LODESTONE THEATRE ENSEMBLE

under the artistic direction of Philip W. Chung & Chil Kong
proudly presents our final production

The World Premiere of

GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS

A new comedy for anyone who’s ever felt like they were born on the wrong planet…

Written by Philip W. Chung
Directed by Jeff Liu
Produced by Stephanie Chang, Michael Chih Ming Hornbuckle & Peter J. Wong

Starring: Feodor Chin, Elizabeth Ho, Elaine Kao, Jully Lee, Rachel Morihiro, Hanson Tse, Kelvin Han Yee, Junko Goda, Dan Jyung, Christopher Takemoto-Gentile and Tina Tong.

Inspired by classic screwball comedies, GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS tells the story of Grace, a young Korean American woman, who has withdrawn from the world after the death of her mother ten years ago. But Grace’s life is thrown upside down when she meets her sister’s fiancé and falls in love with him. This play was written to be Lodestone’s last show of its tenth and final “Beginnings and Endings” season and will be permanently retired after this run.

November 14-December 20, 2009
Thursday-Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm (NO SHOW THANKSGIVING, NOV. 26)

ALL THURS. SHOWS: 2-for-1 general admission tickets if you say the codeword “Ziggy Stardust” at box office

$12 general admission (Special Low 1999 Ticket Price)
$10 (groups of 10+)
$25 Opening Night Gala (Nov. 14)–SOLD-OUT
All Sunday matinees (except Dec. 20) are pay-what-you-can ($1 minimum)

GTC Burbank
1111-B W. Olive Ave.
Burbank, CA 91506

The theatre is in George Izay Park between S. Victory Bl. and N. Griffith Park Bl. Park near the jet plane at 1111 W. Olive and walk past the Olive Recreation Center. The theatre is behind the rec center; the entrance faces the softball fields.

RSVP: (323) 993-7245 or go to www.lodestonetheatre.org for more info.

Chil Kong and Philip W. Chung.

More than a few months ago I had the pleasure to sit with two of the co-founders of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and breathe in the trademark passion that has fueled the company’s 10-year body of work. Researching their production history (I only discovered them in 2006) triggered a genuine sense of loss for the plays I had missed and the realization that 2009 is it! Their last play, GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS opened November 14th (see separate post) and will be running through December 20th. Suffice to say this is your last chance to be touched by the courageous and fiery duo who lost their funding after their first play all because of a bare bottom.

SS: Let’s go back to the beginning. After the L.A. riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh urges the new generation of Asian American playwrights to tell their own stories to counteract the media’s tendency to portray Asian Americans as immigrant store owners who fall victim to violence.

Chil Kong: Yes. Soon-Tek Oh mobilized us. But it was more about the energy between Phil, Tim Lounibos, Bokyun Chun and I. We were passionate about our vision of the future of Asian American theater and we each had our own ideas about how we wanted to see a theater function in Los Angeles and we talked and talked and talked about it for four months. A lot of it had to do with timing for us; we were at the right place at the right time. We started forming when East West Players was moving from their small black box to their big theater so there was a gap. We filled that vacuum. We’ve been very lucky. From that Lodestone was born.

SS: What is the meaning of the word Lodestone?

Chil Kong: We had so many names. Tim Lounibos did some research and he found out about those magnetic compasses which Chinese explorers used to guide them.

SS: What did you set up to explore?

Philip W. Chung: Up until that point and to a certain degree now a lot of Asian American theater revolves around certain themes, certain subjects; it has to address the Asian American experience. Are we doing plays by South Asians? Are we doing plays by Vietnamese? They have to be inclusive. Because those theaters already existed, we didn’t feel we needed to do that. It gave us a chance to not be confined by those kinds of criteria. If we wanted to do a new play by a White writer then we could do it and we have. If we wanted to do Tennessee Williams, we could. That was the only philosophy and it hasn’t really evolved.

Season 4: 2002-2003

SS: Lodestone, like many small theater companies in LA, has not-for-profit status. Does it influence the choices you make? Do you have to do plays that are community oriented to get grants?

Chil Kong: Yes and No. Yes for certain things we will definitely go after those grants. No because we never wanted to pick the material that we wanted to do based on financial consideration. We didn’t want our choices based on “now we have to get this grant so we have to do a play about this issue.” We always had to stay at a certain level but that’s fine because it gave us creative control.

