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Volume 11: March/April 2018
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STORYTELLING INSTITUTE LAUNCHES IN CANNES, FRANCE
Created by TERI SCHWARTZ, Dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), in partnership with Jean-Marc Gambaudo, president of the Université Côte D'Azur (UCA), the inaugural UCLA TFT/UCA Storytelling Institute launched on Monday, April 9, 2018 in Cannes, France.
The six-week residency program is also in partnership with the Mayor and City of Cannes, the president and director of the Festival de Cannes, and Vivendi/Canal+. The Institute was conceived to nurture and develop the next generation of outstanding writers, from UCLA TFT and from France, whose works will not only delight and entertain, but enlighten, engage and inspire change for a better world.
The Institute includes four graduate screenwriting students from UCLA TFT: BISI ADEMULEGUN, BRENNA GALVIN, ERIC MALLORY MORGAN and DANIEL TINO; and four French screenwriting students: Branca Cepelowicz, Sarah Lasry, Simon Perrin and Jordan Raux. Classes are being taught by UCLA TFT Lecturer NEIL LANDAU, screenwriter Pat Verducci and UCA faculty member Yann Apperry. UCLA TFT Professor BARBARA BOYLE is teaching a master class.
Launched ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, the program is framed by UCLA TFT's unparalleled screenwriting curriculum and faculty along with UCA faculty. Select UCLA TFT and French graduate screenwriting students are set to complete a fully realized, first draft of a feature film screenplay by the end of the program. In the final two weeks, students will have the opportunity to experience master classes with distinguished filmmakers and screenwriters, and engage in discussions, special screenings and other professionally oriented activities at the Cannes Film Festival. Vivendi/Canal+ has a "first look" opportunity with screenplays written by the graduate students in the institute.
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UCLA TFT'S DEPT. OF THEATER PARTNERS WITH REPRISE 2.0 TO PRESENT THREE CLASSIC AMERICAN MUSICALS
UCLA TFT's Department of Theater is partnering with the new performing arts organization Reprise 2.0 to present a season of three classic American musicals at UCLA TFT's Freud Playhouse. This initiative allows the school to expand activities for its theater students - in performance, lighting, sound and set design, and includes internships with Reprise 2.0 personnel in directing, stage management, producing, costuming, musical direction, choreography and casting. Students also appear in the productions on stage as part of the ensemble, as appropriate.
The inaugural 2018 season of Reprise 2.0, helmed by founder and producing artistic director Marcia Seligson, includes Sweet Charity, directed by three-time Tony winner Kathleen Marshall (June 20-July 1); Victor/Victoria, directed by Richard Israel and choreographed by UCLA TFT Adjunct Professor PEGGY HICKEY (Sept. 5-16); and Grand Hotel - The Musical (Oct. 24-Nov. 4), directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and choreographed by Kay Cole.
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STUDENTS ATTEND CINEMACON IN LAS VEGAS
UCLA TFT Dean TERI SCHWARTZ, along with DAN FELLMAN, UCLA TFT Executive Board member and former president of Warner Bros. Distribution, have arranged for select students - M.F.A. directors HANXIONG BO, TAYLOR CURRY, ADAMMA EBO and DANIEL LAFRENTZ; M.F.A. producer SAMUEL MARQUIS; and M.F.A. screenwriters KERRY ANN REID, GUIDO SEGAL and JESSIE STENGER - to attend CinemaCon 2018 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, April 23-26. This extraordinary opportunity is being made possible by The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). CinemaCon is the official convention of NATO, and is the largest and most important gathering for the worldwide motion picture theater industry.
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UCLA TFT THEATER SEASON PRODUCTIONS
The UCLA TFT 2017-18 Theater Season continues with productions of In the Red and Brown Water, The Mother of Us All, Spring Awakening and The Glass Menagerie.
In the Red and Brown Water
How far will fast, beautiful Oya go to make a mark in the world? The intoxicating story of In the Red and Brown Water charts a young girl's thrust into womanhood and her subsequent fall into the murky waters of life.
Performances
May 2-4 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 5 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
The Mother of Us All
Featuring designers from the Department of Theater and undergraduate actors from the School of Music, this opera chronicles the life of Susan B. Anthony. Presented in collaboration with Opera UCLA, UCLA Philharmonia and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Performances
May 18, 22, 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 20 at 2:00 p.m.
Freud Playhouse
A group of late 19th century German students navigate teenage self-discovery and coming-of-age anxiety in Frank Wedekind's seminal, dramatic work.
Performances
May 23-25 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 26 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
A son longs to escape from his stifling home, where his genteel mother worries about the future prospects of his shy, disabled sister in Tennessee Williams' classic story.
