Photos by Paul R. Kennedy
Air guitar competitions — now that is a unique subject matter to cover in a play. I’m not a virgin to the rocking art of air guitar. I’ve never competed, but my bedroom competitions in High School were LEGENDARY! Airness, playing now at UCI’s Claire Trevor Theater, lacks a potent antagonist and relies on the kitsch factor of air guitar and its quirky characters. It’s barely enough to keep things interesting. Continue Reading
photo credit: Steve Zylius / UCI
“Pan-Damn-It!” is a “zoom” play written by Kyung Hyun Kim, a faculty member in the Department of East Asian Studies and Visual Studies at UC Irvine, and co-directed by Jane Page, a faculty member in UCI’s Drama Department, and Gavin Cameron-Webb, theater director. The script highlights the much-publicized mask debate in the US by juxtaposing the moral conflict between individual liberty and public health and by exposing the invisible social divisions that are complicated by the dynamic multi-ethnic makeup of Southern California. Taken from the press release. Continue Reading
Written by Alina Mae Wilson
We’re in a politically charged climate and UCI has elected to put on Chess the musical. While I have heard of Chess, before tonight I had not heard any of the score, nor had I read up on the synopsis–I walked in blind. Believe it or not I kind of thought it might be in the same vein as the “Putnam Spelling Bee” musical–I was wrong. So very wrong. Chess could not be more dramatic if it tried, and it really really tries. Continue Reading
Longitude’s show run is over. It had a very short run, but it will remount at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. I will keep you updated on the continuing showtimes.
Written by Patrick Chavis
No props, no sets, just people and a projector were used to tell the story of a rarely talked about 17th-century inventor and clockmaker, John Harrison. Longitude is a physical theatre production, which means the sets and everything else was made with the human body. The use of the human body in this production is quite creative and establishes the point of feeling for many of the scenes. Watching Longitude is a truly educational experience that requires focus and intellectual curiosity. It might leave many turned off when exposed to a wider audience because it tended to focus less on John Harrison, the person, and more on his accomplishments and tenacity to make clocks. Since it’s hard to feel for Harrison, you wind up experiencing an hour-long introduction to the inventor in one of the most fascinating and unique ways possible. Continue Reading
A devised physical theatre production exploring invention, engineering & obsession in the 18th century.
LONGITUDE is a devised theater performance about 18th century inventor/clockmaker John Harrison, and his entry into the most important race of the century; to discover a means of measuring longitude.
Performances:
Evenings: March 16, 17, 18 @ 8 p.m. 2017
Matinees: March 18 @ 2 p.m.
FREE
(Photos by Paul Kennedy)
(Taken from the press release)
Our Class recounts the story of the massacre in the Jewish pogrom in Jedwabne in 1941 and various lenses through which this event is seen throughout the story’s 80 years.
UCI Drama’s production is directed by Professor Jane Page, and will take place in The Trevor School’s Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL), a space that allows for projected visual imagery to enhance the live performance. Continue Reading
