Author Archives: Rhea Cortado

In the abstract realm of dance, many choreographers claim their work is accessible to the general public. But in reality, few deliver, and audience members are left scratching their heads in confusion. But Stephen Petronio, who will perform at Royce Hall this Friday and Saturday night, doesn’t claim to invite the audience into his work […]

“Topdog/Underdog” Ahmanson Theater From the beginning, playwright Susan-Lori Parks sets up history to repeat itself with two brothers named Lincoln and Booth in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Topdog/Underdog.” Parks pushes the pun further with Lincoln’s job: role-playing as President Abraham Lincoln in white face makeup at an arcade as kids re-enact the assassination of the […]

When Victoria Vesna and Jim Gimzewski began engineering the interactive, all-ages exhibit “nano” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts’ Boone Children’s Gallery, they did not anticipate aggressive children breaking the cameras and microphones or getting lodged in the tunnel-like kaleidoscope. Gimzewski, a chemistry professor at UCLA, takes all these technical difficulties in stride. […]

Costume design is an elusive art in film, where the correct clothing is essential to the audience’s abandonment of reality for two hours and buying into the characters created on the silver screen. To honor costume designers whose work is essential yet sometimes overlooked, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising holds an annual exhibit […]

UCLA theater student Heather Leimberg trained her whole life to perform on Broadway. This past summer, sweating in ballet class and nailing those notes in singing lessons paid off when she shared the stage of New York’s Neil Simon Theatre with Tony Award winners as part of the ensemble cast in the musical “Hairspray.” Based […]

No topic is off limits to laugh about with comedians. At the scheduled time for his phone interview, Jo Koy, a regular at the Laugh Factory, is in the emergency room because he thinks his 8-month-old son swallowed a penny. For the rescheduled interview, Koy raves about Wolfgang Puck’s canned clam chowder that is on […]