Click here to learn more about Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras.

Photo by Kevin Michael Campbell.

We love working with youth, gardens and food and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the students at LAHSA.  We’re observing this play transform into a powerful and truly meaningful apart of their lives. Through our weekly interviews with them, we have learned about their motivations and appreciation for theater, their aspirations for college and beyond and how this play has changed how they see food and its place in school and society. We feel blessed to be a part of this amazing Cornerstone production and are excited to see a play reflect so many of the daily experiences of  high school students in Los Angeles.  We hope you enjoy getting to know these amazing students as much as we have.  – Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage scholar

When and why did you get into theatre?

I think it’s natural that I’m an actor. I first started acting in 6th grade. I was in acting class at John H. Liechty Middle School, but I never thought of it as a career. In 7th grade, I was on the bus and some lady told me that “you have the face of an actor.” She booked an audition for me with Nickelodeon, but I had never auditioned for something before and I was really nervous. During the audition, they told me to “do this, do that” and I know I was bad because I didn’t know what to do. But it was a fun experience. Ever since then, I’ve been confident about my acting. I also really like to dance and act.

How did you get to LAHSA?

I was going to go to Miguel Contreras Learning Complex because I had always wanted to go there since elementary. I got a letter at home from LAHSA and I saw it was for the arts so I was like “Yes, I want to go there.” I got in and it was pure theater.

When was your first play here?

Last year. I played a security guard in New Plays. They called me mod cop because I was chubbier, I was 40lbs bigger. That was my first show but I’ve done a lot of monologues, like Macbeth.

Why did you want to try out for this play? 

I heard it was professional so I was like “Ooo, acting with professionals.” My teacher recommended me, so I was like “wow, She has faith in me,” so I tried out.  And Chris [Anthony, Lunch Lady Courage Director] and everyone were really nice and I was confident about my acting so I was like “I got this.”  And when I got the part, I was literally running with happiness. I ran to Mrs. Simons to tell her and she said she was proud of me.

Photo by Sandra Luna

What are you plans for after high school?

I haven’t actually decided. Well, I have a plan but I’m not sure if its going to change by the time I’m a senior. I want to go to NYU and study performing arts and dancing.

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years? 

I’m not really sure. I would love to keep studying performing arts. I see myself winning movie awards in the future. I want to be in movies and TV shows.

Can you tell me about your character?

My character is Ruben and he’s a cocky guy. He is really prepared for everything and knows what he wants. He has strong feelings about everything and he really likes being clean and nice. He doesn’t want people to take his spotlight, because he wants to be the center of attention.   But sometimes, he has to take a step back because he knows what he wants but he’s not exactly sure how to get it.

Can you relate to your character?

Yes, a lot because I’m kind of like that. I like being clean but I’m not as strict as he is. And people say “You’re so cocky,” but I feel like I’m just cocky to myself. But sometime I’m like “Oh yeah, I’m cocky,” I’m cute. (smiles).

Photo by Sandra Luna

Do you have a big family?

It’s me, my brother, and my mom. I currently live with my aunt. My parents are from Guatemala, but I was born here. I went to Guatemala when I was four and came back when I was eight.

Do you feel like this play has made you think differently about food?

I guess so. Sometimes, I don’t want to eat the school food. I’ll eat it if it looks good. But if its looks nasty, I’m like “Ewww.”  I’ll give it a try though. I have a different perspective on it now.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I’m really excited about the opportunity to work with a professional company. Its been really good, the director is nice, the staff is nice, everyone has been really nice, sometimes I think they’re too nice. I know they’re not used to working with kids and they get frustrated but I think it’s just normal, we’re teens and it takes a lot to control us.

Interview by Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage Scholar.

Rosa Romero is the Scholar in Residence for Cornerstone Theater’s Lunch Lady Courage. Rosa is an active community organizer for healthy food access and green space around Los Angeles. She is the Farm to Preschool Program Manager at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College in Los Angeles and was recently awarded the 2012 Recognition award from Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Childcare Initiative. She is also a Board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and a Certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension and co-founder of Seasonal, Organic Local (SOL) Catering Cooperative. She is a UCLA graduate in the Politics of Urban Education and currently working on her Masters in Early Childhood Education at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Click here to see Sandra Luna’s Lunch Lady Courage Photo Gallery.