SS: What do you mean by “a certain level”?

Philip W. Chung: The smaller you are the lower your budget, the more creative control you have. The idea is to work from that model, which represents a lot of theaters in LA, where you don’t have to be depending on those grants. We have picked materials where we thought no one was going to come and see this. But it was ok because artistically it was something we wanted to do and that was more important. If it’s artistically sound, that’s the first criteria.

Chil Kong: It is very dangerous for a company to let their choices be directed by grants, it’s a wag the dog contest. Now, instead of your artistic vision driving your company, it is a commitment to different funders. Now it’s propaganda, now you’re doing things for money. Ultimately the good artistic material will have an audience. After 10 years we’ve been accustomed to that.

Philip W. Chung: We lost most of our funders after our second play LAUGHTER, JOY & LONELINESS & SEX & SEX & SEX & SEX, which I wrote. The subject matter turned them off.

Chil Kong: At the end of the run, I spent a week on the phone with two of our biggest funders screaming at me about betraying them. They were upset because there was a man’s naked butt on stage. I remember being very frustrated and yet laughing. The worst times are also the best times. That experience told us we were doing the right thing.

Philip W. Chung: The play actually ended up doing very well with our audience.

SS: Who is the Lodestone audience?

Chil Kong: Young Asian Americans in their 20′s and 30′s. We wanted to find plays that spoke not only to the founders but to our peers.

SS: Have they been a faithful audience?

Philip W. Chung: It’s still a hard audience to get. We’ve obviously made it this far, we wouldn’t if we didn’t have that audience backing what we did. It’s been enough to sustain us. Also, 30 to 40% of our audience is non-Asian. Old White ladies came to see our recent production of Tennessee Williams’ SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER but I doubt they’ll come back.

Chil Kong: We committed to a market that time and time again theater has never been able to draw, you’re talking about the college and post college demographics and they’re just very difficult to get. If you look at the average theatergoer, they’re in their 50′s.

SS: How did you reach them?

Philip W. Chung: From the beginning we really emphasized that our energy was different. It was reflected in the plays we produced. At the time, they weren’t the type of material that Asian American theater was tackling. That energy was thoroughly new.

SS: Can you describe how different you were?

Philip W. Chung: We put on plays that spoke to our generation.

Chil Kong: Traditional Asian American theater has some reference to an immigrant story. Even though I wasn’t born here, I was here since I was young. I was tired of those stories about our parents’ generation and their angst about being Asians. It wasn’t an issue for us, we wanted to move on. Our function was aesthetics over ethnicity.

Philip W. Chung: We are dealing with being Asian Americans in a lot of our work, but in a different way. Previous generations of Asian American theater were about justifying that they were Americans. A lot of the stories dealt with being immigrants and the internment of Japanese Americans. Now reclaiming that history was important. But our generation doesn’t need to prove that we are American anymore – that’s a given – the plays that we do start from a place where we ARE American. So the question becomes, what are the other issues that we’re dealing with?

Season 7: 2005-2006

SS: Some of the plays you’ve produced, like TEXAS by Judy Soo Hoo, have nothing to do with ethnicity.

Philip W. Chung: It’s true. In Annette Lee’s comedy A DIRTY SECRET BETWEEN THE TOES, which Chil directed, the two main characters have to be Asian Americans but the story is about class and moving into this new neighborhood and being outsiders. It would have worked if they were Black or Latinos, the energy would have been different though because it was written about Asian American kind of yuppies. But these are the kinds of plays we’re interested in.

Chil Kong: Even with Angela Kang’s WHEN TIGERS SMOKED LONG PIPES, which was inspired by traditional Korean folk tales, we made them very contemporary, we did it as a co-production with the Orphans’ Theater Company; we had a mixed cast. In the style of the directing, the costumes, the set, in the way that the script was written with contemporary references, it felt like a uniquely American theme even though it was based on Korean folk stories.

SS: You say you don’t have any angst but a lot of the plays that you have produced were very violent whether they were about romance or politics.

Chil Kong: We have a reputation for doing work that’s dark but I don’t think that’s completely true. Violence and sex are topics we like to visit, because traditional Asian American theater hasn’t dealt with these subject matters. They have the reputation to produce work that is nice and not really challenging. Most of our early violent plays were about formulating that new identity. We were going to create plays that would be challenging, edgy, uncomfortable.

