Past Work

This series of five world premiere plays examined how laws create and disrupt communities. In a time of such acute scrutiny of legislation, of Supreme Court decisions, of judge’s appointments, how do our laws bind us together? In a time when there’s enough general sense of injustice that individuals attack each other over traffic protocol, how do laws tear us apart?  The Justice Cycle challenged our company, audiences, and community partners alike to rethink our beliefs about how justice functions in our society.

Los Illegals

LOS ILLEGALS, 2007
Written by Michael John Garcés
Directed by Shishir Kurup
Created in collaboration with The Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, The National Day Laborer Organizing Network, The South Asian Network, and the UCLA Downtown Labor Center. Presented in association with The Armory Center for the Arts at Armory Northwest. Created and performed in collaboration with undocumented day laborers and domestic workers. Los Illegals tells the story of a United Day Laborers Work Site at that is struggling to stay open, while following the action of two migrants trying to make their way to the U.S.

Someday

SOMEDAY, 2008
Written by Julie Marie Myatt
Directed by Michael John Garcés
Performed at Bootleg Theater
This examination of choice, created with egg donors, sperm donors, surrogates, people seeking surrogates, disabled women, nontraditional families and others, broke the cycle of polarized abortion debates to ask, “Who can afford to have—or not have—children, and who can’t?”

For All Time

FOR ALL TIME, 2008
Written by KJ Sanchez
Directed by Laurie Woolery
Performed at Shakespeare Festival, Los Angeles
An in-depth look into the social, familial, and economic impact of criminal actions, the process of judgment and the system of incarceration – created in collaboration with prisoners, formerly incarcerated, victims, family members, public defenders, prosecutors, activists and advocates.

Touch The Water

TOUCH THE WATER, 2009
Written by Julie Hébert
Directed by Juliette Carrillo
Performed at Rio de Los Angeles State Park-Bowtie Parcel on the banks of the Los Angeles River. Created in collaboration with local Los Angeles River residents, engineers, biologists, environmentalists, activists, advocates and patrons who walk, fish, bike and ride horses on the river.

Three Truths

BRIDGE SHOW
3 TRUTHS, 2010
Written by Naomi Iizuka
Directed by Michael John Garcés
Produced in collaboration with Grand Performances
Presented at California Plaza in Downtown L.A.
The Justice Cycle Bridge Show weaved together a sprawling cast of Angelenos from all walks of life to ask the question, “What is the truth?” As L.A.’s landmark Hall of Justice stands in the distance, Cornerstone Theater Company transforms downtown’s California Plaza into a dramatic judicial arena where fates are decided and lives hang in the balance. As laws have the power to separate and confine us, we come together in our quest to uncover three truths: your truth, my truth, and the truth.