Staff
Sunder Ganglani
Artistic Director
Sunder Ganglani
Artistic Director
Sunder Ganglani is an artist who works in collaboration between forms: music, theater, civil disobedience, pedagogy, performance. As a former Co-Artistic Director of The Foundry Theater in New York City his works with W. David Hancock, Ariana Reines, Claudia Rankine, David Greenspan, Melanie Joseph and many others have toured nationally and internationally, and won all kinds of awards. More recently his work has focused on music and justice – as a dramaturg he’s made operas and new experiments in music with Esperanza Spalding, Helga Davis, Charlotte Brathwaite, Justin Hicks, and Darius Jones. As a musician, composer, and organizer he’s grateful to have a creative home with The Stop Shopping Choir community in New York City where he works with Billy Talen, Savitri D, and the 45 member choir as chosen family. He’s received grants, fellowships and been awarded residencies, he studied Anthropology at UMass Amherst, Dramaturgy at Yale, and he was raised in Salem, Massachusetts by parents from opposite ends of the earth, and a sister and brother.
Michael Garcia
Associate Producer
Michael Garcia
Associate Producer
Michael is an arts administrator and director that works along the intersection of community- and civic-engaged arts. He works on the Cornerstone artistic staff as Associate Producer, and is a member of the ensemble. Outside of Cornerstone he works with theater artists Mark-n-Sparks on a 10-year art-based civic engagement project that leverages imagination to co-create beautiful solutions to complex social justice and policy issues. In his work he’s traveled nationally and internationally, visiting elementary schools in El Salvador as the Tour Manager for the Activist Dance Theatre company CONTRA-TIEMPO; and as a stage manager for an ice opera festival at The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. Another highlight was touring as stage manager for Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s /peh-LO-tah/ at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Kennedy Center. He went to school at the University of California, Irvine, but started at his local community college, Rio Hondo. He lives in Whittier, CA.
Lu Valero
Administrative Associate
Lu Valero
Administrative Associate
Lu Valero (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist from Mexico City, based in Los Angeles. She graduated in 2022 from UC Irvine with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Drama. A visual storyteller and creator with credits in performing arts, photography, graphic design, and more. She started working with Cornerstone Theater Company in 2022 as a Development and Communications intern, transitioning into an administrative associate position later that year. She recently joined the Cornerstone Ensemble and is thrilled to continue her history with the Company. Outside of Cornerstone, she is a Drag Artist known as Mal de Ojo performing all across Los Angeles.
Megan Wanlass
Managing Director
Megan Wanlass
Managing Director
Megan joined Cornerstone as its Managing Director in January 2014. She led the company through a six-year grant initiative with the James Irvine Foundation’s New California Arts Fund as well as a 5-year Strategic Plan created in partnership with the DeVos Institute. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Ms. Wanlass was the Executive Director of SITI Company (Anne Bogart, artistic director) for 19 years. At SITI, Megan helped to create over 35 productions touring to 88 cities, 32 states and 19 countries. She has an Arts Administration Certificate from New York University, attended the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders at Stanford University Business School and was a member of the Arts Leadership Institute Charter Class at Teachers College, Columbia University. Megan has served on the board of Theatre Communications Group and in 2006-2008 was a mentor through TCG’s New Generations Program. Wanlass participated on Cornerstone’s winning team for the UCLA Social Enterprise Academy (2017) and participated as a speaker at convenings/conferences and as a grant panelist for APAP, NFF, NET, EMCArts, ART/NY, DDCF, and TCG. Recent multi-part anti-racism training includes: Undoing Racism workshop led by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and Building Individual Capacity to Co-Imagine, Co-Create, and Co-Foster an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Organizational Culture, Structure and Model workshop led by Diedra Barber. She holds a B.A. in Theater from Occidental College in Los Angeles.