. Here's what I hear and see:
Jose stands at the front of the room as members stand offstage in sundry costumes and wigs.
Jose: Felipe, toca algo romantico -- pero de fondo, no cantada! (Translation: Felipe, play something romantic, but in the background, without words.)
Offstage Felipe begins to play a romantic melody on acoustic guitar. From stage left Dorian enters in a blonde wig and wearing a hot pink and polka-dotted dress. She sits on a bench. Luis, trails a shoe behind him and whistles at it as though it were a dog.
(In translation:)
Jose: Wait! Luis, that's perfect, but keep facing out toward the audience. Again.
Luis tries his entrance again, still trailing the "dog" behind him.
Dorian: (kicking at the dog) Get that piece of crap out of here!
Luis makes little screeching dog noises. Dorian looks at Luis with contempt for a moment.
Dorian: What kind of dog is that?
Luis: (after a beat) Dog?? It's a shoe, lady.
He walks offstage trailing his shoe behind him and whistling at it sweetly.
A few minutes later Xico enters (I can't reproduce the dialogue; it's too fast). He's speaking a mile a minute in an auctioneers tone, trying to sell her some sort of pills. She tells him she doesn't want anything. He keeps on... She tells him louder: I don't want it! He tries again, now even more insistent until she SCREAMS at him and throws her newspaper at him, chasing him offstage as the room erupts in laughter.
Dorian (breaking character): Lo siento, Xico! (I'm sorry!)
These are glimpses of the group's new comedy, "La Cara de la Crisis" (The Face of the Crisis). The group will present this play alongside a new short work based on the upcoming Census. TJSF will be touring several day labor sites later this month, culminating in a Cultural Event on March 26. Please email
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for more information.
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And here are a few words from Jasmin Scott, a UCLA student who has been working some to support the group:
I am honored to have had the opportunity to experience a few of the Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras (TJSF) rehearsals. The group is incredibly inspiring! The passion and commitment the members have to their cause is truly invigorating. Rehearsals are very playful and passionate as well as filled with laughter, music, and fun!
The group is very open and welcoming. Their skits are very informative, yet enjoyable to watch at the same time. José does an impeccable job of leading the group by allowing fun, yet maintaining structure and order.
I wish Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras the best as they venture forward!
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Last Updated on Monday, 12 April 2010 19:17 |
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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 |
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Written by Ramy Eletreby
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Cornerstone Theater Company's fifth Institute Summer Residency took place in Los Angeles' downtown Arts District, July 10 through August 10, 2008.
The 2008 Institute class was made up of 19 students: 17 women, one transgender person and one man, ranging in age from 19 to 64. They came from 12 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia), the UK and Sweden. Seven them are current or recently degreed undergraduate students, four are seeking or recently completed graduate degrees. Others are professional actors, directors, educators, and other artists. One is a CPA who also serves on the board of an arts organization in her community. Three of the students had previously attended an Institute 2Day Intensive.
The Institute produced a new play called attraction written by Cornerstone Ensemble member Page Leong and created in collaboration with Cornerstone's own neighbors in downtown Los Angeles. Particular assistance was provided by Community Partner organizations: Art Share Los Angeles, St. Francis Xavier Chapel and Japanese Catholic Center, Groundwork Coffee Company, and the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District (www.ladad.com). Artistic Director Michael John Garcés directed the play that included original songs composed by student Becky Dale in collaboration with community musicians. The cast of 70 included 54 community members, 10 Institute students, one Cornerstone actor, 5 additional family/friends, plus four community dogs. At least 23 community artists made additional original contributions to the production. Additionally, one community member volunteered assistance at the box office each night.
attraction performed on the street on Cornerstone's city block of Traction Avenue. The buildings and sidewalk along the south side of the street served as the stage while the audience was seated in bleachers in the roadway. Approximately 655 people attended the three performances.
In addition to working on the production, Institute students participated in classroom curriculum primarily led by Associate Artistic Director Laurie Woolery. Additional faculty in teaching Cornerstone's methodology included company members Paula Donnelly, Michael John Garcés, Peter Howard, Lynn Jeffries, Shishir Kurup, Nico Lang, Tali Pressman and Leslie Tamaribuchi. An added component of the curriculum was attending a performance by SF-Bay Area ensemble Dandelion Dancetheater. Dandelion company members later led a 3-hour movement workshop for Cornerstone's students.
One of the highlights of this Institute was an overwhelming success in involving community artists in all aspects of the production. Elizabeth Cox and Sarah Ryung Clement's costume and scenic designs included original art from neighborhood artists and businesses. We solicited artist involvement and contribution to the design elements of the play and the students followed through with personal invitations. The costume design included donations and purchases from local silkscreen and fiber artists, clothing and jewelry designers and neighborhood boutiques. Visual artists highlighted components of the city-block setting by creating original works on Cornerstone's façade and doors. Practical trash receptacles served as canvases as did the city-supplied barricades used to block off traffic from the street that served as our performance venue. Even the trees were christened as installation art. A few students contributed original visual art for the production as well.
Institute Students' contributions were invaluable since they provided "outsider" perspective and curiosity in a way that Cornerstone could not as longtime members of the collaborating community.
During the first week of the residency we had the great advantage of a street party on the first day of auditions for our play. The party was a celebration of the arts district in memorial to Joel Bloom, longtime neighborhood artist, activist and business owner who passed away the previous summer. This event provided a great reciprocal introduction between the Institute students and the neighborhood.
Our goal of opening doors and providing a means for people who live and work in the neighborhood to learn more about each other was a success. Our cast included many American Hotel residents, Olivia Sanchez-Brown from 800 Traction, Danyol Jay from the staff at ArtShare, congregants from St Francis Xavier and New City Church, Jonathan Jerald who is publishing a new magazine out of the former Al's Bar space, Ed Fuentes an online journalist and many area artists and others attracted to Traction Ave. A note from Olivia says, "Thank you for an incredible and enriching experience... The artistic cross over had a phenomenal effect on my creativity. I felt I was part of something bigger,.. I am still in a state of bliss, carefully thinking of the artistic process I just experienced, and I've gotten to know my neighbors."
Staff and students created interesting online documentation of the 2008 Institute Summer Residency experience, including extensive short videos.
See a collection of photos from “I-5” here.
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Last Updated on Friday, 22 January 2010 02:05 |
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