Cornerstone Theater names artistic director

New York-based playwright and director Michael John Garces has been named the new artistic director of Cornerstone Theater, the L.A.-based ensemble that specializes in site-specific, multicultural collaborations with local communities.

Born in Miami of a Cuban father and a Minnesota-reared mother, Garces lived with his family in Colombia, where his father was an accountant, from age 6 to 18. He returned to Florida to attend the University of Miami, where he received a fine arts degree.

His most prominent L.A. credit was directing Luis Alfaro’s “Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner” for the Center Theatre Group at the Ivy Substation in 2003. As a playwright, he received a CTG commission for the play “Customs.” He has never worked with Cornerstone but said he has seen “a good amount” of the group’s productions.

Cornerstone’s longtime artistic director and co-founder, Bill Rauch, will leave the job in March. Garces, 38, foresees no changes in the company’s philosophy, “which is what attracted me to it. It occupies a unique place in American theater, and I’m not interested in re-inventing the wheel.”

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-- Don Shirley