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‘The Last Lifeboat': The Other Side of Titanic

The story of the Titanic has been one of vast cultural significance ever since the first film based on the incident was released only 29 days following the actual sinking. Fast forward a century later and its inspiration has been translated in every art..
 
Play at UC Irvine considers Ismay's role in the Titanic

On the night of April 14, 1912, an iceberg struck the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage. J. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line, which operated the ship, found a seat on a lifeboat and made his way through the freezing night to...
 
UC Irvine Department of Drama Founder Robert Cohen Retires

When Robert Cohen wakes up in his Laguna Beach home, Samuel Beckett is in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. Jerzy Grotowski is on his couch, watching the morning news. Patrick Stewart walks in the front door, carrying the newspaper. Or maybe it just...
 
Improv Helps Ph.D.'s Explain Their Work—and Loosen Up

The question surprised Lyl Tomlinson. The graduate student in neuroscience was telling a room full of about 150 people about his research into how exercise improved memory in mice, when a query from a panel threw him a curveball: Could there be a link...
 
2014 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS Winners Announced - Geffen's THE COUNTRY HOUSE, 110 IN THE SHADE & More!

The 2014 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Award winners were announced. Congratulations to our Drama alum Amanda McRaven for her best Director of a Play and to Meghan Brown for best Original Play both for "The Pliant Girls" at the Fugitive Kind Theater.
Faculty 
Eli Simon directs the world premiere of Clovni Extraterestri (Extraterrestrial Clowns)

Eli Simon, Chancellor's Professor of Drama, returned to the National Theater of Romania in Cluj this fall to direct the world premiere of his original production, Clovni Extraterestri (Extraterrestrial Clowns), the second installment of his War of the Clowns saga. Vincent Olivieri, Associate...
 
CTSA to Present THE LAST LIFEBOAT, Begin. 11/14

The Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) at the University of California, Irvine has announced the world premiere of a new play by award-winning playwright Luke Yankee. The Last Lifeboat is the untold story of J. Bruce Ismay, the owner of the White...
 
Best Theatrical Ensemble Orange County 2014 - Twelfth Night

The venue—a 9-ton, three-tiered replication of an open-air Elizabethan-era theater—may be what garners the New Swan Shakespeare Festival attention, but Eli Simon's inventive staging of Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night truly soared because of his...
 
BWW Reports: LUKE YANKEE's New Play About the AFTERMATH of the TITANIC

A new play by award-winning playwright Luke Yankee will receive its world premiere at UC-Irvine this November. The Last Lifeboat is the untold story of J. Bruce Ismay, the owner of the White Star Line at the time of the sinking of the Titanic...
 
UCI Theatre Promises Passionate Performances

Love theater but hate driving up to LA? Me, too! So let's take advantage of having UCIrvine's Department of Drama right in our own backyard. Check out these three upcoming shows. The Last Lifeboat looks at the Titanic tragedy from a different...
 
Theater Expert Robert Cohen’s 4 Tips for Getting Onstage

Robert Cohen is a university professor, theater director, playwright, and drama critic who has written 20 books on the art of theater and acting. When did your love for theater begin? I started going to the theater when I was 6 or 7. My parents....
Faculty 
Myrona DeLaney Directed “Hello, Dolly!”

Lecturer of Drama Myrona DeLaney recently directed Hello, Dolly!, a production of the Saddleback Civic Light Opera and the Department of Theatre Arts, at the beautiful McKinney Theater on the Saddleback College Campus. For more information on Myrona DeLaney click on the link below: http://drama....
Faculty 
Joel Veenstra Deserves a Standing Ovation for Work as General Manager of the New Swan Shakespeare Festival

Drama Lecturer Joel Veenstra has done an outstanding job as the General Manager for the New Swan Shakespeare Festival, having just completed his second year of teaching at UCI after graduating with his MFA in Drama from CTSA in 2011. Prior to his appointment at UCI, Joel served as the production...
 
Sweet Smell of Success musical coming to the Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts

The musical “Sweet Smell of Success” is coming to the University of California, Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts from 5/30/2015 to 6/6/2015. Sweet Smell of Success (Music by the late Marvin Hamlisch, Lyrics by Craig...
 
A Tale of Two Shakespeares

tale of two Shakespeare companies: one benefiting from an intimate relationship with the well-funded, respected UC Irvine theater department and has created one of the most striking performance venues you will ever see; the other a gypsy troupe that...
 
‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Hyperbole: bard’ at UCI’s New Swan, ‘Tempest’ brewing

After seeing a production of “Twelfth Night” last year, I decided it wasn’t one of Shakespeare’s better plays. New Swan Shakespeare Festival’s current production (running through Aug. 30 at UC Irvine) has convinced me there’s more to it...
 
New Swan Shakespeare Festival's Twelfth Night

You’ll understand the “no late seating” warning if you first take in the amazing New Swan Shakespeare Festival’s sustainable, portable outdoor mini-Elizabethan theatre in daylight hours, a reproduction built...
 
New Swan Shakespeare Festival returns to UC Irvine

Eli Simon knows a thing or two about giving William Shakespeare’s plays a breath of fresh air. Simon serves as the artistic director for the New Swan Shakespeare Festival, a seven-week-long event to be hosted at UC Irvine from Thursday through...