Set and prop designers Lisa Lechuga and Evan Bartoletti spent the past three years pulling strings to bring their latest piece to life. Alumni Lechuga and Bartoletti founded Lechetti Art & Design, a scenic design company that specializes in creating sets for theater and live events. The two share a 12-year professional partnership, combining their […]
Category Archives: Theater & Fine Arts
Theater meets psychiatry in play about mental illness and ‘Friends’
Joseph Mango knows friends can be the best therapy – and Phoebe, Joey, Rachel, Ross, Chandler and Monica are the best therapists. Mango, a senior public administrative analyst for the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society, penned a play called “The One With Friends,” about a struggling Los Angeles actor who meets a writer […]
New faculty member encourages students to use dance for self-expression
Kyle Abraham has danced from Brooklyn to Paris – but this year, he will be calling UCLA home base. Abraham joined the faculty of the world arts and cultures/dance department this year. The MacArthur fellow, dancer, choreographer and founder of the Abraham.In.Motion dance company said he hopes to use his new university position to teach […]
UCLA alum Kevin Doherty puppeteers Olaf in live ‘Frozen’ production
Nine UCLA alumni joined the cast of “Frozen – Live at the Hyperion,” performing as Elsa, Olaf, Hans, Kristoff or the ensemble. The live adaptation of the 2013 Disney animated film “Frozen” currently plays three times a day at Disney California Adventure after opening in May. Each week, the Daily Bruin will share alumni’s experiences […]
Dancer challenges sexuality stereotypes through unique choreography
Bernard Brown said he couldn’t hug another man growing up in South Los Angeles – doing so elicited scowls of disapproval. The graduate student wants to challenge the stereotype of gay men as inferior by questioning the gender roles he believes are generally assigned to sexual acts, such as the male being dominant, Brown said. As a […]
Professor’s “A Mexican Trilogy” shows cultural pressures on immigrants
When Jose Luis Valenzuela was debating whether or not to join the Chicano theater movement of the 1960s, a professor asked if he wanted to make history or let it pass by him. Nearly 50 years later, the UCLA directing professor wants to use the stage to improve the way people think about American immigrants. […]
Fowler Museum exhibition features UCLA alumnus’ work with fibers
Weaving was considered feminine when James Bassler first secretly worked with fiber in helping his father hook rugs in the 1930s. In the privacy of the family home, 6-year-old Bassler watched his father, a major league baseball player, trade his catcher’s mitt for strips of dyed silk. Bassler, a UCLA alumnus and previous faculty member, […]