| > Home > University
Advancement > Newsroom
- 2007 Press Releases > DH 07 JH01
Newsroom
Archive | Experts Online
January 5, 2007
DH 07 JH01
Contact: Joanie Harmon-Whetmore
(310) 243-2740/2001
New CSU Dominguez Hills Theater Company to Tell Stories of the South Bay
Carson, CA - The recently formed Dominguez Bridge Theatre Company (DBTC) is a branch of the Theatre Arts Department
at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills. The group is made up of students, alumni, faculty and staff, and local
residents who have committed to presenting community-related theatre throughout the South Bay.
The formation of the DBTC was inspired by The Carson Bridge Project, a collaboration between the CSUDH
campus and the community. Interviews that CSUDH students, alumni, and Bill DeLuca, professor and chair of Theatre Arts,
conducted with members of the community became an original work written by nationally acclaimed playwright
José Cruz González. González, formerly project director of South Coast Repertory’s Hispanic Playwrights Project
and a National Endowment for the Arts Director Fellow, was commissioned by the Carson Fine Arts and Historical
Commission for the Project. The Fall 2006 production of “A House Named Eden” was centered on personal testimonies
from Carson residents, with a plot that revolved around the city’s origins, history,
social consciousness, and its future.
The DBTC’s goal to build bridges between the University and its diverse service areas of the South Bay and Los
Angeles will include mainstage productions at the University Theatre, culturally-enriching plays performed at
area schools, and workshops and play readings at community locations.
The DBTC draws its inspiration from the Cornerstone Theater Company, a multi-ethnic, ensemble-based national
theater company that is based in Los Angeles.
“Theatre has always been embraced as a way to see ourselves onstage,” says DeLuca, who is the DBTC’s artistic
director, “but the Cornerstone concept of drawing the subject of a play from the issues that concern a community
and having those who live that life perform it onstage is perhaps the best definition of relevant theatre. In
adopting this innovative approach, Dominguez Bridge plans to develop an ongoing arts relationship with local schools,
businesses, community centers, and residents, a relationship that will help CSUDH further realize its mission to
become a true ‘communiversity.’”
DBTC’s next production, “The Alumni Show,” will be created from three months of interviews and storytelling sessions
with graduates from 40 years of CSU Dominguez Hills, many of whom live and work in the South Bay area. Interviews
will begin this January, with a draft and first reading of the play anticipated this summer. The production will be
staged by DeLuca in November 2007 with a cast of the graduates themselves, acting along with CSUDH students.
For information on how to serve as a Community Partner, student interviewer, alumni storyteller, or production
participant, please contact DeLuca at (310) 243-2400, BdeLuca@csudh.edu or Loretta Adikhai, director of event scheduling
and planning, at (310) 243-2666 or ladikhai@csudh.edu.
CSU Dominguez Hills - University Communications & Public Affairs
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747
|
