The Team
Mark-n-Sparks
Mark-n-Sparks helmed by ashley sparks and Mark Valdez, co-directors who have been collaborating since 2008. Mark-n-Sparks bring over 40 years experience working in and with communities, helping to lift up local stories and address local concerns while pushing aesthetic boundaries of community-based artmaking. Together, we operate on a spectrum of leadership, observing a practice guided by values more than a methodology.
“Valdez and Sparks have spent their careers working at the intersection of the arts, theater, cultural organization, community engagement and consulting — and are uniquely poised to use performance practice in service of effecting social, cultural and political change.”
Mark Valdez
His work has been seen at the Alliance Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, East West Players, The Garry Marshall Theater, La Peña Cultural Center, Mixed Blood, the Ricardo Montalban Theater/CTG, and Trinity Rep, among others. Recent projects include Lisa Loomer's play, Roe, and his adaption of Gary Soto's book, Chato's Kitchen.
Mark is the recipient of various grants and awards including the 2019 Johnson Fellowship for Artists, Transforming Communities. He is a current finalist A Blade of Grass Fellowship. He is a Board member of Double Edge Theatre and Cornerstone Theater, and a former Board member for Theater Communications Group (TCG).
Presently, Mark is working on The Most Beautiful Home... Maybe, a multi-city project that aims to impact housing policy utilizing performance, cultural organizing, and creative community development strategies. He is also creating a new piece commissioned by Trinity Rep, with and for Rhode Island's Latinx population, as well as a community collaboration in his home neighborhood of Highland Park, commissioned by Cornerstone.
ashley sparks
ashley sparks
Southern theatre maker, engagement strategist, facilitator, collaboration coach and consultant. ashley has worked across the US and gracefully switched hats depending on the job, cause, or client. Urban cities like New Orleans, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Atlanta live closely in her heart alongside rural towns like Stuarts Draft, Milton-Freewater, Lost Hills, and Eureka.
ashley curates and produces. Currently, she works for the Network of Energy Water and Health in Affordable Buildings (NEWHAB) as event producer for their Annual Convening. She worked for the Network of Ensemble Theaters MicroFest USA event series. Her role included both organizing production logistics and working closely with community members to tell their stories to a national audience. This festival/think-tank series highlighted the impact art has in revitalizing communities. These festivals were structured as durational performance/cultural field trips exploring how artists are using their tools to address community issues. MicroFests were convened in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Honolulu, New Orleans, Detroit, Knoxville and Harlan County, Kentucky.
Michael Garcia
Michael is an arts administrator and director that works along the intersection of community- and civic-engaged arts. He’s currently working with theater artists Mark-n-Sparks on their project The Most Beautiful Home… Maybe, which examines affordable housing and the national housing crisis. He’s worked with Cornerstone Theater Company in varying artistic and administrative capacities for years, most recently as the associate director of What Happens Next, a collaboration with veterans, and for Native Nation, the culmination of a 2-year engagement process with native folks in the Phoenix metropolitan area, over which he also served as the Engagement Associate. He recently joined the Cornerstone staff as Administrative Associate and also joined its ensemble of artists. In his work he’s traveled nationally and internationally, visiting elementary schools in El Salvador as the tour manager for the Urban Latin Dance Theatre company CONTRA-TIEMPO; and as a stage manager for an ice opera festival at The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. Another highlight was touring as stage manager for Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s /peh-LO-tah/ to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Kennedy Center. He has a BA from the University of California, Irvine, and transferred there from Rio Hondo Community College. He lives in Whittier, CA.
