Convenings
Past Learning Exchange Reports:
Los Angeles, November 15–17, 2002
Andrea Assaf
2002
Case Sessions: Cornerstone Theatre, Faith-Based Theatre Project
Introductions: Shishir Kurup (ensemble), Maria Sanchez (community participant), Armando Molina (Ensemble), Manuel Sanchez (community participant and NCCJ), Karen Rushfield (University of Judaism, community collaborator), Shay Wafer (Cornerstone), Bill Rauch (Cornerstone), Lucky Altman (NCCJ), Elizabeth Gonzalez (Cornerstone), Phil Wilson (African American Aids Policy And Training Institute, community collaborator)
BR: Discussion of why they decided to focus on works of faith as their primary subject: We found that in every group and community they worked in, there were divisions along faith line, so we found it important to work through these issues. We had worked in a lot of faith-based venues, and there was a lot of internal stuff along religious lines in the company. That was the birth of the faith-based cycle. We partnered with NCCJ, and that gave us the opportunity to think about dialogue more deeply—that was great for us. We began with a series of dialogues that involved members of Cornerstone, partner communities and public, facilitated by NCCJ facilitators. These “Weekly Wednesdays” were a way for people to get together and talk in circles about ritual and “believing in 2000,” and to get them asking and discussing the hard questions. We began this process before we had any plays. Last fall we kicked it all off with the Festival of Faith, which was a series of 21 short pieces of theatre around L.A., in different places of worship. This video is about that. (Showing of video).
Shay Wafer (SW): Discussion of upcoming projects: After the festival, we did Crossings, which was 48 cast members speaking 16 languages, with 5 writers at St. Vibiana's. It focused on journeys of Catholic immigrants. The next project is the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender People Of Faith, about to go into auditions. Also Black Aids/Black Faith; The Muslim Project, which has been changed due to community response; Jewish, Hindu, Pentecostal, Secular Humanist, Elemental, and then The Bridge Show. This takes us to the spring of 2005.
Q: Is a bridge show a collage?
Answer: No, it's a totally new piece.
BR: Discussion of Muslim Story. We commissioned a Muslim playwright to write a play for collaboration for the Muslim community that was called “10 Acrobats and an Amazing Leap of Faith.” I was disappointed and concerned when I read the draft, but I thought we were ready to move forward and produce it, and hope that it strengthened in the life of the process. The play was built through story circles and interviews, then we took it back to the members of the community. The dialogue that followed the reading and the response that we got taught us what we knew already, but didn't have the courage to face—we couldn't produce this play. This is the first play that we have commissioned that we aren't producing. The dialogue from the community made the decision for us.
Q: Can you be more specific?
BR: The playwright’s anger for his family and religion became the driving force for the play and it blindsided all of us.
SK: He wasn't willing to work to see if he could change or learn something in the process.
BR: When do we cross the line from collaboration and listening to "well, the majority said we can't have that in there?" When the community comes up and wants the changes to represent them, it becomes clear what we have to do.
MR: This is twice in a year that working with a writer has been a challenge. In community collaboration work, determining things that you need to think about and talk about with artists from the beginning.
BR: We’re working on a project, led by Ferdinand Lewis, about methodology and core values…What are the core values that just can’t be messed with as we begin to build a new project?
SK: Maybe it is also about getting local playwrights, and looking at how people come to Cornerstone—if we are seeking them out, it's even harder for us because they might not know the culture of the company.
Lucky Altman (LA): Our relationship with Cornerstone was a wonderful opportunity for NCCJ's interfaith and dialogue work to intersect with the artwork. We decided early on that we need to be clear with each other with the language we use and the dialogue. What language do you use, what do we use? We had to develop a common language for the both of us, and we've been able to influence one another. Language is important. We were creating ways for people to reflect on the art. We realized that people needed a vehicle for reflection, and sometimes they weren't ready to talk. We had a town hall forum with the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender People Of Faith people and had a great dialogue. Understanding how you can compliment one another is so important, as is language, with a partnership. For the Festival of Faith, there were not only artistic coordinators at the venues, but also facilitation coordinators.
Q: Can you say how you feel this work through theatre has been different in helping you with this dialogue?
LA: Weekly Wednesdays required us to write dialogue in a way so that everyone felt they could be engaged. We also included some of Michael Rohd's techniques to use different kinds of mediums for that conversation. It has really helped us at NCCJ to really understand how theatre helps us to reflect more deeply. The art speaks to us and we can talk about it later. Somehow it affects our emotions and our thoughts. I have realized how much we have been only focusing on those who were connected to organized religion, and we have been excluding those who were not connected in the past, which now we have a grant to do more work on. People have come to an interfaith conversation through art in ways that they never would have before.
Crossings Teams
Armando Molina (AM): The initial idea was to adapt the Old Testament stories to reflect the 5 communities that we chose; the second act was supposed to be the New Testament. Evangeline Ordaz and I adapted the story of Ester in South Central and met through Story Circles. That 's how I met Maria Sanchez and her whole family. We were interested in finding out about the crossings story. People were very generous with sharing life-threatening experiences about crossing the border and what life is like here soon after, and even 20-30 years after arriving. We needed to change the story title to Ester and the Exodus.
