Michael John Garcés

Michael has been at Cornerstone since 2006. Directing credits at the company include "Café Vida" by Lisa Loomer, "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). For Cornerstone he has also written "Consequence," out of story circles with students, teachers, administrators and parents in South Kern County, and "Los Illegals," created in residence with communities of day laborers and domestic workers. "Los Illegals" was subsequently produced by Teatro Bravo in Phoenix; it is published in Theatre Magazine (Yale School of Drama/Duke University Press). Directing credits at other theaters include, most recently "The Convert" by Danai Gurira (Woolly Mammoth Theatre), Stephen Adly Guirgis' "The Motherfucker with the Hat" (South Coast Repertory) and "red, black and GREEN: a blues" by Marc Bamuthi Joseph (REDCAT and The Brooklyn Academy of Music), and he has worked at many theaters across the country. His full-length plays include "THE WEB" (needtheatre)," points of departure and customs" (INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center) and "Acts of Mercy" (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); a solo performance, agua ardiente (The American Place); short plays include "Grief" (Active Cultures), "hymn in three parts" (Chalk Rep), "inhabited and in the Zone" (Red Fern Theatre Co.), "tostitos" (EST Marathon of One-Act Plays), "on edge" and "the ride"(Humana Fest.), "audiovideo" (The Directors Project) and "sandlot ball" (Mile Square). 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 on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. He is a recipient of the Rockwood Arts and Culture Fellowship, the Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, a TCG/New Generations Grant, the Non-Profit Excellence Award from the Center of Non-Profit Management and is a Southern California Leadership Network Fellow. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.