TERMINUS AMERICANA, about American gun violence, written by Matt Pelfrey, who is a white writer, was one of our early productions. We were in rehearsals when 09/11 happened. We were scheduled to open a few weeks after the attack. The cast and crew got together to discuss if we wanted to continue with the play. It’s the story of this guy who’s involved in an office shooting where all his co-workers get shot and it sends him on this journey across America where, in the end, he himself turns into an office shooter. It very much resonated with what was happening on 09/11 because the main character was acting like a religious fundamentalist. Everyone agreed that we wanted to reflect on things that were happening right now. We moved forward with the play and it ended up being at that time our big critical success. We got rave reviews, people were commenting on how timely it was even though it wasn’t intended.

Philip W. Chung: But it wasn’t a commercial success. People didn’t want to go see a play after 09/11 about some guy going crazy and killing people. But the critical success reinforced our desire to tackle this kind of material. We were not going to be afraid and yes we accepted that sometimes the audience was not going to be there for it. But the audience that did come got a lot out of it. It was still kind of funny, it wasn’t a downer.

More theaters are doing Matt’s plays now. Back then none of the white mainstream theaters did because he was ahead of the curve. We live in a world that is more violent after 09/11. People are more aware of that. I feel very proud that we were one of the few people who did a production of Matt’s and that it wasn’t an Asian play yet it spoke to our generation.

When playwrights like Matt Pelfrey or Judy Soo Hoo write work for you, then their style is going to define the company to a certain extent. Another one of Matt’s plays we did was FREAK STORM which was about a guy getting married and one of his buddies comes to see him and it turns out they raped a girl back in high school. It deals with how these guys who did a very violent act against another person, think it’s forgotten but it comes back to haunt them in the most inopportune time.

Season 3: 2001-2002

SS: What is your relationship to the city of Los Angeles? How has the city informed or influenced your work?

Chil Kong: Because of Hollywood, of film, you have access to a higher level of talent in Los Angeles, with the possible exception of NY, even though I feel we are ahead of them here. You talk to people in other cities like Seattle and they are always complaining that they don’t have enough Asian American talent.

Philip W. Chung: There is no other city in America that has this large number of Asian Americans. You have so much diversity and still there are a lot of walls and boundaries and misunderstandings. The whole world’s here in a way. It does create a specific kind of identity, tension and unity as well.

SS: What were the surprises over those 10 years?

Chil Kong: Having been around for 10 years. We were thinking more like 5 years.

Philip W. Chung: One thing that you learn is that you never know how something’s going to turn out. You can think one way but you have no control. You can think something’s great and people don’t get into it. Or some plays do well that we didn’t expect, like my play THE GOLDEN HOUR. I thought it would do poorly because it was about faith and loss and all these sort of downer subjects but it ended up being a big commercial and critical success. Our audience may have just been in a receptive place to accept a play that reflected what they may have been feeling in a post 9/11 world.

SS: On your website you posted a message saying you’re not ending Lodestone because you hate each other.

Philip W. Chung: What has sustained us has been mutual respect. There was a time when we talked about going to the next level and becoming an institution, buying our own theater. But that’s not artistically rewarding. I don’t think we’re going to get better. We’ve peaked in terms of what we’ve done. Everything we’ve produced has at least been interesting. It’s really hard to continue doing the same thing.

For example the Group Theater in the 1930′s, they did hard hitting socially relevant work. They had an impact, I’m not comparing myself to them but they lasted about 10 years. After they ended, some of the members like Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets and John Garfield went on to do their best work but I would argue that that was the direct result of the 10 years they put in as a group.

Conversely, if the group still existed, they would have been tied down. At some point you have to move beyond that and into a different artistic mind-set, even if at times you work with the same people. It’s the natural evolution.

SS: What is it you want to do that you couldn’t have done with Lodestone?

Chil Kong: I’m in the middle of editing my first feature as a director. I had to stop all of it. I had to do Lodestone’s taxes and we had a major problem with our website so I’m revamping all of it. It’s a 40-hour week job that doesn’t pay. We can also move on and do work that has different aesthetics. I’d like to do light comedies, but at Lodestone we do dark comedies. We can now start thinking differently; we don’t have to concentrate on how we would present our work for Lodestone.

