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Taking a BowTaking a Bow
By Christine Byrd One of the most satisfying parts of my tenure has been raising awareness of the way in which arts are radically interdisciplinary. Stephen Barker’s career is hard to pin down: He has been a dancer, actor, director, creative writer, translator, critical theorist and, for...
Hooked from the StartHooked from the Start
Professor Michael Hooker receives top honor for career achievement in sound design By Jill Kato Professor Michael Hooker has received the 2022 Distinguished Achievement Award in Sound Design from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), the premiere organization in his...
Forging a Common BondForging a Common Bond
Three UCI M.F.A. artists from 1969-71 reconvene in an Armory exhibition in Pasadena. By Richard Chang In 1969, three young women entered the newly formed M.F.A. program at UCI not really knowing what to expect. They were all divorcees with children. Each was doing a kind of art that was...
Arts Advocates: Mary Watson-BruceArts Advocates: Mary Watson-Bruce
OPERA AFICIONADO Q&A with Mary Watson-Bruce Mary Watson-Bruce, Ph.D. social sciences ’82, has an extensive history with UCI. She served as the associate director of geriatric medicine at UCI for ten years, and her late husband, Dickson Bruce, was a professor of history for over four...
Christopher Adriance Named Vice President of Marketing for the Irvine Barclay TheatreChristopher Adriance Named Vice President of Marketing for the Irvine Barclay Theatre
Christopher Adriance (B.Mu. ’11) recently joined the Irvine Barclay Theatre as the Vice President of Marketing, overseeing the organization’s strategic marketing, branding and communications. Adriance joins the Barclay after eight years with the Pacific Symphony. During his time at the...
Curtains UpCurtains Up
UCI alumni and faculty help reopen live theater on Broadway and national tours By Christine Byrd One of Kaden Kearney’s, M.F.A. ’19, last performances before the pandemic was at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Now, Kearney is taking curtain calls at the Kennedy Center and the Ahmanson...
Making Music Together
Learning the StepsLearning the Steps
Young alumni are prepared to thrive in their professional dance careers By Christine Byrd Lauren Gresens’ final performance as a student was a solo in North Star, a piece by acclaimed modern dance choreographer and UCI professor Lar Lubovitch. When she graduated a few months later, in June...
Jeffrey Lo Strives to Connect Theater with Diverse CommunitiesJeffrey Lo Strives to Connect Theater with Diverse Communities
By Richard Chang Since graduating from UC Irvine in 2010, Jeffrey Lo has kept busy. He has stuffed a résumé full of accomplishments while pursuing theater in Silicon Valley — not exactly the first place you might think of when it comes to live theater. But he’s a San Jose native, so blazing...
Arts Advocates: Susan HoriArts Advocates: Susan Hori
CREATIVE DEFENDER Q&A with Susan Hori Susan Hori is a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where she specializes in land use and environmental law. She has supported the Claire Trevor School of the Arts since 1997, and has been a longtime member of the Medici Circle,...
Elaine Koshimizu Endowed Scholarship for Inclusive Excellence in DanceElaine Koshimizu Endowed Scholarship for Inclusive Excellence in Dance
The Department of Dance at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts ranks third in California and 10th in the U.S. Despite being nationally acclaimed, each year the department competes with other top dance programs to recruit high-achieving and underrepresented students in dance. Students often select...
Chloe King and Summer Session Uplift Queer Voices Chloe King and Summer Session Uplift Queer Voices
Medici Scholars Chloe King and Summer Session Uplift Queer Voices in Searching for Shelter By Lauren Knight When UCI Drama M.F.A. directing candidates Chloe King and Summer Session started collaborating last summer, they had no idea that their co-directed project on racism in childhood would...
Mari Kimura Explores Music’s Intersections with Technology and ScienceMari Kimura Explores Music’s Intersections with Technology and Science
By Richard Chang Mari Kimura, a professor of music at UCI’s Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology program, is connecting students, disciplines and departments with her groundbreaking work. She’s fostering collaboration and interaction during times when the coronavirus pandemic has...
Emerging BrighterEmerging Brighter
UCI student artists discovered and honed new skills in 2021 By Christine Byrd When UCI moved operations online a year and a half ago, everyone gained new skills: creating an at-home studio, mastering Zoom meetings and troubleshooting technology. But as artists struggled to keep their creative...
Donnetta Lavinia Grays Views Theater as a Place ‘Where Community Can Flourish’Donnetta Lavinia Grays Views Theater as a Place ‘Where Community Can Flourish’
By Richard Chang UC Irvine M.F.A. graduate Donnetta Lavinia Grays (acting, ’02) was already an accomplished actor and playwright when she received news this year that would change her life. In February, she was informed that she had won a prestigious Whiting Award, a $50,000 annual grant that...
Arts Advocates: Rick SteinArts Advocates: Rick Stein
COMMUNITY STRATEGIST Q&A with Rick Stein Rick Stein has served as the president and CEO of Arts Orange County, the local nonprofit arts agency, since 2008. He was previously the executive director of the Laguna Playhouse for 17 years and, prior to that, managing director of the...
Raising Community VoicesRaising Community Voices
Director and playwright Juliette Carrillo helps bring hidden stories to the stage By Christine Byrd When Juliette Carrillo's play Plumas Negras was performed in 2013 in the East Salinas, Calif., community where it was set, some audience members were brought to tears. Not only had Carrillo...
Zooming to UCIZooming to UCI
Artists from around the world paid virtual visits to UCI students, opening new windows of opportunity By Christine Byrd When music major Cassandra Leisher asked the New York Philharmonic’s Ryan Roberts, a classical French horn and oboe player, how he calms pre-audition nerves, she was...
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