Performances
June 6-8 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 9 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Little Theater
The Little Theater and Freud Playhouse are located at 245 Charles E. Young Dr. East, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
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ACTRESS MIRA SORVINO HONORED AT
"LIGHTS, CAMERA, REACTION" SUMMIT
The Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment at UCLA TFT, together with The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law and Creative Armenia, hosted "Lights, Camera, Reaction" at the Hammer Museum on Friday, March 16. The groundbreaking summit on the intersection of entertainment, law and human rights honored actress Mira Sorvino with the inaugural Promise Institute Award for Contribution to Human Rights Through the Arts.
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HENDERSON, PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD TALK DIVERSITY IN HOLLYWOOD
FELICIA HENDERSON (M.F.A. '04) (right) and GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD (B.A. '91) (left) talked about the state of diversity in Hollywood, as part of the recent launch of UCLA's fifth annual Diversity Report, with UCLA Professor Darnell Hunt, dean of the division of social sciences in the UCLA College (center).
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DEBORAH LANDIS AND RUTH CARTER DISCUSS THE COSTUMES FOR COMING TO AMERICA AND BLACK PANTHER
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A NIGHT WITH MARVEL STUDIOS: NATE MOORE
UCLA TFT Lecturer TOM NUNAN spoke with Black Panther co-executive producer Nate Moore in front of a captivated audience at the James Bridges Theater on Thursday, March 22. They discussed Moore's experiences overseeing the film as well as his involvement in several other film franchises and TV shows under the Marvel banner. Moore inspired the audience with his commentary, suggesting that while the entertainment business may be a difficult path, it isn't an impossible one.
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In late February, Madam Chen Qiaoru, of China's Sichuan Opera in Chengdu, and her company conducted a master class with the students from Lecturer PERRY DANIEL's Creative Dramatics class. Their work featured supernatual characters and stories from the spirit realm, showcasing Sichuan Opera's unique a cappella vocal style (gaoqiang) and its face-changing (bianlian) performance technique.
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AUSTIN COMEDY SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Writer/director CECILIA ALBERTINI's (M.F.A. '18) short film Allegra's Body Shop won the Best Comedy Award at the Austin Comedy Short Film Festival in mid-April.
Four alumni are associated with films in and out of competition at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, which takes place May 8-19: CURT BEECH (M.F.A. '03), production designer, BlacKkKlansman; DON THOMPSON (B.A. '81, M.A. '84), associate producer, Yomeddine; JULES WILLCOX (M.F.A. '05), actress, Under the Silver Lake (all in competition); and PIETRO SCALIA (B.A. '82, M.F.A. ' 85), editor, Solo: A Star Wars Story (out of competition). Additionally, Wildlife, for which AKIN MCKENZIE (B.A. 02) was the production designer, will open Cannes Critics' Week sidebar, taking place May 9-17, and graduate directing student HANADI ELYAN's short film Nadia's Visa will be shown at the Cannes Short Film Corner, taking place May 14-19.
CULVER CITY FILM FESTIVAL
Like Last Night, from filmmaker REN HANAMI (B.A. '84), won the Best Coming of Age Short prize at the Culver City Film Festival.
SAN LUIS OBISPO FILM FESTIVAL
The feature documentary Half the Picture, from AMY ADRION (M.F.A. '09) screened in March at the SXSW Film Festival, following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film features interviews with high profile women directors including UCLA alums CATHERINE HARDWICKE, AVA DUVERNAY, PENELOPE SPHEERIS (B.A. '69, M.A. '73), GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD (B.A. '91) and PATRICIA CARDOSO (M.F.A. '94), among others.
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ANGELICA CHERI's GUN & POWDER RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS RICHARD RODGERS AWARD
The musical Gun & Powder, written by ANGELICA CHERI (B.A. '09), with music by Russ Baum, has received the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Inspired by the true story of Cheri's great-great aunts, Gun & Powder tells the story of a set of African-American twins who passed for white and were notorious outlaws in Post-Emancipation Texas.
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ALUMNI KIRA REED LORSCH AND
KIT WILLIAMSON NOMINATED FOR
KIRA REED LORSCH (B.A. '93) received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for her role as Jo Connors in the Amazon Prime webseries The Bay. She previously won two Daytime Emmy Awards as a producer on the hit drama series. KIT WILLIAMSON (M.F.A. '93) and his Netflix series Eastsiders have been nominated in three Daytime Emmy Awards categories: Best Digital Drama, Best Writing and Best Directing. The 45th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards will take place on Sunday, April 29 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
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HANA KIM RECEIVES RICHARD E. SHERWOOD AWARD FROM CENTER THEATRE GROUP
Set and projection designer HANA KIM (M.F.A. '13) received Center Theatre Group's 2018 Richard E. Sherwood Award for emerging artists. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, nurtures emerging artists and invites them to engage in a professional relationship with Center Theatre Group.