Sandra Luna is an educator, photographer, blogger, school garden advocate and environmentalist living in Los Angeles. She is an immigrant from Guatemala and has grown up in Pico Union/Mid City. Since 2010 she has been teaching seven classes and manages the Horticulture Program at Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles. She is a board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and is a certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension. She is a graduate from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning and is currently completing her Masters in Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her blog displays her love of photography, gardens, people, environment, community, art, travel, food and the beauty of life in general.

Marilin Lopez-Bermudez as Katrina in Lunch Lady Courage. Photo by Kevin Michael Campbell.

We love working with youth, gardens and food and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the students at LAHSA.  We’re observing this play transform into a powerful and truly meaningful apart of their lives. Through our weekly interviews with them, we have learned about their motivations and appreciation for theater, their aspirations for college and beyond and how this play has changed how they see food and its place in school and society. We feel blessed to be a part of this amazing Cornerstone production and are excited to see a play reflect so many of the daily experiences of  high school students in Los Angeles.  We hope you enjoy getting to know these amazing students as much as we have.  – Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage scholar

What about this play did you find intriguing that you wanted to try out for it?

The fact that we would get to work with professionals. I really want to study theater after high school, so that lured me in. And last year, Peter Howard came and talked to us in our classes about food and he introduced the play and it was interesting. I never heard of a play about food, so it was interesting to think about.

What do you think about school food?

They definitely try to make it healthier, but its starting to get boring and tasteless. There’s no fun in it. I didn’t eat lunch today because they’re serving this hamburger and I don’t like the meat…I find it nasty and the potatoes were awful too.

There are scenes where everyone has Cheetos and another where students are selling contraband food at a school – do you see that happening at your school?

Yes. I think it’s cool if it’s for an important cause. But if people are doing it for their own benefit, I don’t support it. I’ve supported it before but I don’t do that anymore, because it’s just for you and not for the school or a certain club. School food sales should just be for important things like a club.

Tell me about your character in the play?

Katrina is always being watched by her family. Her mother is very overprotective and she is always stomping down on her brothers so that they can take care of me. Although it’s not in the script, my family and I (in the play) have created this background story where something happened to me in the past and they weren’t there for me so that’s why I choose not to speak; because no one was there to help me when I needed it and my mom feels guilty about it. She’s on my case all the time and my brothers too. Now, I’m in this new environment at this high school. I’ve always been homeschooled and now I’m in this new environment where my brothers are starting to stray away and I want to stray away too, because I’m tired of my mom always wanting to control things. I want to be independent and do my own thing.

Photo by Sandra Luna

Your character is prominent in the play but doesn’t have lines. How does it feel to play a silent character?

Challenging, because I’ve never done something like this before. You have to think about your body movement a lot, because I can’t talk. I have to articulate with my body instead of with my voice. I’ve had to stay on stage and be quiet and do movement – it’s been a lot of thinking. It’s hard to get a certain sentence across to another actor on stage. I have to show my emotion through my face and my body movement. It’s hard but I think I’m getting there.

Do you identify with your character?

Yes, definitely. Katrina is the youngest, and I’m also the youngest. And I identify with the mother-daughter relationship because my mom doesn’t want to let go of me. College is approaching soon and I’m telling her that ‘I’m going to leave soon’ and it’s really hard for her to let go. That’s exactly how Lunch Lady Courage feels because she doesn’t want to let her baby go. I’m struggling with that at home too and I see the similarities.

Photo by Sandra Luna

What do you like about theater?

Becoming other people! I feel like all these different personalities live inside us and we choose which ones to use. I find it very interesting and entertaining. And I love the response you get from the audience. The few shows I’ve done, after the shows my friend are like ‘ oh my god, that was so… you scared me’, or something like that, and I like that. It’s good, because that’s what I wanted – to get a reaction from them. I like being onstage. I was always quiet, but I knew I wanted to do something big and I wanted to be in front of a lot of people. When I came here [LAHSA], it all came out. Everyone here takes theater here during their first year – either theater performance or theater design.

Interview by Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage Scholar.