Philip W. Chung: I knew from the beginning the plays I wanted to write for Lodestone. My last play, MY MAN KONO, is not appropriate for Lodestone. That play will be produced in the near future. You’re still working with some of the same people but you’re doing something different.

SS: Do you know who might succeed you?

Chil Kong: There are a lot of smaller companies coming up. There are more people doing it than when we started. There are more resources and opportunities now. If you have passion, you can do it. I’m glad we kept to our commitment to always move forward. I am ecstatic about our last season.

SS: It’s interesting that in the kick-off show, TEN TO LIFE, one of the founding members, Tim Lounibos, is making his debut as a writer. It’s an end but also a beginning.

Philip W. Chung: It is. The pieces were developed knowing that it was our last season by some of our veteran writers and Tim. It is directed by Alberto Isaac who also directed CLAIM TO FAME and THE TROJAN WOMEN for us. It’s four twisted one-acts touching on the bizarre and unnatural.

Chil Kong: I directed the second play, CLOSER THAN EVER. It’s a musical about a group of friends who become closer as they get older. But it’s also about the frustrating and weird things that happen to us like friends changing and lost love…and getting old, yes! There’s a beautiful song about getting old!!! (laughs)

SS: Tell me about the closing play?

Philip W. Chung: I wrote it, it’s called GRACE KIM AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS. It will be directed by a Lodestone regular, Jeff Liu. It’s one of those plays I knew I wanted to write from the beginning. I wanted it to reflect our identity and our history. It’s very much inspired by old screwball comedies but it’s a comedy/drama. It’s a gift to our audience. But it’s so specifically for Lodestone that it will never be performed again. It’s your one and only chance!

Season 8: 2006-2007

The Smiling Spider will be taking a break for the rest of the summer but I wanted to leave you with a few shows worth seeing. First, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors are taking over the city with their new sketch comedy “Bow Down to your Asian Masters”:

July 31th-August 23th. Thurs., Fri., Sat., & Sun. @ 8pm, 4 WEEK LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! (July 30th PREVIEW $5) @ THE COMPLEX (Dorie Theater) , 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038, (East of Highland Ave.) Reservations: 818-754-4500 (vm) or purchase tickets online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/70969 . Information: email 18mmw.mail@gmail.com or go to http://www.18mmw.com.

At CASA 0101, you can enjoy the latest episode of EL VERDE, the super hero on an everlasting quest to discover what his super power is… August 7th-30th. For more information go to www.casa0101.org.

LODESTONE THEATRE ENSEMBLE, under the artistic direction of Philip W. Chung & Chil Kong, proudly presents CLOSER THAN EVER, a musical revue in two acts with words by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire. Directed by Chil Kong. Music Direction by Akira Nakano. Starring: Sharline Liu, DT Matias, Blythe Matsui, Paul Na kauchi, Erin Quill, EJ Arriola, Jully Lee, Jiehae Park, & Miley Yamamoto.

An all Asian American revival of CLOSER THAN EVER, the classic 1989 musical revue which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and was nominated for multiple Drama Desk Awards. CLOSER THAN EVER features self-contained songs which deal with such diverse topics as aging, mid-life crisis, second marriages and unrequited love. This is the second mainstage production of Lodestone’s tenth and final “Beginnings and Endings” season.

Thursday-Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm. ALL THURS. SHOWS: 2-for-1 general admission tickets if you say the codeword “Doors” at box office. NOTE: Thurs., August 13 performance is SOLD-OUT. To RSVP: (323) 993-7245. For more more information, go to: www.lodestonetheatre.org.

www.backstage.com

I would also like to acknowledge R. Ernie Silva whose solo show, Heavy Like the Weight of  A Flame, has been extended at  the Odyssey Theatre through September 5th. R. Ernie Silva prances about the stage with uncommon grace and power in this autobiographical journey written by Silva and novelist James Gabriel. The show is deftly choreographed and directed by Mary Joan Negro with special mention to Bosco Flanagan whose lighting design subtly evokes the dark places visited by Silva and reflected off of his unsually expressive face.

The following review was found on http://theguide.latimes.com: “Watching R. Ernie Silva in his autobiographical ‘Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame” is like listening to exquisite poetry, music both classical and jazz all wrapped in the true life experience of the urban jungles of New York. His movement, lovely guitar riffs and impersonations of the players in his life story add to a profoundly satisfying evening of performance art. This is special theater, well worth going to.” By mypetard.

