Drama News

Artful Summers

Summer Academies in the Arts offer college and career preparatory programs  By Christine Byrd Mafer Reyes had been dancing at private studios and ballet academies since she was 5 years old. But when it came time to think about college, she realized she had no idea what to...

‘We Need More’ of Taylor Fagins

The UCI Drama alum shares more about his journey to become an American Idol It’s nearly 10 p.m. on the third straight day of filming, and Taylor Fagins, ’17 is the final contestant to audition for American Idol’s celebrity judges. He sits down at a grand piano — an instrument he plays but...

Arts Advocates: Mary Gilly & John Graham

BARD BOOSTERS Q&A with Mary Gilly & John Graham Mary Gilly and her husband, John Graham, professors emeriti of marketing, are passionate about theater and the dramatic arts. They have been loyal supporters of the New Swan Shakespeare Festival since its founding in 2012. They became...

UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts Announces the 2022-23 Claire Trevor Society Scholars

  UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) is pleased to announce the next cohort of Claire Trevor Society Scholarships recipients for the 2022-23 academic year. Each year the Society awards six merit-based scholarships to exceptional students majoring in the Departments of Art, Dance,...

Shakespeare, Reunited

This, this! No more, you gods! Your present kindness Makes my past miseries sports. – Pericles By Christine Byrd Pericles’ joy over being reunited with his family after years apart may resonate with actors and audiences when Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Comedy of Errrorrs (note the...

CTSA Awards the 2021-22 Research & Innovation Grants

The Claire Trevor School of the Arts Research and Innovation Advisory Committee has named the next Research & Innovation Grants cohort. Formerly known as 21C Research Grants, the newly relaunched Research and Innovation Creative Research Grant will continue to build on 21C’s legacy in...

Indeed It's Our Town

South Coast Repertory continues to foster a professional pipeline to retain local talent from UCI By Matt Coker When David Ivers, the artistic director of South Coast Repertory (SCR), approached Beth Lopes about directing a rival of Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town in December 2019,...

Outdoor stage built at UCI for return of Shakespeare Festival

Eli Simon, the artistic director for the New Swan Shakespeare Festival and a professor in the Drama Department at UC Irvine, stands on the stage of the New Swan Theater being constructed on the plaza outside Langson Library at UC Irvine on Tuesday, May 31

65 Questions with Department Chair of Drama, Don Hill

New University’s 65 Questions with Department Chair of Drama, Don Hill. Walking through Claire Trevor School of The Arts, The New University immersed themselves into the directorial world of UCI’s upcoming show, Into the Woods.

UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts Names Thirteen New Medici Circle Scholars

UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) is pleased to announce the 2022 Medici Circle Scholars. Thirteen awards were given to both undergraduate and graduate students offering an opportunity to take their education beyond the classroom and collaborate with academics and artists in the community...

The art of inquiry

While much of the attention on research at UCI is directed at the sciences, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts has also generated research, although to much less notice. Jesse Colin Jackson is on a mission to change that.

CTSA has a record-breaking Giving Day!

On May 18, 2022, the UCI community held its annual online Giving Day, and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) had its most successful Giving Day to date, raising more than $60,000 from more than 150 gifts. Funds raised on went directly to the Departments of Art, Dance, Drama, and Music...

Alumnus Skyler Gray is changing the industry, one production at a time

By Mia Hammett Alum Skyler Gray (B.A. Directing and Stage Management, ’11) continues to push the boundaries of new play development. Having entered UCI as a music theater major, Gray’s academic and professional career inevitably evolved to recognize his desire to advocate for creators,...

Taking 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...

Play explores UCI’s PrisonPandemic project

The disembodied voices of incarcerated people – scared, pleading, angry, upset – will haunt a UCI play about the coronavirus in California’s crowded penitentiaries. Set to run April 29 through May 1 in the campus’s Little Theatre, “COVID in Custody” chronicles the real-life efforts of three UCI...

Tiffany López is named dean of UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts

Visionary arts and diversity leader comes from Arizona State University Tiffany López, Ph.D., visionary artist and administrator and proven champion for diversity and inclusion, has been named dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, following a...

Music Theatre Talent Kayla Quiroz on Identity and the Future

Support UCI Giving Day By Mia Hammett Triptych talent and third-year music theatre B.F.A. Kayla Quiroz won’t be slowing down anytime soon.  The actor-singer-dancer’s resume boasts a string of music theatre experience as early as her formative years. From an eight-year-old’s ...

Hooked 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...