Rosa Romero is the Scholar in Residence for Cornerstone Theater’s Lunch Lady Courage. Rosa is an active community organizer for healthy food access and green space around Los Angeles. She is the Farm to Preschool Program Manager at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College in Los Angeles and was recently awarded the 2012 Recognition award from Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Childcare Initiative. She is also a Board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and a Certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension and co-founder of Seasonal, Organic Local (SOL) Catering Cooperative. She is a UCLA graduate in the Politics of Urban Education and currently working on her Masters in Early Childhood Education at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Click here to see Sandra Luna’s Lunch Lady Courage Photo Gallery.

Sandra Luna is an educator, photographer, blogger, school garden advocate and environmentalist living in Los Angeles. She is an immigrant from Guatemala and has grown up in Pico Union/Mid City. Since 2010 she has been teaching seven classes and manages the Horticulture Program at Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles. She is a board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and is a certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension. She is a graduate from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning and is currently completing her Masters in Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her blog displays her love of photography, gardens, people, environment, community, art, travel, food and the beauty of life in general.

Arely Diaz-Loza as Mia in Lunch Lady Courage. Photo by Kevin Michael Campbell.

We love working with youth, gardens and food and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the students at LAHSA.  We’re observing this play transform into a powerful and truly meaningful apart of their lives. Through our weekly interviews with them, we have learned about their motivations and appreciation for theater, their aspirations for college and beyond and how this play has changed how they see food and its place in school and society. We feel blessed to be a part of this amazing Cornerstone production and are excited to see a play reflect so many of the daily experiences of  high school students in Los Angeles.  We hope you enjoy getting to know these amazing students as much as we have.  – Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage scholar

Can you tell me about your character?

Mia is a very passionat e, senior girl who is about to graduate. She is very passionate about the school garden and wishes that the rest of the school would take the garden seriously. Most kids don’t care about the school garden, except her. She wants to get people to recognize that the garden is there and that it’s an important part of school.

Do you relate to your character?

Yes, I relate. Not in a garden sense, because there is a garden here, but I don’t tend it. I am also in the yearbook club. Recently, they cut all of the staff and took away a lot of our resources. They don’t seem to really care about the work we’re doing, even though its hard work. We spend hours after school and have to miss rehearsals for it, so conflicts arise but they said it was a priority for kids to make up their classes than to actually have a yearbook staff. So we kind of feel like we’ve been pushed aside.

So you advocate for the yearbook?

Ye,s I advocate for yearbook a lot. We actually went, the two editors, to speak with the people who are in charge of arranging our classes and we tried to talk to them about rearranging classes, but they kind of pushed us aside and didn’t take what we said into consideration. But we still see the importance  of yearbook and continue to do it.

Photo by Kevin Michael Campbell

When did you start doing theater?

I started doing theater in 9th grade. I used to be more into sports. I was in soccer my freshman year but my acting teacher told me I should audition for the New Works Festival, which is a series of new plays made, directed and produced by students. I auditioned and got a role. The next year I auditioned for a bigger production and got a role. And then I just kept auditioning. I love it! It’s very interesting, the characters you get to play. I’ve played a Korean person, an African American person, a German murderer, and a woman from Africa. The range of characters you get to portray is really cool. I’ve learned a lot.

What about this play made you want to audition?

I think it’s the fact that Cornerstone is doing community-based theater. I liked that Cornerstone was reaching out to the community and trying to get our voices. That appealed to me.

What are your plans after high school?

After high school, I plan on attending a four year university, not having any loans and graduating with a Journalism degree. I’ve applied to private, UCs and Cal States. I will know by the end of March.

I heard you have a very challenging course load and you’re also senior class president?

Yes, as of now I have 3 AP classes. Last semester I had 4. I like being a student leader and being involved.

What do you think about selling food in school that’s not from the cafeteria?

Photo by Sandra Luna

I think it’s not right, I guess. But I know that a legal fund raiser won’t make us much money. We’ve tried to, on holidays, sell grams, like Valentine’s day gram, Halloween grams before. It only makes us $40 to $50, but we need thousands. And a torta we can sell for $5 – we earned almost $160 in one lunch, in 30 minutes.

Anything else you would like to share?

I think this show is going to be very awesome!

BUY TICKETS to Lunch Lady Courage.

Interview by Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage Scholar.

