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Feature Stories

Summer Rogers

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Summer Rogers sewed, knitted, and crocheted, like her mother and her grandmother. They also made quilts and even did some tatting, a way of making lace with a shuttle and thread, popular during the Victorian era.
 

Celeste Lagrange

Celeste Lagrange first wanted to be onstage in second grade when her twin brother acted in a play, and she got jealous. Then in high school in San Diego, her love of theater started in earnest.

Ricky Lomeli

Ricky Lomeli, the Music Department Manager at UC Santa Cruz, started playing drums in 5th grade. No one in his family played an instrument, but he had some friends in bands and thought it would be fun. 
 

Natalya Gonzalez

Natalya Gonzalez grew up in Los Angeles. As a kid, she loved to sketch and draw with pastels. She came to UC Santa Cruz to study biology since she was interested in research and all the labs on campus.

Martin Rizzo-Martinez

When he was just seven years old, Martin Rizzo-Martinez started wondering about colonialism and Indigeneity after learning about grandfather’s heritage. 
 

Preston Choi

Playwright Preston Choi met Rebecca Wear, a professor in UC Santa Cruz’s Department of Performance, Play, and Design, at San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre, where she was directing his friend’s play.

Dean Celine with her husband Dan Shimizu

Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Dean of the Arts and Distinguished Professor of Film and Digital Media was inducted into the Stanford University Multicultural Hall of Fame on October 20, 2023.

Irene Lisztig

While making Yours in Sisterhood, UC Santa Cruz professor and documentary filmmaker, Irene Lusztig, went to 32 states to film people reading and responding to letters sent to Ms. Magazine in the 1970s. 

Eurydice - original drawing by Saul Villegas of Moderno

When the myth about Eurydice is told it’s really the story of Orpheus: how he falls in love with her, how devasted he is when she gets bitten by a snake and dies, and how he goes to the underworld and pleads with Hades and ... [more]

Don Willilams

When Don Williams was in seventh grade, he signed up to be Michael Jackson singing “ABC” in a talent show. He looked forward to singing it before school. But then the boys who were going to play the Jackson 5 backed out.
 

mattie brice

mattie brice got into tech journalism in an unlikely way. She wanted to write about food, but she couldn’t afford a camera to take pictures of all those beautiful meals, so she started blogging and reviewing video games to get some practice.
 

Jaxon Chester

In the 2022-23 academic year, Jaxon Chester loved being the Media Production Team Leader for the Okinawa Memories Institute (OMI), a public history research project at UC Santa Cruz.

Karen Meece

After 16 years at UC Santa Cruz, working in the science division, Karen Meece is enjoying her role as the Executive Assistant to the Arts Dean, which she started last May.
 

Yi Yi Mon (Rosaline) Kyo

Yi Yi Mon (Rosaline) Kyo is very happy to be a new assistant professor of History of Art and Visual Culture at UC Santa Cruz. She’s pleased to be back in California near her family.

Lisa Marie Rollins

Writer, director and new play developer Lisa Marie Rollins lived in the Bay Area for over 20 years and worked on new plays at many theaters there, including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Shotgun Players, and Magic Theatre.
 

Marina Magalhães

Marina Magalhães started taking dance lessons when she was five years old. She loved to dance and planned to make it her career. So, when her 7th grade teacher, Ms.

Jay Afrisando

Growing up in Indonesia, Jay Afrisando heard his mother singing karaoke almost every day. He partly credits this experience for him becoming a composer and sound artist.
 

Jon Ayon Alonso

Jon Ayon Alonso, a new professor in the Film & Digital Media Department, has taught at Stanford University, San Francisco State, the California College of the Arts, and City College of San Francisco, and he’s excited to bring all this experience to UC Santa Cruz.

lavender grey higley

Having recently graduated in June, 2023, lavender grey higley, who majored in anthropology and minored in dance, is ready for whatever lies ahead as they start exploring various graduate school programs.

Ruth Solomon

The UC Santa Cruz Arts Division community is so sorry to hear of the passing of Ruth Solomon, one of the legendary professors and original founders of the UC Santa Cruz Theater Arts Department... [more]

Esthela Bañuelos

Growing up in Southeast Los Angeles as the daughter of immigrant parents, Esthela Bañuelos, the Arts Division’s newly appointed Assistant Dean for Student Success/Chief of Staff, found herself at UC Santa Cruz more than 20 years ago when, as a first gen student, she earned her M.A.

As a history and education major with a minor in theater arts, senior Sara Sotelo is looking forward to taking time to decompress after graduation before taking the next big step of applying to graduate school for an MFA in dramaturgy or possibly an MA in history.

Bene't Benton

Now in their senior year at UC Santa Cruz, Bene’t Benton is looking forward to pursuing a career in theater with the goal of getting leadership experience and also writing and developing a solo theatrical piece that they can use towards ultimately being admitted to graduate school.

Lucas Elmer Gasperik

As a child, Lucas Elmer Gasperik thought that pursuing an honorable profession such as being a fireman or a chef was what... [more]

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