Cornerstone Theater Company to Present MAGIC FRUIT This Fall

Cornerstone Theater Company will present Magic Fruit, the culminating Bridge Show of the Hunger Cycle at The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles on select dates November 18 - December 10, 2017. Magic Fruit will unite the previous eight communities of this Cycle of plays for a ninth and final production.

Over six years, Cornerstone presented eight world premiere plays that explored the relationship to the most elemental of needs - hunger. These community collaborations exploring hunger, justice, and food equity issues include: Café Vida, with former gang members in rehabilitation; SEED, A Weird Act of Faith, with urban and rural farmers; Lunch Lady Courage, with cafeteria workers and the students they serve; Love on San Pedro, with the homeless community of downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row; Bliss Point, with the addiction and recovery community of Los Angeles; California: The Tempest, a year-long, statewide tour that connected ten agricultural and urban communities of California; Urban Rez, with the Native people of the LA River Basin; and Fellowship, with individuals and service organizations focused on hunger and food access. With Magic Fruit, Cornerstone's Artistic Director and playwright of this project, Michael John Garcés, has created an overarching work that incorporates community participants' input and grapples with the complicated questions of hunger in Los Angeles.

In this culminating work, directed by Cornerstone Ensemble member Shishir Kurup and based on Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder, Tami, an ex-gang member, sets out on a journey through an apocalyptic Los Angeles. Despite the many challenges Tami faces, including hunger, addiction, financial insecurity and a system she doesn't really understand, she finds unexpected allies in strange places as she aims to reunite her family, find a home, and just maybe save the world.

Set in an alternate reality of mega droughts, methane leaks and temperatures, sea levels and property values that just keep rising, Magic Fruit is a cautionary tale about a future that could never, ever happen, because that would be insane. And we're not insane...are we?

The culmination of the Hunger Cycle is an opportunity to bring The Magic Flute of "high" art to the communal table, adapting it to the many voices and music of Los Angeles, rethinking the Hunger Cycle themes, communities and perspectives through this magic. Hunger Cycle partners include: Beit T'Shuvah, Community Services Unlimited, Downtown Women's Center, Food Forward, Gabrielino - Tongva Springs Foundation, Grand Park, Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, Homeboy Industries, Hunger Action LA, LA Community Action Network, Los Angeles High School for the Arts, LAMP Arts Program, Los Angeles Mission, MEND Pacoima, Project Angel Food, Red Circle Project, Skid Row Housing Trust, UCLA American Indian Studies Department, and Westside Food Bank.

MICHAEL JOHN GARCÉS (Playwright, Artistic Director, Cornerstone Theater Company) is the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company. Plays he has written for Cornerstone include The Forked Path, created in collaboration with Stut Theatre and the Van der Hoeven Kliniek in the Netherlands, and performed at the Net Even Anders Festival in Utrecht and The International Community Arts Festival in Rotterdam; Consequence, inspired by stories of students, teachers, administrators and parents in South Kern County; and Los Illegals, created in residence with communities of day laborers and domestic workers. Michael has also directed many plays for Cornerstone including Urban Rez by Larissa Fasthorse, California: The Tempest by Alison Carey, Plumas Negras by Juliette Carrillo and Café Vida by Lisa Loomer. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth in Washington DC, a core member of the Living Word Project in San Francisco and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. His work has been produced in theaters across the country such as South Coast Repertory, The Guthrie Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Brooklyn Academy Of Music.

Shishir Kurup (Director, Ensemble member, Cornerstone Theater Company) is an award-winning director, actor, writer and composer born in Bombay, India and raised in Mombasa, Kenya and the U.S. He is in his 24th season as an ensemble member with Cornerstone Theater Company. For Cornerstone's current Hunger Cycle he acted in Café Vida by Lisa Loomer, directed Seed: A Weird Act of Faith by Sigrid Gilmer, directed Love on San Pedro by James Mcmanus and wrote Bliss Point. Previously he directed Los Illegals, wrote and directed On Caring for the Beast, was the lyricist for Cornerstone's Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical and directed Lynn Manning's The Unrequited. Shishir has acted in numerous Cornerstone shows and has written over 250 songs for various Cornerstone productions. He has directed, written and acted at regional theaters and festivals around the country to name a few: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playmakers Repertory Company, Quantum Theatre, The Lark, Silk Road Rising, The Cockpit Theatre, East West Players and Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre.

Magic Fruit features an award-winning design and production team including Composer Randall Robert Tico; Scenic Designer Nephelie Andonyadis; Costume Designer Meghan E. Healey; Lighting Designer Geoff Korf; Sound Designer John Nobori; Puppet Designer Lynn Jeffries; Video Designer Sean T. Cawalti; and Production Stage Manager Nikki Hyde.

More information and pay-what-you-can tickets ($20 suggested) to Magic Fruit are available at cornerstonetheater.org. The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles is located at 1238 W 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Opening night is Saturday, November 18, and the production continues through Sunday, December 10, 2017. Get involved in the story with #MagicFruit and #HungerCycle.

Cornerstone Theater Company has been making new plays with and about communities throughout Los Angeles and beyond for over 30 years. Nationally recognized as a leader in community engaged theater, our plays celebrate many voices as we strive to include people who have not been on stage or even seen theater. 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. Our plays are staged in theaters, parking lots, factories, schools and subway stations. Each venue is specific to its project and community; audiences pay what they can so our performances are always accessible to all.

Visit Cornerstonetheater.org and follow the story on social media @cornerstonetheater on Facebook and Instagram, @cornerstonethtr on Twitter and youtube.com/CornerstoneTheater.

Pictured: Bahni Turpin as The Queen of the Rain in Magic Fruit Concert Reading

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