Staff
Charlotte Brathwaite
Co- Artistic Director
Charlotte Brathwaite
Co- Artistic Director
Charlotte Brathwaite is a creator and director of original genre-defying works that illuminate the realities and dreams of those whose stories have been marginalized, silenced and ignored. Her trans-disciplinary inquiry manifests as immersive rituals of the body, color and music in collaboration with artists such as Meshell Ndegeochello, Jacqueline Woodson, adrienne maree brown, Abigail DeVille, Justin Hicks, Ayesha Jordan, June Cross, Sunder Ganglani, Peter Sellars, Kyle Abraham and Malick Welli amongst others. She has received major grants, awards and fellowships including Doris Duke, United States Artists, Art Matters, Creative Capital and the Princess Grace. Her work has been presented at festivals and venues across the globe in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Charlotte is also an educator of the arts and has an MFA in Directing from Yale University.
Jonah de Forest
Engagement and Archives Intern
Jonah de Forest
Engagement and Archives Intern
Jonah de Forest will be joining Cornerstone as the archival intern. He graduated with departmental honors from Occidental College, where he received distinction for his senior comprehension project on documentary theatre. An interdisciplinary writing minor, he also contributed to Occidental’s student newspaper and literary magazine. He recently finished an archival internship with the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. He is looking forward to working professionally in the theatre industry and continuing his work in the archival field!
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.
Sunder Ganglani
Co- Artistic Director
Sunder Ganglani
Co- 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.
Zachary Goldsmith
Development and Communications Intern
Zachary Goldsmith
Development and Communications Intern
Zachary is a writer, arts administrator, actor, and producer who creates and supports works that push the boundaries of storytelling and create an equitable theater space. A recent graduate of Occidental College in Urban and Environmental Policy and Theater and Performance Studies, Zachary has always sought to explore the relationship between policy, the arts, and communities. At Occidental College, he has produced both his work and the work of others, researched the effects of Los Angeles County’s and Bilbao Spain’s arts policy on audiences and communities, and received the Edgerton Theater Fellowship. He has also worked as an Artistic/Casting & General Management Intern at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. At Cornerstone, he is the new Communication and Development intern. However, this is not Zachary’s first time working with Cornerstone. He first learned about Cornerstone’s methodology in Occidental College’s community-based theater course taught by Cornerstone company members and had his Cornerstone debut as Chris in Highland Park is Here. He is excited to continue to uplift communities, create amazing theater, and break down barriers to accessing the arts.
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.
Dominique Wright
Special Projects Coordinator
Dominique Wright
Special Projects Coordinator
Born and raised in Pasadena, California, Dominique Wright (she/her/hers) has been involved in the arts since the 4th grade, taking flute lessons and performing at the Pasadena Community Youth Orchestra. While she played the flute from that point until graduating with her bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in flute performance, it wasn’t until she interned at the Ojai Music Festival that she discovered her interest in arts management. Due to her insightful experience working the festival throughout the years, she is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Arts Management at Claremont Graduate University in hopes of not only learning more about the field but discovering her place within.
One of her goals is ensuring children are exposed to the arts from a young age so the interest could possibly increase and we see more seats at performance events being filled with both young, old and the in between audience members. In her free time, you can find Dominique curled up with a good book, crafting her budget journal or watching Disney animated movies.
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.