Alumni News

Alum James Luna (1950-2018)

James Luna (BA 1977) passed away on March 3. He was a highly influential Native American performance artist with an international reputation. "Luna has had more than forty solo shows and participated in eighty-five group exhibitions. His work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the New...

Max Haymer to Perform at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in March

Max Haymer (BM, 2007) has been touring with jazz legend Arturo Sandoval. He will be performing with Sandoval at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on March 10. Haymer has toured internationally, performing at major jazz festivals and venues with a diverse range of renowned artists, and he has also...

Alumni and Faculty to be featured in Made in LA 2018 at the Hammer Museum

Opening June 3, Made in LA 2018, the Hammer Museum’s biennial survey exhibition of recent artwork from Southern Californian artists, is featuring two UCI alumni- Linda Stark (MFA 1985) and Alison O’Daniel (MFA 2010)- and one current UCI professor- Daniel Joseph Martinez- amongst its roster of 32...

Sepideh Moafi (MFA 2013) is starring in the new musical One Thousand Nights and One Day

Sepideh Moafi (MFA 2013) is starring in the new musical One Thousand Nights and One Day, to debut Off-Broadway this spring. Billed as a fresh take on The Arabian Nights, the new work will play in the mezzanine theatre at ART/New York. 

'Urban Light': Everything you didn't know about L.A.'s beloved landmark

The artwork, one of the city's most popular landmarks, turns 10 this month. To mark its first decade, the museum has switched from incandescent light bulbs to LEDs, a birthday gift from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. It’s something that the late Burden’s wife, Nancy Rubins, said would have...

Alumnus Hideki Yamaya in 'Farinelli and the King,' a Broadway Play with the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

  Hideki Yamaya (MFA guitar, 2001) will be playing theorbo continuo in a live Baroque ensemble for the Broadway play Farinelli and the King featuring Tony winner Mark Rylance. (January - March 2018)

Alumnus Joshua Romero, A Living Statue

“Sometimes people poke me to see if I’m real,” says Romero, who earned an M.F.A. in dance at UCI last year. Occasionally, he breaks character to surprise viewers. “I’ll open my eyes and wave, then go back to my pose. Or I’ll jump out and scare them,” he says.

Alumnus Sofia Carreras' Career A Dream Come True Despite Cancer Diagnosis

MFA Alumnus Sofia Carreras has shared the stage with Mikhail Baryshinikov and trained with the Sacramento Ballet, Capitol City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet.  As a choreographer, Carreras has had work performed at New York's Lincoln Center and a far away as Varna, Bulgaria. “I didn’t...

Musical Theatre West names Matt Terzigni as Production Manager

Matt Terzigni is a stage manager and company manager who has worked on both coasts and internationally. His extensive credits includes productions on the New York stage scene, including The Events with the New York Theater Workshop and Should I Have...It's all Wright, Sex with a Censor,...

Celebrating a Leader of Chicano Art

"That’s what Gilbert Luján loved to create. The late artist, who went by the nickname “Magu,” was a pioneer in the Chicano art movement in Los Angeles starting in the 1960s. A member of the Chicano art collective Los Four (which, ironically, later gained a fifth member in Judith Hernandez), he...

SoCal Sculptor Eric Johnson Brings Wood and Resin Masterpieces to Doyle Arts Pavilion

The work of second-genteration "Finish Fetish," or "L.A." Look," arist Eric Johnson, MFA, will be on view at Orange Coast College's Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion from February 8 until April 7 in an exhibit entitled "Helix2: Sculptures by Eric Johnson." Johnson - whose art combines shipwright-like...

UCI Art Department Alum Alexis Smith's Exhibition at Pepperdine’s Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art

January 20 - April 1, 2018 For over 40 years, Alexis Smith's art has explored the depths of popular culture. She begins with an array of images—ranging from thrift-store finds to nostalgic advertisements—and juxtaposes them with poetic and poignant texts. Her art underscores how the media shapes...

Amandla Bearden Featured in National Commercial

UCI Drama Alumni Amandla Bearden is currently featured in a national commercial for Credit Karma.  

Nick Manfredi in an Episode on "Betrayed"

Nick Manfredi (MFA 2016) was recently featured in an episode of Betrayed on ID (Information Discovery) Network.

Gwyn Conaway-Bennison recently published "The Story We Wear: Costume Design for Animators and Illustrators"

Gwyn Conaway-Bennison (MFA 2015), who is currently guest Costume Designer on UCI Drama’s Mrs. Packard, recently published The Story We Wear: Costume Design for Animators and Illustrators (Design Studio Press 2017).

Fun Home’s Beth Malone Joins Broadway’s Angels in America

The Tony nominee will share the role of the Angel at select performances with Amanda Lawrence. Beth Malone earned her first Tony nomination for her portrayal of Alison Bechdel in Fun Home. She also originated the role of June Carter Cash in Ring of Fire on Broadway, as...

Matt Koenig to perform in Southern California Production of "Cabaret"

Matt Koenig (MFA 2014) will be playing Ernst in La Mirada Center for the Performing Arts’ production of Cabaret in January – February 2018.