Performing Arts

An expansive multimedia exhibition showcasing five decades of East Los Angeles music history is still on view at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, in downtown Los Angeles, but closes after Aug. 23.

As the theater faculty at fictional Riverbottom College brainstorm ways to shore up their department’s faltering budget, some interesting proposals emerge. These include issuing a departmental meme coin, creating a faculty boudoir calendar, and selling blood plasma.

A multimedia concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s founding spotlights a famous poem by Allison Hedge Coke, distinguished professor of creative writing at UC Riverside. Hedge Coke’s “America, I Sing You Back,” published in 2011, is one of three related poems that inspired “I Hear America Singing,” a traveling stage production.

In a black-box theater with dark walls, bright lights, and an empty stage, student actors relied solely on their voices and expressions to bring a series of 10-minute plays to life at UC Riverside's 19th Playworks event. Covering topics ranging from the impacts of ICE and AI to experiences with grief and love, the stage readings took place in the Studio Theatre of the Arts Building. A small stage surrounded on three sides allowed the audience members and actors to observe each other in an intimate setting. 

​ UC Riverside has been selected to host Belgian audio producer and educator Frank Duchêne next spring as a Fulbright scholar in residence. “This is a great recognition of the teaching and research happening in the UCR Music Department,” said Liz Przybylski, a professor of music at UCR, who led the effort to bring Duchêne to campus.