Michael John Garcés

Artist Statement: 

For Cornerstone, Michael has directed Making Paradise by Tom Jacobson, Shishir Kurup and Deborah Wicks La Puma, 3 Truths by Naomi Iizuka, Someday by Julie Marie Myatt, attraction by Page Leong, and The Falls by Jeffrey Hatcher (at the Guthrie Theater). He also wrote Los Illegals, the first play of the Justice Cycle, created in collaboration with communities of day laborers and domestic workers and which was subsequently produced by Teatro Bravo in Phoenix, Arizona.

Directing credits at other theaters include, most recently, Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy at CalArts and the break/s by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which co-premiered at the Humana Festival (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and the Walker Art Center, and which toured the U.S. to venues such as REDCAT, Under the Radar and The August Wilson Center for African American Culture. Other theatres at which he has directed include A Contemporary Theater, Hartford Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Theatre Workshop, The Children's Theatre Company, Second Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Cherry Lane, The Atlantic Theater Company and Repertorio Español.

He has twice been in residence with a consensus-run collective, Sna Jtz'ibajom, in Chiapas, Mexico, collaborating in the creation of community-engaged work with members of the Mayan community. Michael is on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and serves on the Ovation review Committee for the Los Angeles Stage Alliance.

His full-length plays include THE WEB (needtheatre), points of departure (INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center) and Acts of Mercy (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); short plays includehymn in three parts (Chalk Rep), in the Zone (Red Fern Theatre Co.), tostitos (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays) on edge and the ride (Humana Festival, "The Open Road Anthology"), audiovideo (The Directors Project) and sandlot ball (Mile Square).

His solo performance piece, agua ardiente, ran Off-Broadway at The American Place Theatre, and he performed in and wrote for "The Borges Project", which was presented at the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the 31st World Congress of the International Theatre Institute (UNESCO). 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 Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, and a TCG/New Generations Grant. He is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.

Contact

Cornerstone Theater Company
708 Traction Avenue
Los Angeles, CA90013
213.613.1110
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