Maria Sanchez (MS): I didn't know what to expect, my parents and other people were telling very emotional stories. It was basically the story of my parents and their journey from the U.S. to Mexico illegally, and back to the U.S. illegally. The play began present time with Ester and her current job. Then you’d see flashes of her memories and stories she was told, that would come together at times within one place.
AM: Her parents had to smuggle the baby into the U.S. and had to hand it over to someone else to carry in legally; her parents then died crossing the border. And she has to tell her boss that she is undocumented.
Shay Wafer (SW): Maria, has the dialogue in your family changed since then?
MS: Yes, we became a lot closer. I am involved in theatre, but they had never been involved in it before, so it brought us a lot closer together and to our community. I didn't know the stories of my parents. The Hispanic community in my area has more important things to do than go to the theatre, but the people that did come from the community said that they related so much to the story. It wasn't the people who came over as much as the sons and daughters that were there, and I’ve never seen that before in the theatre. An African American family came to see it and were so touched by the story.
Elizabeth Gonzalez (EG): We did have a Cambodian parish, and the Cambodian youth and Latino youth were getting together. We realized that the Hispanics were speaking Cambodian and the Cambodians were speaking Spanish, and they were going to be friends and go have dinner at each others’ homes.
SK: The amount of food that was exchanged between cultures was incredible!
Black Aids/Black Faith
SW: Bill and Phil both received the Leadership for a Changing World award and that's how they came together. That's how it all started.
Phil: African American Aids Policy And Training Institute is the only black HIV/AIDS think tank in the U.S. African Americans represent 12% of the population and 53% of the population with AIDS. AIDS is disproportionately affecting blacks in any and every country where AIDS is a real epidemic. Part of our work is working with black clergy. Faith is certainly a big part of what we do, and the black church plays a big role in what happens in black communities. It is important for these dialogues to go on. We thought that since Cornerstone was doing a faith project, it would be an exciting opportunity to merge those two efforts; it brings together an interesting dyad with the art and community. We also add factual information to that pot that we feel very passionate about it, although right now it's in the early stages.
SW: We've been having Story Circles, and we had a writer who became too busy. Now we have a new writer who will be in town next week. Her name is Tracy Wilson and she's from New Jersey, and we are excited to work with her.
EG: Early on, when we were doing Story Circles in March, the overwhelming response was from Christian churches. We decided to look at a community of churches.
BR: We struggle a lot in how broad we go and how deep we go, as opposed to how centered we should be. The more we talked to community partners and amongst ourselves, we felt it would be better with this project to stay within the Christian church. The Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender People of Faith project and its dialogue with the community has also changed the work of the art. We originally thought of keeping it all interfaith, but at least 30% of people who have showed up through the Story Circles identify themselves with spirituality and not an organized religion.
Karen (of University of Judaism): We're starting this collaboration right now. I just want to tell you what fascinates me about the whole part of being involved. I’ve always been interested in the process of what Cornerstone does—more than the result. How they come to the work that they do is so interesting. Then, there is the opportunity to get my community involved, tell my stories, hear other people's stories from Jewish communities and get feedback from people who are not in the Jewish community's perspective. How we tell a story, and how they are going to find a way to tell the stories is incredible, and the process of deciding how you put it together intrigues me.
SK: Cornerstone constantly wrestles with the problem of language. So what we call “The Muslim Project” might have 10 different types of Muslims in the show. What each person is going through in this process is incredible; and everything about that person can become you.
Questions:
Q: Do you ever tour your work?
BR: Well, Phil has been very vocal about us not letting the play we do die after it's done here in Los Angeles, but the problem is that we often find our plays really speak mostly to the community they are written for.
MR: How does art of place resonate in other sites? I believe that it would live beyond the site; maybe in a different way, but it would survive as art.
Q: There is something about the methodology generated by the projects that can be very useful. A lot of what you do is a skeleton, and if you had the funding and the ability to train others to go out and do what you do, it would be incredible. What kind of intellectual property comes out of the methodology? There needs to be some way to codify this methodology. Can we create a working methodology that can be disseminated to the field?
David Campt (DC): In all of your projects, how have you wrestled with people who do not bring tolerance to their own faith?
BR: It is a constant struggle to get like-minded people of tolerance together in a room, but also those who are not tolerant. It’s the job of the theatre company to get people out who are going to represent more extremist views... But you can’t drag people to the room. The people who want to come are the ones who do, so perhaps it’s already tainted.
WW: I want to encourage you guys to really struggle with this issue. There are great benefits to making the extra effort to identify and use local writers.
BR: 95% of our writers are local, and I would love to have a deeper dialogue about that, because Cornerstone is made up of nomadic artists coming into other areas and creating art.
BR: ADI has profoundly affected this faith-based project and how Cornerstone looks at its work for the future. It feels very full circle. Thank you!