Rosa Romero is the Scholar in Residence for Cornerstone Theater’s Lunch Lady Courage. Rosa is an active community organizer for healthy food access and green space around Los Angeles. She is the Farm to Preschool Program Manager at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College in Los Angeles and was recently awarded the 2012 Recognition award from Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Childcare Initiative. She is also a Board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and a Certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension and co-founder of Seasonal, Organic Local (SOL) Catering Cooperative. She is a UCLA graduate in the Politics of Urban Education and currently working on her Masters in Early Childhood Education at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Click here to see Sandra Luna’s Lunch Lady Courage Photo Gallery.

Sandra Luna is an educator, photographer, blogger, school garden advocate and environmentalist living in Los Angeles. She is an immigrant from Guatemala and has grown up in Pico Union/Mid City. Since 2010 she has been teaching seven classes and manages the Horticulture Program at Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles. She is a board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and is a certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension. She is a graduate from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning and is currently completing her Masters in Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her blog displays her love of photography, gardens, people, environment, community, art, travel, food and the beauty of life in general.

Thank you for joining us for Thursdays at the Table!  Discussions with community members, organizations, activists and students on hunger, food equity and nutrition in our communities.

We had some great guests at our first Thursdays at the Table! discussion. Laura, Sandra, and Mud from Enrich LA, Crenshaw High School Garden, and Muir Ranch shared about their programs and expressed their opinions on the challenges and benefits of school gardens.  Click above to watch the conversation.

We had a special Saturday Thursdays at the Table.  Click below to watch the conversation.

We had some great guests at our last Thursdays at the Table! discussion.  Clare Robbins of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, Rudy Espinoza of Leadership for Urban Renewal and RootDown LA shared about their programs and expressed their opinions on the challenges and benefits of Food Equity In the land of Plenty.  Click below to watch the conversation.

Photo by Sandra Luna

We love working with youth, gardens and food and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed connecting with the students at LAHSA.  We’re observing this play transform into a powerful and truly meaningful apart of their lives. Through our weekly interviews with them, we have learned about their motivations and appreciation for theater, their aspirations for college and beyond and how this play has changed how they see food and its place in school and society. We feel blessed to be a part of this amazing Cornerstone production and are excited to see a play reflect so many of the daily experiences of  high school students in Los Angeles.  We hope you enjoy getting to know these amazing students as much as we have.  – Rosa Romero

When did you start theater and why?

As a freshman I went to a different school, LA Senior High, but my house is closer to this school. They said the acting class is mandatory, and I didn’t know anything about theater or acting. I was like ‘Oh my god it’s mandatory,’ but when I started taking the class I found myself really enjoying it so I started auditioning and being in plays. I’ve been in like 8 or 9 plays.

So why did you decide to try out for this play?

I’m a senior and I’m graduating, so I wanted my last play to be something special. I already did the New Play Festival two  years ago and Lunch Lady Courage is a play with a professional theater company. Since I’m thinking of majoring in theater when I graduate, I thought this would be a great experience for me. The experience has been good. It’s amazing working with real professional actors and adults, because I’m used to doing plays with student stage managers, student costume designers and now I get the opportunity to work with professional people.

Has the play made you think about or change your views about school food?

Yes, because I never thought about the point-of-view of lunch ladies and lunch gentlemen. I never thought about how hard they work. I always thought, ‘Oh this food is so nasty! I’m so hungry, why is it so nasty? I can’t eat it!’ But after meeting Frank [a fellow actor in the play] who is a lunch gentleman, I feel like I know more about their experience.

Clara Choi as Ivette in Lunch Lady Courage. Photo by Kevin Michael Campbell.

Have you experienced lunch food changing from your freshman year to your senior year?

Yes, at first it was edible and it tasted good. The taste was great and they would give out these lasagnas that tasted great. I remember the lasagna, the spaghetti with meatballs, and how they changed it. I guess they were trying to make it healthy but it doesn’t taste like it’s edible, it tastes like …rotten. Even the fruits and the carrots …oh and last time I had the juice — it was expired! It tasted weird so I looked at the expiration date and saw that it had expired.

Did you tell them?

No. I ate an apple once and it was all moldy inside. I took a bite and inside where the seed is, it was all moldy and there were maggots in there….and I took a bite of that! I took it to the lunch lady because it was just so disgusting. I showed it to them and they were like, ‘Ooo, do you want another apple?’ and was like ‘Nooo, I don’t want another apple’ [laughs]. That’s my experience in the cafeteria.

