Cary Simowitz’s law school colleagues skipped exams to protest the 2014 Darren Wilson verdict in the streets – he wrote a play about the issue instead. Read more...
Photo: Graduate playwriting student Cary Simowitz spent a week workshopping his play “Djarum Vanilla” at the annual Kennedy Center New Play Festival. The play focuses on how the 2014 Darren Wilson verdict impacted St. Louis. (Lisa Aubry/Daily Bruin)
A group of gang members walking through a Hollywood farmers market 21 years ago stopped to listen to a young boy playing the violin. The five-year-old violinist was the son of Margaret Martin, UCLA alumna and the founder of the Harmony Project. Read more...
Photo: Alumna Margaret Martin founded Harmony Project, which offers music lessons to at-risk youth in Los Angeles. Martin said the project has grown from only 36 students to 6,000, and has expanded beyond the city to other school districts such as Riverside. (Isa Saalabi/Daily Bruin)
Eric Roth doesn’t sleep very much and whizzes through two or three books a week. The “Forrest Gump” writer and UCLA alumnus said his voracious reading is often used as precursive research to develop characters in screenplays. Read more...
Photo: Though he worked as a producer on the Emmy-nominated “The Alienist,” alumnus Eric Roth said he prefers working as a writer. He aims to remain accurate to small details when working on historical films such as the TNT drama. (Courtesy of Julia Hannafin)
Michael Starr viewed “Gigi,” one of the original Reprise company’s final shows, as a student. Now, the alumnus will star in Reprise 2.0’s production of “The World Goes ‘Round.” Opening Sept. Read more...
Photo: Alumnus Michael Starr stars in Reprise 2.0’s production of “The World Goes ‘Round,” a musical review featuring songs by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, known for their musicals “Chicago” and “Cabaret.” (Courtesy of Tom Drucker)
“Bloom” foregoes the all-too-common route of modern albums only including radio-friendly, upbeat songs. Instead, Troye Sivan’s latest album features more slow-to-mid-tempo numbers than fast ones. In a time when streaming continues to grow, having a song become a radio hit is not the only successful method to reach fans, so an album filled with a mix of both slow and fast-paced songs can still connect to audiences worldwide. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of EMI Australia)
Hayley Thompson’s first dance performance was in her elementary school multipurpose room. Nearly 14 years later, she choreographed routines for high school students in the same studio. Read more...
Photo: Though she dedicated much of her time at UCLA to the ICARUS dance team and her summer to teaching at To the Pointe dance studio, alumna Hayley Thompson recently relocated to Spain to teach English. Thompson said she aims to find a career that allows her to both continue dance and pursue other passions. (Joe Akira/Daily Bruin)
Warning: This post contains plot spoilers of previous seasons of “Empire.” “Empire” earned no Emmy nominations in the main categories. But it is slated as a potential winner in a costume category and recently gained a new consulting producer, as well. Read more...
Photo: UCLA alumna and former professor Felicia D. Henderson, consulting producer on season five of “Empire,” said she most enjoys the family drama at the center of the show, having grown up with five sisters herself. (Courtesy of Matthew Jordan Smith)