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JERELL ROSALES RECEIVES ANGELL FELLOWSHIP AT HUMANITAS CEREMONY
JERELL ROSALES (B.A. '12, M.F.A. '17) received the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Fellowship ($20,000) for his script FLIP (Funny Little Island People) during the annual Humanitas Prize awards ceremony on Friday, Feb. 16.
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ZURI ADELE PERFORMS IN CAP UCLA/SITI COMPANY PRODUCTION
ZURI ADELE (M.F.A. '16) will be performing in the West Coast premiere of theater is a blank page, presented by UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance and New York-based SITI Company, at UCLA's Royce Hall, April 28-May 12.
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BETH BEHRS SET FOR LEE DANIELS' FOX PILOT
BETH BEHRS (B.A. '08) will be the female lead in the Lee Daniels' Fox pilot Our People, described as a culture-clash single-camera comedy about an African man and his Midwestern fiancée. The project is based on the Israeli show Nevsu: A Young Multicultural Couple.
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MERRIN DUNGEY IS CAST IN ABC'S THE FIX
MERRIN DUNGEY (B.A. '93) has been cast in the ABC drama pilot The Fix, described as part legal thriller, part confessional and part revenge fantasy, written by Marcia Clark, Elizabeth Craft and Sara Fain.
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ALEX GIBNEY ADAPTS TIGER WOODS
ALEX GIBNEY and his Jigsaw Productions are developing a docuseries based on the new biography Tiger Woods, written by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian about the legendary American golf player.
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MARISA MELIDEO WINS FIRST PLACE AT SUNSET AT THE MUSEUM EVENT
On Saturday, April 14, second-year M.F.A. costume design student MARISA MELIDEO won the $1,000 first-place prize at Sunset at the Museum, an afternoon of art history, storytelling and costuming, which was presented at the Getty Museum to an assembly of distinguished guests by the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design, and donors Cindy and Tony Canzoneri, and Judith Harris and Dr. Robert Singer.
Seven students from Professor DEBORAH NADOOLMAN LANDIS' "Advanced Historical Costume Interpretation and Construction: Museum Masterworks" class were given the challenge of interpreting James Ensor's "Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889," which is on display at the Getty Museum. Melideo's winning costume, entitled Memento Mori, was chosen by guests at the celebration. The remaining six M.F.A. costume designers received awards of $500.
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GOLDEN ZHAO WINS NINE ADDY AWARDS
Fourth-year M.F.A. cinematography student GOLDEN ZHAO won nine ADDY Awards in the 2018 American Advertising Awards' Los Angeles Student Competition. At the awards gala, which took place Thursday, March 22, Zhao received five gold, one silver, two bronze and a best of show award in the television and cinematography categories. The ADDY Awards recognize creative excellence and the very best advertising both in local and national competitions. Additionally, Zhao and third-year M.F.A. directing student JESSIE LEE are representing UCLA TFT in the 2018 CocaCola Regal Films competition with their film Frozen in Time.
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GRADUATE STUDENTS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR KRISTY GUEVARA-FLANAGAN WORK WITH LENS AND KCET ON DOC PROJECT
In partnership with KCET and with the guidance of Assistant Professor KRISTY GUEVARA-FLANAGAN, UCLA TFT graduate student filmmakers STEFAN WANIGATUNGA, YUBO WANG and JONNI TECLE are working with UCLA's Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) to create three documentary shorts focusing on themes of environmental awareness for KCET's website.
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 In March, Guevara-Flanagan took four UCLA TFT fellows, graduate students TIFFANIE HSU, TYRELL VAN CLEVE SHAFFNER, GELAREH SIAVASH and TIGER WANG, along with undergrad senior SAMUEL RUBIN, to the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Mo. It was the first year that UCLA TFT documentary students attended the four-day festival, which is known for its cutting-edge programming and filmmaker-friendly atmosphere.
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HEMA PRIYADARSHINI'S SCRIPT MOVES TO ROUND TWO OF INDIAN COMPETITION
Yukthi, a script written by graduate student HEMA PRIYADARSHINI about the water crisis in India, has been shortlisted for Round 2 of the 2017-18 Cinestaan India's Storytellers Contest, India's biggest script contest. Five contest winners will be announced in July at an event in Mumbai and will get a chance to pitch their scripts directly to studios and production houses.
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 CARY SIMOWITZ PARTICIPATES IN KENNEDY CENTER FESTIVAL
Second-year graduate Theater student CARY SIMOWITZ was selected as one of six playwrights to participate in The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, a theater program that each year involves 20,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide.
