This post was updated Oct. 2 at 4:25 p.m. The geopolitics behind President Donald Trump’s Twitter beef with Kim Jong Un is among several subjects that are the focus of artworks in the “We, Activeast” show. The event, which opened Thursday, is organized by graduate students of the UCLA Department of Art as a part […]
Category Archives: Theater & Fine Arts
Alum’s performance art features perseverance of marginalized in academic spaces
If EJ Hill were to found his own university, its motto would be “Excellentia, Mollitia, Victoria,” meaning excellence, resilience, victory. The motto is also the name of his recent endurance performance for “Made in L.A.” Alumnus Hill recently shared his work for the biennial series at the Hammer Museum, which closed this month. Hill received […]
UCLA alum wakes the dead in new vampire ‘fangster’ musical
Five Philadelphian vampires emerge from caskets onto a Los Angeles stage. “Blood Rock: The Musical” opened to the public at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble on Thursday. UCLA alumnus Thomas Hollow stars as protagonist Paul Figatner, the son of a vampire hunter. The musical follows two rival gangs of the undead during the investigation surrounding the […]
Theater festival aims to break Spanish-language plays into American canon
LA’s upcoming festival will prove that classical theater is more than just Shakespeare. Next week, the city will host LA Escena, the first ever Hispanic classical theater festival. The festival was put together by the Diversifying the Classics program at UCLA, which works with the theater department to translate and perform plays from Spanish Golden […]
Graduate student’s play examines privilege, brutality and enduring injustice
Cary Simowitz’s law school colleagues skipped exams to protest the 2014 Darren Wilson verdict in the streets – he wrote a play about the issue instead. The graduate playwriting student further developed and staged a reading of his play “Djarum Vanilla“ at the annual Kennedy Center New Play Festival at the beginning of August. The […]
Alumnus to star in unique production of musical ‘The World Goes ‘Round’
Michael Starr viewed “Gigi,” one of the original Reprise company’s final shows, as a student. Now, the alumnus will star in Reprise 2.0’s production of “The World Goes ‘Round.” Opening Sept. 5 at the Ralph Freud Playhouse, the rendition of the 1991 musical is the second of three shows comprising the theater company’s inaugural season. […]
Playwright group to present dynamic, political showcase from female writers
The showcase of East West Players’ inaugural playwrights group includes everything from a musical about classism and sewer rats to a one-woman show about a Japanese-American heroine. The group was initially launched in April 2017 by East West Players, the longest running professional theater of color. The playwrights will put on FEME (First Syllable Female) […]