THEATER

Michael John Garces

Director-playwright

New York-based director and playwright Michael John Garces, 38, will cross the country to take over Cornerstone Theater in the wake of the departure of the L.A. company’s longtime artistic director, Bill Rauch.

Cornerstone is known for multicultural collaborations with local communities, and Garces says he has no plans to change that emphasis. His resume includes similar work -- with African American and Somali residents for a show at the Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis and residencies with a consensus-run collective in Chiapas, Mexico.

An artistic associate and former co-producing artistic director at INTAR, a Latino arts center in New York, Garces “is very high-wattage and will bring a lot of New York energy,” says Luis Alfaro, whose “Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner” was directed by Garces at L.A.’s Ivy Substation in 2003. “He’s very charismatic. If you work with him, you tend to fall in love with him.”