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HAKAN YÖRÜK LANDS INTERNSHIP WITH TV ACADEMY
Production design student HAKAN YÖRÜK has earned a coveted summer Television Academy Foundation internship, which gives students in-depth exposure to professional television production during an eight-week period in Los Angeles.
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CALDWELL, HILL, OKADA, SMITH-SHOMADE HONORED AT SCMS 2018
UCLA TFT Cinema and Media Studies Professor JOHN CALDWELL received the Award for Outstanding Pedagogical Achievement in Cinema and Media Studies at SCMS 2018, the Society for Cinema & Media Studies' annual conference, which took place March 14-18 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. UCLA TFT CMS Lecturer ERIN HILL, author of Never Done: A History of Women's Work in Media Production, was also honored with the Best First Book prize. During the conference, the UCLA TFT Cinema and Media Studies program also hosted its annual party where two alumnae, SUNY Genesco Professor JUN OKADA (Ph.D. '05) and Emory University Professor BERETTA SMITH-SHOMADE (Ph.D., '97) were named the 2018 UCLA CMS Alumni of the Year. The awards recognize the work of CMS scholars' publications and influence in the field. Founded in 1959, SCMS is the primary international and professional organization for university cinema and media studies.
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MYUNG HEE CHO CREATES SETS AND COSTUMES FOR GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE PRODUCTION
Department of Theater Professor MYUNG HEE CHO is currently creating the set and costume design for the 2018-19 Season Geffen Playhouse production of The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona by José Rivera, working alongside her former student, HANA KIM (M.F.A. '13), who is the projection designer on the project. The play opens in September.
In 2016, Cho designed Trojan Women at the National Theater of Korea, which fused K-pop and pansori, the 400-year-old Korean genre of storytelling with the classic Greek tragedy. Now, the production will have a European tour, performing at Muziekgbouw - Holland Festival, Wiener Festwochen in Vienna and LIFT Festival in London.
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NEIL LANDAU SPEAKS AT BABYSITTER'S SCREENING
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BRIAN KITE DIRECTS DISGRACED
Department of Theater Chair BRIAN KITE recently directed the L.A. Theatre Works production of Disgraced, winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, at UCLA TFT's James Bridges Theater. This production was performed without sets or costumes for later broadcast on public radio nationwide.
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SYLVAN OSWALD PARTICIPATES IN SUNDANCE RETREAT
Theater Assistant Professor SYLVAN OSWALD was one of seven theater artists who participated in the 19th annual Sundance Institute Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, in February. Designed to support theatrical writing in its earliest stages, the retreat was dedicated to uninhibited creativity, peer mentorship and professional growth.
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DOMINIC TAYLOR TO PARTICIPATE IN NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
Theater Professor DOMINIC TAYLOR will participate in the 2018 PlayPenn Conference in Philadelphia, July 10-July 29. PlayPenn is an artist-driven organization dedicated to the development of new plays and playwrights. The conference includes workshops and readings of six plays, at least two additional readings of works-in-progress, and forums for artists and theater lovers.
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EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER NEWS
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MARTIN SCORSESE TO RECEIVE CARROSSE D'OR AT DIRECTORS' FORTNIGHT IN CANNES
MARTIN SCORSESE will receive this year's Carrosse d'Or award during the opening ceremonies of Directors' Fortnight, which runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival in May. The recipient of the Carrosse d'Or is chosen from the international filmmaking community for "the innovative qualities, courage and independent mindedness of his or her work." Since the prize was created in 2002, honorees have included, among others, directors Jane Campion, Clint Eastwood, Werner Herzog and Jim Jarmusch.
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JOSEPH CALABRESE LANDS ON THR'S
JOSPEH CALABRESE, a partner at international law firm Latham & Watkins, has been named one of Hollywood's top 100 attorneys in the annual Power Lawyers issue published by The Hollywood Reporter. He landed on the 2018 list thanks to a deal he spearheaded in January "that saw China's Tencent Holdings take a minority stake in client Skydance Media, giving David Ellison's company access to China's coveted movie market. He also advised client EuropaCorp in inking a new distribution deal with STX and continues to rep the International Olympic Committee and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association," according to THR.
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 DAVID PENDLETON
DAVID PENDLETON, 53, a former programmer at the UCLA Film & Television Archive and a graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (Ph.D., '06), passed away November 6, 2017 in Boston. Pendleton was a respected programmer who worked at the Harvard Film Archive before his passing, where he was responsible for curating career retrospectives, spotlights on foreign directors and programming on niche topics, among other things.
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If you have news for consideration in our next newsletter, please email UCLA TFT Marketing and Communications at communications@tft.ucla.edu.
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