Past Work
Cornerstone Festivals have allowed our professional colleagues and past participants from different communities to come together and create their own, original works on a central theme or topic.
THE FEBRUARY FESTIVAL, 1990
Borrowing the 1930’s Federal theater Project’s example of doing many versions of the same play throughout the country, Cornerstone invited past residency partners to mount their own, localized versions of the same play all performed during the same month. Following a democratic script selection process, Cornerstone and six rural communities adapted Garcia Lorca’s The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife. We called our version The Video Store Owner’s Significant Other. Other projects were:
THE BARBER’S MISUNDERSTOOD WIFE
Marmath Mystic Theatre Group;
Marmath, North Dakota
THE COWPOKE’S PERSNICKETY SPOUSE
Walker River Living Theatre;
Schurz, Nevada
THE REVEREND’S WIFE
Clairbourne County Community Theater;
Port Gibson, Mississippi
THE SADDLEMAKER’S WILE AND WONDERFUL WIFE
Up the Creek Theater Company;
Long Creek, Oregon
THE SHOEMAKER’S PRODIGIOUS WIFE
Norcatur Arts and Humanities Commission;
Norcatur, Kansas
THE BARBER’S MISUNDERSTOOD WIFE
Marmath Mystic Theatre Group;
Marmath, North Dakota Written by Alison Carey, Edward P. Jones, Laurence Maslon and Bill Rauch
THE VIDEO STORE OWNER’S OVERWHELMING WIFE
Upper Kanawha Valley Theater Company;
Montgomery, West Virginia
bUS pLAys, 1997
Invited by L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art to participate in their Uncommon Sense exhibit, we parked a city bus in the museum and invited past collaborators to create their own works of art. Exploring the diverse experiences Angelenos have riding the bus, bUS pLAys included nine short plays performed inside the bus as well as the Festival’s ongoing centerpiece, a contribution by Cornerstone’s ensemble called Token, Alien.
TRI CYCLE
by Laughing Willows
SEAT SELECTION
by Nat Colley
THINKING ABOUT THINKING, ON THE BUS ABOUT THE WORLD
by Christopher Michael Egger
IPHIGENIA AT ALVARADO
by Steven Wolfson
RIDE #14
by Tamadhur Al-Aqeel
GOING HOME
by Bernardo Solano
TRAVELLING IN TIME-STORIES O
by Kathleen Coyne
ONE DOWNTOWN
by Diane Robinson
THE VIDEO STORE OWNER’S OVERWHELMING WIFE
Upper Kanawha Valley Theater Company;
Montgomery, West Virginia
THE MALL PLAYS FESTIVAL, 1999
Presented in association with Montclair Plaza, One Colorado (Old Pasadena) and Santa Monica Place. The culmination of our five-year theatrical experiment in shopping malls, Mall Plays was a festival of short plays critiquing materialism while exploring the new town green. Spanning three weekends and three malls, theatergoers saw nine site-specific, original plays, produced during shopping hours plus the Cornerstone ensemble show Foot/Mouth.
Montclair Plaza, Montclair CA:
Model Behavior by Rebecca Clark
L.A. HairStory by Hallie Hobson
NoThing by Megan Young
One Colorado, Old Town Pasadena CA:
Gods and Shoppers by Gail Lerner and Colin Campbell
Family Values by Paula Weston Solano
Girl Dig by Molly Cleator and Diane Robinson
Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica CA:
The Market Tale by Tamadhur Al-Aqeel
In Passing by Juliette Carillo and Jessica Wallenfels
Three Tales by Hans Christian Anderson adapted by Karen Hardcastle and Elizabeth Tobias
