Adam Nagourney The New York Times

For all its considerable delights, Southern California always seems faintly on the cusp of an apocalypse. There are palm trees, year-round gardens and splendid weather - it was 81 degrees and sunny on Sunday - but there are also mudslides, gang shootings, wildfires and earthquakes.

Fifteen men darted across the room, their faces slathered in greasepaint, reciting lines from "Tartuffe." The stage, such as it was, was a low-ceilinged recreation room and the cast was a troupe of felons who had just stepped in from the dusty yard of the California Rehabilitation Center.For four hours, they conducted workshops under the direction ...

For all its considerable delights, Southern California always seems faintly on the cusp of an apocalypse. There are palm trees, year-round gardens and splendid weather - it was 81 degrees and sunny on Sunday - but there are also mudslides, gang shootings, wildfires and earthquakes.

Fifteen men darted across the room, their faces slathered in greasepaint, reciting lines from "Tartuffe." The stage, such as it was, was a low-ceilinged recreation room and the cast was a troupe of felons who had just stepped in from the dusty yard of the California Rehabilitation Center.For four hours, they conducted workshops under the direction ...