Like El Verde, I hope Ernie Silva will treat us to more episodes of his identity quest. Click here for more information.

Jolted in the night, San Francisco’s East Bay residents attempted to shield themselves from shattering windows as the sky blazed.  320 people were killed, 400 more were injured, and everything within a one mile radius was destroyed in a flash.  50 survivors were imprisoned for mutiny.  If you have not heard about the worst home front military disaster in our history, you will now know why.  If you had already known about it, you will find out that there is still much more to the story. The worst home front military disaster in US history has been one of our best kept secrets, until now.

After 6 decades (July 17, 2009 marks the 65^th anniversary of the tragedy), the story known as the MUTINY AT PORT CHICAGO is finally brought to the stage in this WORLD PREMIERE production at Ruskin Group Theatre July 10-August 15, 2009.

Ruskin Group Theatre has been making an impact on the Los Angeles theatrical scene with an eclectic mix of thought provoking plays and programs.  Their ‘Fostering Imagination’ program sponsors foster kids in theatre & film classes that produce several original shows each year.  The CAFÉ PLAYS, created by RGT are produced monthly and are the culmination of writers, actors, and directors who meet at 9am, where they are given a theme.  They then write, produce, and perform a show by 7pm the same day.  Recently celebrating their 5^th anniversary, RGT supporters Ed Asner, Dylan McDermott, Chris Malkey, Olivia d’Abo, and other industry celebrities joined to produce the Best of Café Plays (both shows sold out within hours).  Anthony Hopkins and Anthony Franciosa were some of the Ruskin School of Theatre’s first teachers.

Written and directed by: Paul Leaf. Produced by: Mike Myers and Dana Lynn Bennett

Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Road, Santa Monica, CA 90405. Tickets (310) 397-3244.  Running: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Sundays at 2 pm. Closing performance: Saturday, August 15, 2009. All Seats are $20 ($15.00 for students, seniors, and guild members.)

With J. Teddy Garces, Maury Sterling, Josh Drennen, Cris DAnnunzio, Durant Fowler, Eric Bivens Bush.

For more information on the mutiny itself, go to www.portchicagomutiny.com.

J. Teddy Garces as Ed.

The consequences of love can be horrifying, yet miraculously tender.  Callie meets Sara and an astonishing chain of events is set into motion.  This story pays homage to life’s abrupt and unexpected transformations…to romance, and to the search for personal identity.

STOP KISS will run Friday, July 10 and then every Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm through July 26^th.  Afterwards, August 2^nd & 3^rd and continuing Fridays & Mondays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm in rep with TREEFALL thru August 23, 2009.  Check dates on website or call (323) 930-0747.  ROGUE MACHINE in Theatre Theater is located at 5041 Pico Blvd., LA, CA 90019. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling (323) 960-7774 or at www.roguemachinetheatre.com.

ROGUE MACHINE draws upon the diverse and extensive experience of its collective while creating high-quality productions by contemporary playwrights who specifically address our culture and time.  The ROGUE MACHINE mission includes building a theatre of ideas and nurturing the development of plays from contemporary writers while manifesting current culture, and consciousness.  ROGUE MACHINE projects will exhibit a strong emphasis on presenting new plays or plays new to Los Angeles.

Written by Diana Son. Directed by Elina de Santos. With Deborah Puette, Kristina Harrison, Inger Tudor, Joerge Watson and Christian Anderson.

Theatre Unleashed presents Metamorphose, the second installment in its Galleries series, July 1-2 at Studio/Stage in Hollywood. Transcendental theatre at its finest, Metamorphose is less of a show and more of a collective Hero’s Journey into the belly of the whale. With a loose structure and ever-changing performances developed from weeks of introspection, connection and exploration guided by the many cycles of change, this artistic event promises nothing but surprise and impact…for the audience and performers alike.

When: July 1st & 2nd, 2009 @ 8pm

Where: Studio/Stage
520 N. Western Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 9004

Tickets: $10 General Admission
To RSVP: Call (818) 849-4039 or order tickets online at brownpapertickets.com.

Mary Guilliams as Ariel and Bobby Plasencia as Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Free Shakespeare in Barnsdall Park 2009. The Independent Shakespeare Company presents The Tempest & Henry V, June 26th -August 30th, Friday-Sunday at 7:30 pm.