So do you usually eat the lunch at school?

Fruits and juice sometimes because I’m hungry, so I’ll eat a little food. I bring lunch from home sometimes, like every couple months. My parents work and I get up late so I don’t really have time to prepare a lunch.

Tell me about your character in the play.

My character is Ivette. And she would totally do what I’m doing right now [she’s putting on eyeliner]. She would be sitting in class, fixing her makeup not listening to the teacher. This is my character [poses with make up in hand and laughs].

Photo by Kevin Michael Campbell

The main thing about this character is that she wears 3 inch heels to school everyday. I don’t wear those to school, I don’t wear makeup to school, but on the weekends, I do have a lot of heels, and I do wear makeup, so I do kind of relate to her.

There is a scene in the play, where Ivette is helping in the garden and wearing heels. In this scene, I can totally feel what Ivette is feeling, because I’ve been there. Once, I was in my heels and I was walking on grass and the heels were really sharp and they kept going into the grass and I stepped on some poop (laughs). In the scene, Mia [the school garden activist in the play] is talking about putting worm poops everywhere in the soil and I’m like ‘Oh my god.’

Anything else you would like to share?

It’s really hard to do theater for me, even school plays, because my parents own a restaurant and I have to help out every Friday, because Fridays are so busy. I also have rehearsals every Friday too. I can leave sometimes during regular rehearsals, but I can’t go help out during tech rehearsal or Friday shows. It is really hard for me to continue theater but it’s what I really love – it’s the only thing that I would enjoy as a job!

BUY TICKETS to Lunch Lady Courage.

Interview by Rosa Romero, Lunch Lady Courage Scholar.

Rosa Romero is the Scholar in Residence for Cornerstone Theater’s Lunch Lady Courage. Rosa is an active community organizer for healthy food access and green space around Los Angeles. She is the Farm to Preschool Program Manager at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College in Los Angeles and was recently awarded the 2012 Recognition award from Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Childcare Initiative. She is also a Board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and a Certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension and co-founder of Seasonal, Organic Local (SOL) Catering Cooperative. She is a UCLA graduate in the Politics of Urban Education and currently working on her Masters in Early Childhood Education at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Click here to see Sandra Luna’s Lunch Lady Courage Photo Gallery.

Sandra Luna is an educator, photographer, blogger, school garden advocate and environmentalist living in Los Angeles. She is an immigrant from Guatemala and has grown up in Pico Union/Mid City. Since 2010 she has been teaching seven classes and manages the Horticulture Program at Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles. She is a board member of the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund and is a certified Master Gardener through the University of California Cooperative Extension. She is a graduate from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning and is currently completing her Masters in Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her blog displays her love of photography, gardens, people, environment, community, art, travel, food and the beauty of life in general. 

“Cornerstone Theater Company found me at the most crucial moment of my post-grad life.”

I grew up in a rural community in Ohio. Perhaps I should define “rural”. My family ate food every day from our garden, my high school was surrounded by the cornfields of our family friends, and our town center was a grain elevator. I’m sure some of you are google-imaging “grain elevators” right now. Needless to say, my upbringing was very much influenced by farming and the surrounding culture. I had no idea that was the case until I moved to Los Angeles a year ago.

Lea catches the theater bug early through a community Christmas pageant.

I began to learn more about the farming crisis in the US while in college at Ohio University for Theater Performance. I read, I planted, I read some more. I knew this was a passion of mine, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this newfound interest. Then Cornerstone fell into my lap and as soon as I found out they were working on The Hunger Cycle, I knew I was in my right place in the universe.

Lea and sister, Tia, play on the farm with grandma.

My story with Cornerstone began by just volunteering to do anything to support them during Café Vida. I did mailings, office work, errands, anything that was needed a couple days a week. Since then, I am so proud to have become a member of the Cornerstone staff, first as the Ticketing Coordinator for SEED, and now as Administrative & Database Assistant.

What this company is doing to support the fight against the food crisis is so crucial to our community here in Los Angeles and all over this nation. It is also extremely close to my heart as someone who was blessed to grow up around agriculture and will fight until the end to promote local and sustainable living.

