BUILDING A DRAMATIC BEDROCK.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Another new venue for the Cornerstone Theater Company? Ho hum!

When the entire city or, for that matter, the entire country is your working space, what's another arena? After you've performed in Angelus Plaza, shopping malls, subway terminals, church social halls, empty stores and the Central Library, are we really supposed to get excited about a show in a plain old theater?

Well, OK, maybe it's a little exciting, since that arena happens to be one of the city's best-known professional venues.

``People ask me where I'm going to be performing,'' said Harris Craig Jr. who has a small role in the Cornerstone Theater Company's production of ``For Here or to Go.'' ``I say, 'The Mark Taper Forum.' They say, 'Ooohh.' It's definitely an honor.''

Cornerstone, the 15-year-old nomadic troupe that built its reputation creating location-specific plays in largely theater-free communities throughout the country, now gets to work in a space where audiences have come to expect quality drama.

And Taper staff members are happy to have them there. Center Theatre Group officials have worked with Cornerstone members before, even giving them a performance space for a reworking of Shakespeare's ``Twelfth Night'' presented at the John Anson Ford Theatre in 1994. This is just the continuation of a long relationship.

``They were already a company of some note when they came to L.A., and they've been a significant player on the L.A. scene, even without their own space,'' said Corey Madden, associate artistic director at the Taper. ``I think they're very much a high-achieving company, and they fit the criteria for the type of work we're trying to present.''

Audiences familiar with Cornerstone's work may have seen one of the company's updates of dramatic classics with titles such as ``Everyman in the Mall,'' ``Candude'' and ``A California Seagull.'' Rather than go for a straight-ahead period adaptation, Cornerstone sets up in a community, enlisting locals to perform and adapts the text for that particular location. Brecht's ``The Good Person of Setzuan,'' became ``The Good Person of Long Creek, Oregon'' set in a cattle sale barn; ``Three Sisters in West Virginia'' was Chekhov's ``The Three Sisters'' brought to a Rust Belt city, tackling the theme of Appalachian migration and staged in a City Hall basement.

The experiences made for some pretty interesting memories.

``I got to play Clytemnestra when I was 23,'' said actress Amy Brenneman, who starred in ``The House on Walker River,'' Cornerstone's adaptation of Aeschylus' ``The Oresteia'' set on the Walker River Piute Indian Reservation near Reno, Nevada. ``It was incredibly stark. The aesthetics of the indigenous culture, the landscape and our choice of the play really just coalesced to make it magical.''

The company still travels, but the communities of Los Angeles have proved more than fertile ground for a play to become Cornerstoned. ``For Here or to Go,'' which plays at the Taper Sunday through Dec. 24, is kind of Cornerstone's holiday gift to the city the company has called home since 1992. A true ``bridge show,'' ``For Here'' is designed to link the 14 communities that have been Cornerstone collaborators during the company's eight years in Los Angeles - from Pacoima to Baldwin Heights, from Parker Center to Beverly Hills.

The company planted its flag in Pacoima in 1992 for ``Rushing Waters'' a musical fantasy on racism. To date, that's the only Cornerstone show set in the Valley, but company Artistic Director Bill Rauch promises the company will return.

``It's been way too long,'' admits Rauch. ``When you consider the city's geographical diversity, we've said that the Valley is crucial.''

The current show, meanwhile, is kind a mish-mash, a multi-cultural fable about love and food.

``We knew we wanted to do a bridge show before we found out we'd get a holiday slot,'' said Rauch, who co-founded the company with Alison Carey. ``We thought this would be a great avenue for building bridges. It all kind of made sense.'' Not so coincidentally, the play - written by Carey and directed by Rauch - revolves around a convergence of differing cultures' holiday celebrations. Three of the four holidays being honored - Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan and Kwanzaa, overlap this year.

``There are a lot of surprises,'' said Craig, an aspiring singer whose day job is as a materials management worker for Quest Diagnostic in Van Nuys. ``I don't want to ruin anything, but it should be a pretty entertaining family show.''

``For Here or to Go'' is Craig's fourth Cornerstone show. He made his acting debut in ``Rushing Waters'' and later rejoined the company for ``L.A. Building'' and ``Everyman in the Mall.''

Craig kept up with the company - and vice versa - even during a six-year tour of duty in the U.S. Marine reserves. But that's sort of the way things go with this company: bridges are built and maintained.

Even Brenneman, a Cornerstone founding member before she developed a successful movie and TV career, keeps her ties. The ``Judging Amy'' star and executive producer is finishing up a term as the chair of the Cornerstone board of directors, and admits ``I don't want to blow a chance on a small part.''

But no, that opportunity didn't materialize for ``For Here or to Go.''

``Bill and I talked about it last summer,'' Brenneman said. ``We were trying to fashion a part where I wouldn't have to rehearse at all and maybe not even make all the performances. It didn't seem all that feasible.''

``FOR HERE OR TO GO''

Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; through Dec. 24.

Tickets: $25 Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Peter Howard, left, Emily Hong, Ahmad Enani and Gracy Brown appear in the Cornerstone Theatre Company's story of when Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Ramadan come together in ``For Here or to Go?'' now playing at the Mark Taper Forum through Dec. 24.