Interview Summaries

By Linda Frye Burnham

All interviews were by Ferdinand Lewis. They took place between February 1 and 28, 2001, in Los Angeles, California. All have been edited for length by CAN. The full, unedited transcripts are available on request.

Carey identifies the difference between Cornerstone’s ensemble shows and community shows: "You're not using that set of muscles that you use when the ensemble members are working together directly. You're not connected to one another, you're connected to the community. … The distinctions are emotionally vital when starting this work," she says, because "you have to fall in love with the community every time and want to learn and you have to be in a safe place to do that. One way to be in a safe place is to know the people you're working with very, very well. Ensemble shows gives you the chance to sit next to the person you've been sitting far away from during the community shows, because you've been sitting next to people from the community. It's the difference between dinner at home and going to a party." Falling in love is necessary to avoid burn-out, she says, "you can't do it (just) because it sounds morally appropriate. … You've gotta really want it for you."

Carey describes some of the exercises she uses to draw people into the process, knowing that the participants are there because they have something to share and that the project needs their input. "I think that the community members take being needed in the process very seriously and they realize quickly that their role in the process is very valued." In term of the social effects of the work, Carey describes the complex outcomes of an interracial project in Mississippi, based on "Romeo and Juliet." Among them was drawing a mixed audience. "Knowing that made us happy, and a little more comfortable laying claim to this thing that we know we do, though we can't always know when we do it. We know that it happens sometimes, and sometimes less than people think, but that's not a bad thing." Their primary job, she says, is "to create good plays" but "our art doesn't exist without the way our art is created and the involvement of the community, and the involvement of the community wouldn't work with bad art. … . It can look like social work on the outside, while it's actually a way of making the kind of art that's most satisfying to us."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Alison Carey, click here.

Interview with Bill Rauch, artistic director

Rauch recalls the original idea of Cornerstone: "to do plays for people who don't normally go to theater," then "the notion of performing for people turned into performing with people." Community projects, he says, are initiated by an ensemble member or a community member, "or else we could just start with an idea and find the market for it." But "usually, it's about one person in a community making the leap of faith and becoming an advocate for the project. Over the years we've had a lot of projects die because they couldn't find that advocate." Projects take from one to three years, says Rauch, but "we have to make sure that there's time to listen." He details the project process and the involvement of a community advisory committee, emphasizing the element of trust.

The impact and legacy of the projects are discussed. When the company was on the road in the early years, he says, Cornerstone would donate money for the community to start a theater. In Los Angeles now, the range of impact is broader, and the company goes on helping the community in a variety of ways. Rauch talks about the company’s departure from its early limit to adaptation of classic plays, and about its more recent "embrace of the playwright." Writers’ sources of material are community focus groups and oral histories. Writing and acting exercises generate material, which is synthesized into a script by the playwright, then "put up" in front of the community as they go along.

The creation process, says Rauch is kept as open as possible. He sees this as "both an aesthetic and a political choice. The company's aesthetic is to include the community's dialogue with itself in the script, "which calls for opposing voices and layers of meaning and a vital richness. … including the voice of the oppressor along with the voice of the oppressed is a very strong political stance." The company has stopped emphasizing the "social-service aspects" of the work, says Rauch, and it is "just as much about what we are learning as artists: It's a mutual exchange." The goal is "to create the best art that we know how to create." Another aspect of Cornerstone’s aesthetic is diversity, "the variety of ages and body types and life experience," which makes the work powerful.

Funders are most interested in quantifiable measurements, says Rauch, "how many butts are in the seats, who those people are and their demographics," but Cornerstone uses other measures for its internal assessment, including written evaluations by the audience, focus groups and audience surveys. Mentoring programs include a fellowship/internship and a youth participation initiative. They plan a tuition-based institute to teach the company’s "brand of community-based work." They used a consultant to help them think long-term and make a long-range plan.

To read the entire (edited) interview with Bill Rauch, click here.

Interview with Mark Valdez, artistic associate

Valdez discusses Cornerstone’s budget increase, thanks to a grant to establish an endowment and cash reserve. This "gives us the ability to stop worrying about the money and focus more on relationship building." He outlines the employment agreements between Cornerstone and the ensemble members and staff members, as well as the 80-100 freelancers who work for the company each year.

Valdez says two years ago the company instituted a membership-review committee, and each ensemble member’s status is reviewed on a regular basis. "So far, no one has been asked to leave." Cornerstone’s relationship with the union is good, he says, "because we pay a living wage." He talks about union regulations vis-à-vis how many nonprofessional community actors they can hire.

To read the entire (edited) interview with Mark Valdez, click here.

Interview with Scott Vandrick, development director

Vandrick addresses the impact of changes in funding at the National Endowment for the arts. This leads him to the difficulties in assessing the impact of their work for funders, and their inability to get "education" funding because it is hard to prove that their work is educational, since they don’t work in the schools. "All of our narrative evidence is anecdotal, and funding sources now want facts, they're asking, ‘How did they learn?’ and ‘What impact did the learning have on their lives?’" says Vandrick. These funding strictures present problems for artists, especially young ensembles, he says, because "it's going to insist that new companies think of new and innovative ways to evaluate their programs before they apply for funding," which is "going to take away from the artists' time on the art, because they're going to have to become more like analysts and administrators instead of artists."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Scott Vandrick, click here.

Interview with Daniel Renner, director of Education, Denver Center Theatre Company; dean, National Theatre Conservatory

Lewis interviewed Renner to add perspective on Cornerstone’s "educational" dilemma. Renner describes changes in the field, including new education programs run by theaters "to use theater to actually educate." Renner implies that this trend is a result of theaters seeking education funding to help with operational costs, "but now it's an integral part of the organizations." This is a bonus, he feels, because "the educational work is informing the organizations more now, making theater truly interactive with the community." He points to museums that "have become community centers."

He says all funders require more outcome-based evaluation now, which "does take a lot of time, but you also want to know how well you're doing." He says smaller theaters are spending a larger portion of their budgets on educational activities than larger theaters, according to a Theater Communications Group survey. He believes the funders’ requirement for assessment will "change the language, and that changes the conversation. And that changes the process and the result. The previous language was slanted toward ‘arts appreciation,’ and art learning is slanted to new kinds of programming." He says all NEA programs will put outcome-based reporting in place because they have to report to the taxpayers, as do the schools, and "there's just no way for them to observe it all and check on it all."

To read the entire (edited) interview with Daniel Renner, click here.

PERFORMING COMMUNITIES
Carpetbag | Cornerstone | Dell'Arte | Jump-Start
LAPD | Pregones | Roadside | WagonBurner
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