Written by Lea Blair, Cornerstone’s Administrative & Database Assistant

Noni Olabisi posing with friends in front of her mural, Resurrection, inspired by SEED: A Weird Act of Faith.

Noni Olabisi is a wise woman. A St. Louis native who has lived in California most of her life, she is a well-known muralist who has dedicated her artistic energy to listening to the voices of the unheard and to representing their narrative in her artwork. Her murals articulate the hunger for justice in the communities of South Los Angeles and punctuate the landscape of the city with bold figures and striking colors.

Her art is not only inspired by the community, but by personal strife and the hope that it has engendered. She is a doggedly optimistic and happy person who has spent a lot of time working on herself and trying to find the right path.

Noni Olabisi and her protégé Van Negro at the unveiling of her mural, Resurrection, at Cornerstone.

Noni had a difficult childhood, but one that she is immensely grateful for because it now gives her a wider range of vision. “I grew up out of abuse. And I think that’s important to say, because that’s how I discovered being an artist. Out of abuse I used to hide away, doodle a lot, imagine things.” It’s part of Noni’s character to turn darkness into light, and every phrase she utters and every action she takes is aimed to illuminate a path to art and peace.

But the experiences of abuse affected her profoundly and colored her reality for a long time. “I hated people because when I was a kid and I was getting beat, I used to scream at the top of my lungs so someone would call the police on my parents. I was getting the crap beaten out of me. And nobody called.” The feelings of abandonment and neglect were not just familial, but also communal. To experience such isolation would, for anyone, make it difficult to move in the world with grace and artistic gusto. Yet that’s exactly how Noni goes through her day.

She says that it is not in spite of her difficult upbringing that she has found so much light, but because of it: “It’s an experience that got me to be who I am today. I forgave my parents. I forgave my neighbors. I learned to love people. I love my life because I had a real full life. Because one part doesn’t work without the other. You have to have some of the pain and the misery to see the God force in your life. To really appreciate.”

Art, for Noni, was the path to hearing the muse’s voice, “to see the God force,” as she says. As a young child she found comfort and relief in art: “I always felt there was a security blanket in drawing and I did it more and more. It became a safety for me as a child. I knew at 9 I wanted to become an artist.” Like other artists, Noni speaks of hearing a voice that guides her art, and she deflects flattery because she feels she is merely taking dictation. “There’s a voice that I don’t know if all artists hear. You know how you hear that voice? I hear this voice that I know ain’t nothing but coming from the divine. People give me all this praise for the work that I’ve done, but it comes from more than just me. Sometimes I look at my work and ask ‘Who did that?’ It just comes through me. I’m a vehicle and I can feel it.”

But Noni says that even now it’s hard to get out of her own way. The project Cornerstone proposed to Noni, that of painting our metal door, was new for her and she wasn’t sure she wanted to do it. “I had to learn what the elders used to tell me years ago: You have to get out of your own way. And I learned what that meant. After a long time of living, now I know what getting out of your own way means. With Cornerstone’s call, for this project, I was offered a brand new project— a metal [surface], with ridges. In the past I would have turned that down because it’s not a surface I’m used to. And I said to Cornerstone, you know, I’m going to go for it, if you take a chance on me, I’ll take a chance on you. And Cornerstone was like ‘Oh, good! You can do it!’ Just like that! Very encouraging! And when I read the title of the script, I said, ‘Wow! That’s what my life is: A Weird Act of Faith!”

Written by Maria Guerra, Cornerstone’s Development Assistant.

Buy tickets for SEED: A Weird Act of Faith.

Maria Cano Supports Cornerstone’s Dig Deep Campaign

Maria Cano joined the Cornerstone family when she was cast in the first play in the Hunger Cycle, Café Vida. While working at Homegirl Café, she was approached by a Cornerstone staff member who encouraged her to audition. At the time she never thought anything of it, but these days acting is Maria’s favorite subject.

This fall Maria has brought her talent and infectious personality back to Cornerstone, as part of the cast of the second Hunger Cycle play, SEED: A Weird Act of Faith. Once again facing the challenges of working with professional actors, Maria is self-admittedly moving past her amateur ways into awareness of her craft. “With Café Vida it was kind of a challenge for me to see, ok, so how are you going to react with other professional actors because there are actresses that are professional and I’m not.” Now, with SEED, Maria continues to surround herself every night at rehearsal with other talented actors and pushes herself to work to the next level.

