In its Faith-Based Theater Cycle, Cornerstone Theater Company created original, community-based plays in collaboration with specific faith-based institutions and inter-faith communities to explore how faith both unites and divides American society. The project provided an opportunity for Cornerstone—in partnership with the National Conference for Community and Justice, Los Angeles region—to engage multiple communities around this powerful and often challenging theme, as well as to work in depth, over time, and with cumulative impact. The four and a half year Cycle includes several civic dialogue components occurring via community story circles that supported artistic content, weekly inter-faith dialogue sessions in various formats associated with the theater-going experience. Cornerstone created Zones—part play, part community conversation—in which characters confront the challenges of living in a religiously pluralistic city, and, as part of the play, audience members were encouraged to do the same with each other. The Faith-Based Theater Cycle included additional community collaborations in which dialogue contributed to the development of plays exploring issues of Catholic immigrants; the relationship of African American clergy with African American people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS; and multifaith gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender participants. A bridge show in 2005 will bring together participants from each of the faith-based residencies.

The Faith-Based Theater Cycle case study, written by Cornerstone members, offers an inside look at this project and also includes further reflections by Animating Democracy liaison Caron Atlas. For a company whose work is based on tolerance and inclusion, this project began with the challenging question: “When does tolerance lead to a betrayal of one’s beliefs?”  The case examines questions about how dialogue and art can embrace strongly felt points of view without neutralizing them, as well as examining the relationship between private and public in a project focusing on faith that also touched on politics and sexuality. It explores artistic questions Cornerstone faced about balancing both community and outside artists’ visions while maintaining a high standard of artistic excellence. The case study also provides insights into the mutual growth of Cornerstone and NCCJ in their arts-based civic dialogue practice, as well as tensions that arose and were worked out in the collaboration, such as the safety/trust needed for good dialogue and the risk-taking needed for good art.