Mark Valdez is a director, writer, and producer based in Los Angeles. For two decades, he has been partnering with communities, organizations, civic institutions, and others, using theater and creative tools to address community needs and amplify community voices and stories. He began this work in his home base of Los Angeles as the Associate Artistic Director for Cornerstone Theater Company, an ensemble that creates plays in, with, and for communities in Los Angeles and across the nation. Among his projects with Cornerstone, Valdez directed the first-ever approved adaptation of the Kaufman and Hart comedy classic, You Can’t Take It With You, adapted to the American-Muslim community in the wake of 9/11. He also directed Order My Steps, a collaboration with African-American churches and clergy focusing on the issue of HIV/AIDS within the African-American community. Valdez’s theater-making skills and sensibilities have been sought after in communities around the country. He has been a long-term artist-in-residence with Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, where he is working to create programs and strategies that deepen and strengthen relationships between the theater and its neighborhood.