Theater setting gives the Bard that extra something

New Swan Shakespeare Festival's fifth season is featured in the Daily Pilot. (Photo by Paul R. Kennedy)

The Top 25 Undergraduate Drama Schools Ranked

Aspiring thesps can follow in the footsteps of some of the industry's biggest stars, who got their start at these top programs.

THR Ranks the 25 Best Drama Schools for an MFA

There are enough schools offering master's degrees in the performing arts to fill every page of this magazine — about 17,000 students get an MFA degree a year. Of course, a lot of those diplomas aren't worth the parchment they're printed on, much less...

One Story, Two Rooms: The Telematic Project

Responsibility. Heroes. Morals versus rules. Bureaucracy. Confusion. Desperation. Siblings. Chaos. Fuck the man! Distance versus closeness. Passive aggressiveness. Safety. Fire. Decisions. Privilege. This potpourri comprises the smattering of audience...

“Clybourne Park” Debuts Sunday and Unapologetically Mirrors Racial Tensions

If the purpose of theater is to hold a cracked mirror to society, then UCI drama’s latest production unapologetically reflected ugly truths, as Bruce Norris’ “Clybourne Park” premiered last Saturday at Claire Trevor’s Robert Cohen Theater. Actress...

From LOST to Claire Trevor: Leslie Ishii Fights Racism in Clybourne Park

LOST actress Leslie Ishii crossed the color line when she and her family became the first Asian-Americans to settle in an all-white Seattle neighborhood in 1959. Now, over 4 decades later, Ishii continues to defy the status quo as the first woman of...

Care/Cure/Corruption: What it and Why it Matters

What do care, cure and corruption all have in common? Yes, they all start with C, but they are also the three tenets of the Drama Department’s 2016 season: “Care/Cure/Corruption” (CCC). The Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) brands each season...

UCI Drama Presents: Man of La Mancha

Claire Trevor’s Drama Department will commence its 2015-16 season themed “Care, Cure and Corruption” with the first production, “Man of La Mancha.” This will mark the department’s first production in the Barclay Theater in over five years...

Live this month in OC: Man of La Mancha AND Laguna Art Museum

UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts director Don Hill presents his version of “Man of La Mancha,” in this year’s dramatic arts theme Care/Cure/Corruption, at the Irvine Barclay Theater. Ticket sales are brisk and available at www.arts.uci.edu or the...

Shaken, Not Stirred

Be careful wandering around Irvine, Calif.—you could get ambushed by with some Bard-spewing prose by a fobbing lily-livered vassal! Or at least a University of California Irvine student. Jane Page, head of drama, has taken Shakespeare off the boards...

You've only got 10 minutes: Can you put on a musical? They did, in contest performances at UC

The winners of a national musical-writing competition for college and high school students were declared Aug. 29 after the six student finalists debuted their shows at UC Irvine. Judges at the Showsearch performance in the Claire Trevor Theatre...

Student-written musical gets the star treatment

The Festival of New American Musicals, in residence at UC Irvine, hosts a nationwide search each year for new short musicals created by high school and college students. Show Search 2015 included six musicals written by aspiring artists ages 16-23 and...

UCI's first fine arts dean, Clayton Garrison, dies at 93

Clayton Garrison, stage director, theater professor and inaugural dean of the school of fine arts at UC Irvine, died July 27. He was 93. The university's founding chancellor, Daniel G. Aldrich Jr., invited Garrison to create the school in 1964, luring...

Founder of UC Irvine fine arts school was a 'Renaissance man'

Clayton Garrison, an internationally acclaimed choreographer and director, left a lasting legacy at UC Irvine. The founding dean of the School of Fine Arts, now known as the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, he envisioned a full-fledged conservatory...

UCI's New Swan Shakespeare Festival Brings On the Bard

Eli Simon wanted to build a theater. Like, a really cool theater. He had the money, thanks to funds from a department of excellence award (given to the UC Irvine drama department), as well as generous donors. He had the talent; he's been UC Irvine chancel

On Theater: UCI bringing Shakespeare into modern age

Shakespeare under the stars has become a summer fixture at UC Irvine, where the university's New Swan Shakespeare Festival is gearing up for its fourth season. This year's schedule, opening next Friday, features a tragedy and a comedy, "Macbeth" and...

Martin atmospheric effects bring the set alive in UC Irvine production

University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) Claire Trevor School of the Arts presented "The Electra Project", famed Romanian director Mihai Maniutiu’s reimagining of the classic Electra story. This stunning and avant-garde piece followed Maniutiu’s...

Sweet Smell of Success

Listen to Ashton Martin's review of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS on AMB Theatre, Fridays 4-5pm PST, online at KUCI.org.