The Hunger Cycle Plays
MAGIC FRUIT – November 16-December 10
This November, Cornerstone will present Magic Fruit written by Michael John Garcés, as the Hunger Bridge Show, the culmination of the six-year Hunger Cycle, in collaboration with our many community partners. The world premiere of Magic Fruit will unite the eight communities that we have engaged with over the life of the cycle, reconnecting us with thousands of individuals, community partner organizations, and audiences. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUR MORE INFO AND TO PURCHASE TICKETS.
Magic Fruit Artwork by Aise Born, 2017 / Postcard Design by Raymond Tejada, 2017
Michael John Garcés
Playwright
Michael is the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company. Plays he has written for Cornerstone include The Forked Path, created in collaboration with Stut Theatre and the Van der Hoeven Kliniek in the Netherlands, and performed at the Net Even Anders Festival in Utrecht and The International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam; Consequence, inspired by stories of students, teachers, administrators and parents in South Kern County; and Los Illegals, created in residence with communities of day laborers and domestic workers. Michael has also directed many plays for Cornerstone including Urban Rez by Larissa FastHorse, California: The Tempest by Alison Carey, Plumas Negras by Juliette Carrillo and Café Vida by Lisa Loomer. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth in Washington DC, a core member of the Living Word Project in San Francisco and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. His work has been produced in theaters across the country such as South Coast Repertory, The Guthrie Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Directing credits at the company include Urban Rez by Larissa FastHorse, California: The Tempest by Alison Carey, Plumas Negras by Juliette Carrillo, Café Vida by Lisa Loomer, and Making Paradise by Tom Jacobson, Shishir Kurup and Deborah Wicks La Puma; as well as the upcoming What Happens Next by Naomi Iizuka, which will be produced by the La Jolla Playhouse in association with Cornerstone. Michael is a core member of the Living Word Project in San Francisco, where he has developed and directed three works by Marc Bamuthi Joseph: /peh-LO-tah/ a futbol freedom suite (premiere at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, subsequently at the Hancher and The Kennedy Center), red, black and GREEN: a blues (various venues including The Brooklyn Academy of Music and REDCAT) and the break/s (premiere at Humana Festival and The Walker Arts Center). He is also a company member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington DC where he will be directing The Arsonists by Max Frisch. Directing credits at other theaters include District Merchants by Aaron Posner (The Folger Theatre), Wrestling Jerusalem by Aaron Davidman (premiere at Intersection for the Arts; other productions include The Guthrie Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre and Mosaic Theatre), and Seven Spots on the Sun by Martín Zimmerman (The Theatre @ Boston Court). His full-length plays include south (Great Plains Theatre Conference), THE WEB (needtheatre), points of departure and customs (INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center) and Acts of Mercy (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); as well as a solo performance, agua ardiente which ran Off-Broadway at The American Place Theatre as part of "Dreaming in Cuban"; and short plays include americanas (Mix Blood Theatre and MACLA - "DJ Latinidad's Latino Dance Party"), A Parable (Great Plains Theatre Conference), Grief (Active Cultures), hymn in three parts (Chalk Rep), inhabited and in the Zone (Red Fern Theatre Co.), tostitos (EST Marathon of One-Act Plays), on edge and the ride (Humana Festival), audiovideo (The Directors Project) and sandlot ball (Mile Square). He collaborated with composer Alexandra Vrebalov on the oratorio Stations, which received its premiere at the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and was also performed at the NOMUS Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Michael is a recipient of the Rockwood Arts and Culture Fellowship, the Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, a TCG/New Generations Grant, the Non-Profit Excellence Award from the Center of Non-Profit Management, is a Southern California Leadership Network Fellow and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. He serves on the executive board of SDC, the national union for stage directors and choreographers.
Shishir Kurup
Director
Shishir is an award-winning director, actor, writer and composer born in Bombay, India and raised in Mombasa, Kenya and the U.S. He is in his 24th season as an ensemble member with Cornerstone Theater Company. For Cornerstone’s current Hunger Cycle he acted in Café Vida by Lisa Loomer, directed Seed: A Weird Act of Faith by Sigrid Gilmer, directed Love on San Pedro by James McManus and wrote Bliss Point. Previously he directed Los Illegals, wrote and directed On Caring for the Beast, was the lyricist for Cornerstone's Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical and directed Lynn Manning's The Unrequited. Shishir has acted in numerous Cornerstone shows and has written over 250 songs for various Cornerstone productions. He has directed, written and acted at regional theaters and festivals around the country to name a few: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playmaker’s Rep, Quantum Theatre, Lark Theatre, Silk Road Rising, The Cockpit Theatre, East West Players and Dell’ Arte School.
Randall Robert Tico
Composer
As a founding member of Critical Mass Performance Group, Randall was the composer/sound designer with director Nancy Keystone on Ameryka (Ovation nomination), Apollo (Garland Award and an Ovation Award nomination) Alcestis, Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play, Antigone (Drammy Award), The Ahkmatova Project, Dr. Faustus, The Rover and Measure for Measure. Randall is currently working on his sixth collaboration with director Chris Coleman, Astoria Part1 at Portland Center Stage following Othello, Anna Karenina, Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline, The Imaginary Invalid and Snow Falling on Cedars. Other recent credits include the music score and sound design for Macbeth at The New Vic directed by Jonathan Fox and Baby Doll with director Jenny Sullivan, Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, the vocal score for David Hare’s version of Mother Courage, and music and sound design for The Glass Menagerie, both directed by Jessica Kubzansky. For the last three years he has been resident composer/sound designer for the Launch Pad program at UCSB with director Risa Brainin.