Admission is free, donations gratefully received. Reservations are free to make and highly recommended.

Barnsdall Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027.

To reserve your seat: boxoffice@independentshakespeare.com or call (323) 836-0288.

The Tempest: In Shakespeare’s final play, spirits, first love, music, and the forces of revenge intersect on a mysterious island.

Prospero has waited twelve years to punish his duplicitous brother with the sorcery he has been perfecting in exile. When there paths collide, he discovers magic doesn’t make the man, the past is only history, and the world can make itself anew. (Perfect for family audiences.)

Henry V: In this high-octane portrait of England’s favorite king, 15 actors play 40 characters, span countries and years, and decimate a foreign power. A play about theater masquerading as a play about war, it’s full of thrilling speeches, big characters and unruly humor.

Click here for showtime and other info.

Echoes of Shakespeare, Hendrix and Kerouac charge solo artist/comedian/gifted guitarist R. Ernie Silva’s true-life tale about his odyssey across the great American outback. An 80’s break dance artist, Silva started performing at the age of 12 for NYC street music stations 107.5 WBLA and 98.7 KISS and at 17 was on the brutal stages of New York City’s standup comedy circuit. His fear of being yet another casualty of the street life of Brooklyn and the overdose of his older brother compelled him one night to run away in search of a more meaningful life.

Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame follows Silva’s haunting, touching and often humorous journey through the Appalachian mountains of N. Carolina, across the Midwest on trains with the hobos and little tramps, a stop in a jail in Kansas and finally finding his way to Los Angeles.

Written by James Gabriel and R. Ernie Silva. Performed by R. Ernie Silva.

Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame @ The Odyssey, Theater II, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd, LA, CA 90025. Thursdays through Saturdays @ 8pm. Click here for more information.

R. Ernie Silva.

Consider taking a book on your ride to the Eastside. Josefina Lopez, CASA 0101′s artistic director and author of ”Real Women Have Curves”  (the feature film started as a play which premiered at CASA 0101,) just published a novel with the tantalizing name of “Hungry Woman in Paris.”

Click here for an interview with Josefina Lopez about the writing of her first novel or search the web for reviews by bloggers and critics alike.

Now, be aware that taking the train to the Eastside might not be an option yet. According to this article found on LA.Curbed.Com, “it’s unlikely that the line will open in June.” You can check the MTA’s own Gold Line website for everything except an opening date. My favorite item on the site’s menu: the Eastside Flavors Map and the Station Overview. Each station artwork and design reflect the surrounding community. For example, at the Little Tokyo station, “the canopies represent a Zen archery bow” while at the Mariachi Plaza station, “the shape of the main canopy recalls the fans used by Mexican folkloric dancers” and that’s only two out of the eight new stations of the Gold Line extension to East Los Angeles.  

As far as I know, CASA 0101′s new play will open as scheduled on June 19th.

Photo by Sarah Tehranian found on www.photo.net.

Touch the Water

A River Play

Written by JULIE HÉBERT
Directed by JULIETTE CARRILLO

May 28 – June 21, 2009
Wednesdays – Sundays @ 8pm
2800 Casitas Avenue, Los Angeles 90039

Rio de Los Angeles State Park – Bowtie Parcel

Touch the water. Come to the river this spring and let the magical waters of Los Angeles wash over you.

Part of Cornerstone’s ongoing Justice Cycle, a four-year series of plays exploring how laws shape and disrupt communities, Touch the Water takes on environmental justice as seen through the lens of the LA River and the people who live, work and play there.

Under the City of Angels runs a fierce river flowing from the mountains to the ocean. But do you know it’s there? Once an unpredictable and mighty stream, a bountiful life source subject to raging floods, the Los Angeles River has lived under a shroud of concrete for the past fifty years. Today, having been tamed and transformed into an industrial flood channel, the river is at the center of much debate. What happens when we change Nature? Should we free the river from her concrete corset and let Angelenos finally touch the water?

This play was created in collaboration with local river residents, engineers, biologists, environmentalists, activists, advocates and patrons who walk, fish, bike and ride horses on the Los Angeles River.

Community partners for this project include:
Metabolic Studio/Farmlab
Friends of the Los Angeles River
South Asian Network

Click here for more information and to find out about Pre-Show River Walks and Talks. For more information on the LA River, go to the KCET website at  http://kcet.org/local/departures/la_river/.