This Shakespearean adaptation by Alison Carey tackles issues of hunger, food equity, and environmental havoc.

Staged Reading Directed by Michael John Garcés

Running Time 2 hours and 10 minutes plus intermission.

About the Show:

Cornerstone Theater Company is a multi-ethnic, ensemble-based theater company based in Los Angeles’s Arts District. Our work is based on the conviction that aesthetic practice is social justice, artistic expression is civic engagement, and that access to a creative forum is an essential part of the wellness and health of every individual and community.

For the past 10 years, Cornerstone has been creating plays in communities across California in our Institute Summer Residency program. Each summer we go live and work in a new community. With residents of these communities, we create a show that tells their story. The program is the “Institute” Summer Residency because we bring up to 20 adult students with us so they can learn Cornerstone’s process of creating plays with communities by working with us hands-on. Now, in a celebration of California and all the amazing work that has been done in the past 10 years, we are going on the road and revisiting each of the 10 communities that we worked with in one grand California Bridge Tour.

Tonight’s show is the kick off of the tour, though the play officially opens in Arvin on September 4. We hope that you enjoy the reading and are inspired to have conversations about your relationship with the Golden State. We hope to see you in the audience in Pacoima in February and on our last stop in downtown Los Angeles next summer! Or come join us on the road!

For press inquiries please contact David Elzer, Demand PR, 818-508-1754, DavidElzer@me.com

Synopsis:

18 years ago Antonia stole the California governorship from her sister, Prosper. She arranged to have Prosper and her daughter Minerva killed, but they were able to escape to a mountaintop in Northern California. With magical powers Prosper learned in her new home, she enslaved the other mountain dwellers: Caliban, Ariel and the spirits. Caliban is a native of the mountaintop who was abandoned there by his mother, and now gathers food for Prosper and Minerva. Ariel is a spirit who helps Prosper perform her magic. Now, seeking revenge upon Antonia, Prosper summons a great storm and earthquake that crashes her sister’s private plane on the mountaintop home and destroys California.

In the crash, Antonia and the other passengers are scattered across the mountaintop—now an island sticking above the sunken California. Antonia and the other people from the farmlands (Alonso, Sebastia, Gonzala, and others) land on one part of the island, and reminisce about their lost California. The group decides to go look for Alonso’s son Ferdinand, who they lost in the crash. However, not everyone has such good intentions as Sebastia, Alonso’s sister, and Antonia plot to seize Alonso’s fortune.

On another part of the island, Ferdinand, seemingly alone and cell phone-less, is brought to Prosper by Ariel’s captivating song. There, young love strikes when Ferdinand and Minerva meet. Prosper puts Ferdinand’s love to the test as she puts him to work gathering food on the island.

The last of the plane’s passengers, Adrian, Oliver, Trinculo, and Stephano, find each other and the caged Caliban on yet another part of the island. Caliban tells them of his misfortunes as Prosper’s slave. He convinces Stephano, a military vet, to kill Prosper. Caliban leads the group to Prosper’s shack, and along the way the five of them discuss democracy, corporations, and the new world that they will build for themselves in the wake of a destroyed California.

Eventually, the groups all find each other, and events continue to unfold in this grand celebration of community and California.