Although she may not be a professional actor, Maria definitely understands the trials and tribulations that reap wonderful rewards. “I work 8 or 10 hours a day [at Homeboy Industries] and then I come tired to rehearsal and just being there and just interacting and acting and taking direction and giving direction. I go home refreshed. I think acting does that for me, it cleanses me, it purifies me, and I’m able to continue with my day and that’s a beautiful thing.” No doubt she truly understands why she continues to seek the arts as part of her life.

4 Vida

“Café Vida will forever be with me. Like the shirt said – 4 Vida – and it is true.”

Maria’s enthusiasm around her experience during Café Vida is palpable. Her complete reverie about the entire experience is heartfelt and touching. She finds herself still astonished at how the project came to be. “The population that Homeboys works with has been mostly abused and neglected and judged and shamed…it blew my mind. Why would people do that for us? That’s so selfless.”

Possibly the greatest moment in speaking to Maria about Café Vida comes when she talks about her mother’s attendance: “Inside of me I’m still that young kid that is very impressed by her mom and she wants her mommy to approve of what she’s doing.” Maria’s mother was able to attend and most definitely approved of her daughter’s wonderful accomplishment.

Café Vida was undoubtedly a great experience that allowed Maria to look at herself in a different light. “Maybe I wasn’t even aware that I was an artist, but I realized what Café Vida did for me. It gave me nourishment to my soul to my very bruised, damaged soul. Café Vida allowed me to embrace that and to heal and it was such a beautiful nourishing moment that I realized, I love art. I love performing.”

When asked what compelled her to continue working with Cornerstone after her experience with Café Vida, she lights up and responds quickly. “Wonderful people doing wonderful work. I just want to do anything and everything to put my little grain of salt in that.”

After finishing the amazing experience that was Café Vida, Maria found herself hungry for more. However, once she auditioned for SEED: A Weird Act of Faith she came to a realization. “This time around, I find myself out of Homeboys; it’s just me. It’s a great responsibility.”

The SEED team

No Longer A Lonely SEED-ling

The family of SEED has quickly blossomed into a new and exciting chapter in Maria’s journey as an artist. Coming in as an outsider, without her Homeboy community at her side, she felt nervous, but with the help of past cast members and director Shishir Kurup Maria quickly found her feet. The message of Café Vida, Maria felt, was very close to her and her family. However, there is no doubt that she has found ownership of the message of SEED.

“The message that we want to convey with SEED is one of unity. If we unify as people – as humble, hardworking people – and we could organize, there’s no telling what we could do.”

Maria shows her passion for the script when she describes one of her favorite moments. “I love one of my lines in the play: I am afraid it is going to be taken. That we are going to work this land, put love and care into it, and someone is gonna see it’s beauty and usefulness, see our power and they’re gonna take it. That’s such a beautiful line because sometimes we don’t even realize the power that we have within ourselves.”

Maria holds a great power in the rehearsal space and on stage by finding a way to bring herself to the character of “Mom.” Maria’s role is a little further from her personal story than her previous role, however she’s quickly found a very personal connection.

“I think I’ve always been a revolutionary inside of me. I think I have that as a woman and as a Mexican woman… I think that’s what Mom has. She’s been a fighter all her life and I think that the proof of that is that she’s still standing. In that sense, I think that we’re very much alike in that we both are strong and we both have had to do whatever in order to survive.” 

No One Knows What the Future May Hold

Maria has done much better than survive; she continues to thrive since first encountering Cornerstone. She talks about how her work has changed her perspective and her family’s everyday life.

“I realize that I’m more willing to look at issues that because of time or because I’m busy with my every day life, I don’t really care to go out of my way to listen to. And I can see that change is not only in me, but I think it ripples onto my kids and my family.”

Grateful hardly describes how Maria feels and when asked if she had anything else to add, she humbly adds, “I just would like to take this opportunity to thank Cornerstone and all the wonderful people that are a part of Cornerstone for giving me this opportunity. God only knows if this is the last play that I’m going to do with them, who knows? But I know that I’ve discovered a whole new side of me.”

