Staff
Paula Donnelly
Director of Engagement
Paula Donnelly
Director of Engagement
Paula Donnelly began working with Cornerstone in 1998 as a stage manager and joined Cornerstone's Ensemble in 2000. Community-collaborations she stage managed for Cornerstone include Los Biombos in Boyle Heights, AKA in Beverly Hills, For Here or To Go?, a city-wide bridge show, at the Mark Taper Forum, Peter Pan in Cleveland, and Crossings at St Vibiana's Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. She also was the stage manager for Cornerstone Ensemble shows Foot/Mouth (produced in multiple malls around Southern California) and Erik Ehn's Mary Shelley's Santa Claus. As a stage manager she has worked with Taper, Too, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PCPA TheaterFest and other regional theaters. In 2003 Paula became Cornerstone’s Institute Director, planning and producing the annual Institute Summer Residency and Intensives. As Director of Engagement, Paula teaches and shares Cornerstone’s methodology, works to strengthen community relationships post-production, and to contribute to the expansion of community-engagement practices in theater. She helps imagine and implement engagement values in all aspects of our work. Paula loves the state of California, her home city of Los Angeles and the many people and stories contained therein.
Alyssa Escalante
Administrative & Database Assistant
Alyssa Escalante
Administrative & Database Assistant
Born and raised in San Diego, California, Alyssa moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College where she graduated in 2010 with a BA in theater. She has since worked all over the Los Angeles area as a stage manager. She feels blessed to be given the tremendous privilege to work within the arts community in this beautiful city. Alyssa comes to Cornerstone to serve as the Administrative and Database assistant.
Michael John Garcés
Artistic Director
Michael John Garcés
Artistic Director
Michael has been an ensemble member at Cornerstone since 2006. Plays he has written for Cornerstone include Magic Fruit, the "bridge" project of the multi-year Hunger Cycle which brought together the many communities of the cycle; Consequence, out of story circles with students, teachers, administrators and parents in South Kern County; Los Illegals, created in residence with communities of day laborers and domestic workers; and The Forked Path, a collaboration with Stut Theatre and the Van der Hoeven Kliniek in the Netherlands, which was performed at the Net Even Anders Festival in Utrecht and The International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam. Los Illegals was subsequently produced by Teatro Bravo in Phoenix; it is published in Theatre Magazine (Yale School of Drama/Duke University Press - More info on this Publication).
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; What Happens Next by Naomi Iizuka, A La Jolla Playhouse "Without Walls" production in association with Cornerstone Theater Company. 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). Directing credits at other theaters include Wrestling Jerusalem by Aaron Davidman (premiere at Intersection for the Arts; other productions include The Guthrie Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre and Mosaic Theatre), The Arsonists by Max Frisch (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), District Merchants by Aaron Posner (The Folger 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), hymn in three parts (Chalk Rep), 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 as vice president of the executive board of SDC, the theatrical union for stage directors and choreographers.
Bruce Lemon
Associate Artistic Director
Bruce Lemon
Associate Artistic Director
Bruce A. Lemon, Jr. an actor, director, writer, and educator born and raised in Watts, CA. After attending Hampton University for Biology, then Computer Science, and finally Acting he followed a girl to New York to intern as a Stage Manager and Production Assistant at The Juilliard School. Inspired by the city and new colleagues, the next step was graduate school at The New School for Drama earning his MFA in Acting. Since then he's worked with the numerous companies on the east coast including the Award winning Flea Theater as a member of The Bats and touring with the McCarter Theater Education Department, before coming home and diving head first into LA theatre working with the LA Opera, Son of Semele, Company of Angels, Mutineer, Illyrian Players, The Vagrancy, and more. He made his artistic home at Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) both as an actor, Board Member, and Artistic Director. With WVTC he's appeared in RIOT/REBELLION and FOLLOW for which he won the 2014 Broadway World LA award for Best Leading Actor in a Play. With two careers in Arts and Education, he's excited to carry out his plans to chase dreams close to family and apply the lessons learned thus far to the benefit and re-imagining of his community.
Ilia Lopez
Director of Strategic Relations
Ilia Lopez
Director of Strategic Relations
Ilia joined Cornerstone in June of 2014 as their Development Director. Prior to Cornerstone, she was the first Development Director at Our Community School (OCS), a K-8th grade public charter school in the San Fernando Valley. She was responsible for fundraising, community outreach and marketing for the school. Among her accomplishments at OCS was successfully doubling their annual giving campaign in one year. Additionally, she created and implemented their Community Building Breakfast series which brought in several businesses and local government officials that became successful partners and sponsors of the organization. In 2005, Ilia founded and became the executive director of Fostering Imagination, a nonprofit organization which provided enrichment and mentoring programs for foster youth between the ages of 12-23 that included theater, filmmaking, adventure and life skills. Ilia also holds a law degree and has practiced as a contract attorney.
Cameron Squire
Associate Producer
Cameron Squire
Associate Producer
Cameron joined Cornerstone Theater Company soon after working as production manager for Urban Rez in 2016. A native of Los Angeles, Cameron returned from UC Santa Barbara where he worked as Assistant Technical Director for Campbell Hall, a road house for performing arts and lectures, moonlighting in theater whenever he could. Moonlit collaborations include Janie Geiser, Cloud Eye Control, and, most recently, Cornerstone. Cameron is excited to be back home, doing what he loves, and reveling in his massive collection of synthesizers. He is a graduate of CalArts in the production management program.
Megan Wanlass
Managing Director
Megan Wanlass
Managing Director
Megan Wanlass most recently joined Cornerstone Theater Company as its Managing Director in January 2014. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Ms. Wanlass was the Executive Director of SITI Company in New York. In her tenure with SITI, Megan helped to create over 35 productions touring to 88 cities, 32 states and 19 countries. She began working with Anne Bogart and SITI Company in 1995 during The Adding Machine at Actors Theatre of Louisville for the Modern Masters Festival. She has an Arts Administration Certificate from New York University, attended the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders at Stanford University Business School, was a member of the Arts Leadership Institute Charter Class at Teachers College, Columbia University, participated in the National Arts Strategies Executive Leadership Program and holds a B.A. in Theater from Occidental College in Los Angeles. Megan currently serves on the board of Theatre Communications Group (TCG).