When senior lecturer Hal Ackerman was first asked to teach at UCLA, he was terrified. He said he had no confidence that he could offer students any advice that merited real value. Read more...
Photo: Hal Ackerman originally transitioned into screenwriting from his role as an off-off-Broadway playwright in New York. After 30 years as a screenwriting lecturer, Ackerman will retire and move back to New York to focus on writing novels and plays. (Jessica Zhou/Daily Bruin)
Faith Kearns has been in about 30 full-length and one-act plays, won two poetry awards, given five poetry readings, written six one-act plays and received highest honors for her creative thesis from the English department. Read more...
Photo: Sixth-year Faith Kearns balances her English degree with a theater minor to cover two of her passions. The playwright, poet and actor plans to pursue theater after graduation, first as a manager of Vanguard Repertory Company. (Helen Kwak/Daily Bruin)
When her mother gave her an ultimatum between soccer and theater in elementary school, Catherine Yount had no doubts as to which path she would choose. Read more...
Photo: Fourth-year Cathy Yount combined her interests in theater and science by majoring in human biology and society while working with Hooligan Theatre Company. Drawing from her teaching experience at ArtBridge, a program that uses arts to teach a variety of subjects in local schools, she will go on to intern with the arts education outreach department at Musical Theatre West. (Alyssa Dorn/Daily Bruin)
As a third-grader, Kelly Lennon gave up her dream of becoming the first female president after realizing it was too difficult of a life choice. In its place, she formed a two-step program: Get into UCLA, then find a way to work for the Walt Disney Company. Read more...
Photo: Graduating fourth-year theater students Noah Holliday (left) and Kelly Lennon (right) will leave their positions as leaders in HOOLIGAN Theater Company and intern at Walt Disney Imaginnering in Glendale to contribute to the lighting and design, respectively, for the Tokyo Disneyland theme park. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Wearing a flowing red dress, India Carney performed Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” onstage for NBC’s “The Voice” in front of dramatic projected backdrops of scenery ranging from shores to meadows. Read more...
Photo: India Carney, a fourth-year music performance student, made it to the eighth season’s semifinal of NBC’s reality singing competition “The Voice” until she was eliminated. The singer has a postgraduate job lined up at the A Cappella Academy but is still planning on pursuing her dreams of becoming a professional singer. (Owen Emerson/Daily Bruin)
One Christmas, Kassie Leblanc received a small blowtorch from her mother. Leblanc, who has been baking since she was a child, said she cherishes the gift, as it’s perfect for making crème brûlées. Read more...
Photo: After graduation, fourth-year English student Kassie Leblanc will work full-time at Bruin Plate as an assistant manager, one of the first students to earn this position. In the future, she hopes to become a pastry chef. (Conor Cusack/Daily Bruin)
A spruce top can do more than make classical guitars sound clearer and crisper. It can capture the essence of the musician by morphing its resonance to the style of the player. Read more...
Photo: Coming to UCLA, fifth-year music performance student Tung Vu had no music theory background, causing him to fall behind in his classical guitar studies and lose motivation. However, he said he purchased a custom-made guitar to revive his passion for music and went from wanting to drop out of school to graduating. (Max Himmelrich/Daily Bruin)