Written by Lea Blair, Cornerstone’s Theater’s Ticket Coordinator for SEED

Renee Gunter is a fully fledged artistic spirit, a landscape designer, ardent environmentalist, motorcycle aficionada, and these days, a community actor, playing Ms. Robins in Cornerstone Theater Company’s SEED: A Weird Act of Faith.

Renee auditioned for the play on a whim, not suspecting that she would be cast in the play, and knowing very little about Cornerstone’s mission. But serendipitously, Renee and Cornerstone turned out to be incredibly well aligned.

Renee, like the real Ms. Robinson who informs the character of Ms. Robins, is a proponent of slow living, a movement of environmentally conscious life style and a return to classic, simple methods of growing and preparing food. Renee’s interests in sustainability, gardening, and food are the reasons why she is especially happy to be part of this production of Cornerstone’s Hunger Cycle.

Renee lives in a beautiful house with an exquisite garden that has even been declared a wild life habitat in Jefferson Park in South L.A., only four blocks north from the house where she grew up. She moved her two children to Jefferson Park from the Valley in 2004 to provide them with a more diverse environment. She is pleased to have seen her neighborhood change from a group of people wary of each other, to a community that shares the fruit that grows in the back yard, sends food next door as a neighborly gesture, and comes together to celebrate.

Renee describes her work as a landscape designer as “telling the story of the community through the topography of a garden” and has designed the front yards of many of her neighbors. Marina Moevs and Steve Peckman, who live a few blocks from her home, boast a beautifully unconventional garden in their front yard with plants that don’t require much watering. The ensemble of magical-looking plants, a true work of art, look like an underwater scene, a Gaudí in the world of landscape design.

Renee describes herself as a “guerilla gardener,” ready and willing to beautify a neglected space for the benefit of the community. She is also engaged in civic issues, always looking to improve the neighborhood. Among the most fruitful of her efforts was the revitalization of a neglected, unsightly space on 27^th street in Jefferson Park that had been littered with mountains of trash, old couches, broken toilets, and that hosted a lot of illicit activity, polluting not only the whole neighborhood’s view, but also lowering its morale. The site turned out to be part of an oil company’s property, but with the help of the United Neighborhoods Neighborhood Council and other concerned community members, the oil company agreed to fund the clean up and landscaping of this neglected space.

The neglected trash dump is now a pocket park.

That space turned into a pocket park, which although closed to the public because it is private property, radiates beauty in every direction past the iron fence enclosing it. “All the residences that face this space, even ones a few blocks away that are high enough to catch a glimpse, seem very happy with this change. Some of them have come to personally thank me.”

The Community Health Council, aware of Renee’s work at the 27^th Street site, invited her to participate in a special tour of pocket parks in LA as part of their Re-imagining Empty Spaces program. Renee got to tell the story of the transformation of that space to a bus full of community members. And who should be on that bus, listening to the triumphant story? None other than the real Ms. Robinson. At that time, the significance of their brief encounter was unbeknownst to them both.

Clearly, Renee is committed to her community. She is also committed to the environment. “One of the things that I’m most passionate about is sustainability. Conservation of our natural resources is very important to me.” In fact, she has been able to conserve enough water in her home so as to only pay an average of fifteen dollars a month for her water bill. And that is even with having a wild life habitat as her front yard! Recently, she has also decided to do without a refrigerator. In its stead, she has an icebox where she keeps the bare essentials.

Renee’s talent, involvement, and admirable commitment have been recognized by the city, by the local news, by her neighbors, and most recently, by the very Ms. Robinson on which Renee’s character, Ms. Robins, is based. Always striving for excellence, Renee, looking to better understand her character, contacted the real Ms. Robinson.

“I’m thinking, if I’m going to be Ms. Robinson, I’m going to be all I can be. But I didn’t know what I was going to do with the character. I didn’t have any roots. So one day I call Ms. Robinson.”

When Ms. Robinson heard Renee’s name, she immediately recognized it, and told her that she was a passenger on the tour bus for the pocket parks. “She said of all the parks that she saw that day, mine was the most impressive. And she never forgot me.”

And now the real Ms. Robinson and Renee are good friends. “She’s certainly someone I will never forget and someone who wants to be in my life so we now have an ongoing dialogue.”

You can see Renee in ‘SEED: A Weird Act of Faith’, from October 15- November 18, 2012. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.

Written by Maria Guerra, Cornerstone’s Administrative & Development Assistant.