Cornerstone Theater Company is pleased to present the premiere of GHOST TOWN, a love story between a woman and her home, set in the colorful neighborhood of Venice, CA. GHOST TOWN will be performed outdoors at Oakwood Park in Venice on August 4, 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $10. For more information and to reserve tickets email info@cornerstonetheater.org or call 1-800-578-1335.
GHOST TOWN was created in collaboration with the community of Venice and Cornerstone Theater Company's Institute Summer Residency, offering multidisciplinary professional training in community-based theater. Written by Juliette Carrillo and directed by Rebecca Novick, GHOST TOWN is full of music and revelry, serving up a story of home, community, and change that is both raucous and real. When Zelda is offered big bucks for her charming Bungalow, she will have to decide - should she stay or should she go? Visited by the ghosts of Venice past, present, and future, Zelda learns of the vibrant history of her community - the visions of Abbot Kinney, the dreams of migrant families, and the inspiration for generations of artists and creative minds. She also learns that not everyone is as they seem and the future may be dark for her beloved home.
"We hope that through the lens of the play,
Audience members will see their community reflected back in new and inspiring ways," commented
Megan Wanlass, Managing Director of Cornerstone Theater Company.
GHOST TOWN is produced through the Cornerstone Theater Institute Summer Residency, a training program in its 11th year. Through this program, Cornerstone creates a play with a different California community by living within that community for approximately four weeks. Previous Summer Residencies have taken place in Lost Hills (Kern Co.), Pacoima (Los Angeles County) and Eureka (Humboldt County), among other places.
For GHOST TOWN, 20 Cornerstone artists as well as adult Institute students from across the U.S. and beyond will be in residence at Oakwood Recreation Center, working to deepen relationships in the Venice community and produce the play. In preparation, Cornerstone company members spent the past year exploring Venice, attending community meetings and events, and connecting with local residents to learn and share stories. Oakwood Park Advisory, Venice Community Housing, Latino Resource Organization, H.E.L.P.E.R Foundation, Venice ArtBlock, and countless local individuals provided meaningful assistance for the development of GHOST TOWN.
CREATIVE TEAM:
JULIETTE CARRILLO (Playwright) is a nationally recognized theatre director, writer, and award-winning filmmaker from Los Angeles, CA. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. As a Cornerstone ensemble member, Juliette has directed community collaborations including Los Faustinos by Bernardo Solano, As Vishnu Dreams by
Shishir Kurup, Touch the Water by Julie Hébert, Lethe by
Octavio Solis, It's All Bueno by Sigrid Gilmer and Bliss Point by
Shishir Kurup. She also wrote Plumas Negras for the 10th Cornerstone Institute with the East Salinas, CA community. Outside of Cornerstone, some of her favorite collaborations have been directing the world premiere of Lydia, by
Octavio Solis, the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner, Anna in the Tropics by
Nilo Cruz, the world premiere of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot by José Rivera, and the West Coast premiere of
Sam Shepard's Eyes for Consuela. She has directed for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,
Seattle Repertory Theater,
South Coast Repertory, Magic Theatre, Arizona Theater Company, Yale Repertory Theater and the
Mark Taper Forum. She has done numerous workshops in regional as well NYC theatres such as The Public, New York Theatre Workshop, INTAR and The Women's Project. Juliette was an Artistic Associate at
South Coast Repertory for seven years, where she directed and ran the Hispanic Playwright's Project, collaborating with writers such as
Nilo Cruz and Jose Rivera. She is a recipient of several awards, including the prestigious National Endowment of the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Directing Fellowship and the Princess Grace Award. She was also chosen by Sundance Theater Institute to participate in the Sundance/Luma Foundation Theater Directors' Retreat in Arles, France.
REBECCA NOVICK (Director) is a theater director and producer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rebecca is interested in new voices and new structures and in ways of making work that introduce her to new communities. She is passionate about exploring how theater can help repair the world. Rebecca was most recently the Associate Artistic Director at California Shakespeare Theater where she developed and led the Triangle Lab, Cal Shakes' community engagement wing. She was also the Founding Artistic Director of Crowded Fire Theater Company, which she led for ten years. She has directed and developed work for Cal Shakes, the Magic Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, Crowded Fire, Shotgun Players, Playground, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival among others. Rebecca has also consulted for many foundations and arts non-profits, served as the interim program officer for the arts at the SF Foundation, and was a senior member of the staff at Theatre Bay Area. She regularly speaks and writes on field issues, including her widely shared essay "Please Don't Start a Theater Company."
The cast of Ghost Town will feature Cornerstone Ensemble members
Shishir Kurup, Page Leong and
Bahni Turpin along with members from the community and Institute participants.
Ghost Town features an award-winning design team including: Scenic Design by Nephelie Andonyadis; Costume Design by Lena Sands; Sound Design by John Nobori; Lighting Design by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz; and House Head Design by Lynn Jeffries.
The Oakwood Recreation Center is located at 767 California Ave, Venice, CA 90291. For the performances, lawn seating is available and it is recommended to bring a blanket or portable chairs. More information is available at
cornerstonetheater.org/ghosttown.
Cornerstone Theater Company makes new plays with and about communities. By combining the artistry of people with many levels of theatrical experience, we act upon the conviction that artistic expression is civic engagement and that access to a creative forum is essential to the wellness and health of every individual and community. For 30 years, Cornerstone Theater Company has brought together an ensemble of professional artists of the highest caliber with people who may not think of themselves as artists to produce works of excellence based on the stories, characteristics, and concerns of a given community. The plays celebrate many voices, and are staged in theaters and in parking lots, in factories, schools and subway stations. The company strives to include people for whom theater is not part of their life. They sometimes take up residence in small towns and urban neighborhoods, as they collaborate with locals from start to finish to tell their unique stories through theater.
