The Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA, Claire Trevor) is an academic unit at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

, focused on the

performing A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

and

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

. The four departments housed in the school are for art,

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

, and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. CTSA has undergraduate programs, masters programs, and a doctoral program in drama conducted jointly with UC San Diego.

Architecture and history

The school was named in honor of

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning Hollywood

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

Claire Trevor Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...

(1910–2000), a longtime resident of nearby Newport Beach and the stepmother of UCI benefactor Donald Bren. The school represents the largest contribution to the campus by architect

William Pereira William Leonard Pereira (April 25, 1909 – November 13, 1985) was an American architect from Chicago, Illinois, who was noted for his futuristic designs of landmark buildings such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco. Remarkably pr ...

, who oversaw its construction in 1970. It features a distinctive "modular" design in which individual buildings are connected by an overhead network of pillar-supported canopies. Early architectural sketches showed a design incorporating a lattice of broadly curved columns around the buildings, this was ultimately simplified into the flared solid forms of the buildings themselves. In 2005, the school's landscape was redesigned by Maya Lin in a

retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...

style, featuring an outdoor theater, fountains, decorative LED lighting and landscaping with native grasses and wildflowers. In fall 2011, the new "green" Contemporary Arts Center opened in the heart of the school, a $42.35-million building equipped with studios and spaces for displaying, staging, and producing art. It serves as the new anchor for the art school complex.

Departments and faculty

Art department

Founded under the name Studio Art, the department renamed itself in 2012. It teaches a wide range of contemporary media, including drawing, electronic art and design, new genres, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video and digital filmmaking. The department has around 20 full-time faculty members and accepts about 10 graduate students each year into its three-year M.F.A. program.

Dance department

The UCI Dance department teaches ballet, modern dance, improvisation, and jazz performance and choreography, as well as courses in the history of dance, dance medicine and science, and the integration of dance with interactive technologies such as motion capture and telematics.

Drama department

Robert Cohen organized an undergraduate repertory company that took ''Oedipus Rex'' on the road to UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz in the department's early years. Other early productions included '' The Assassination of Jean Paul Marat by the Marquis de Sade'', "Little Mary Sunshine", ''

Night of the Iguana ''The Night of the Iguana'' is a stage play written by American author Tennessee Williams. It is based on his 1948 short story. In 1959, Williams staged it as a one-act play, and over the next two years he developed it into a full-length play, pr ...

'' and '' Midsummer Night's Dream''.

William Inge William Motter Inge (; May 3, 1913 – June 10, 1973) was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s he had a string of memorable Broad ...

, author of such plays as ''Bus Stop, Picnic, '' and ''The Dark at the Top of the Stairs'' taught playwriting in the drama department in the 1970s.

Jerzy Grotowski Jerzy Marian Grotowski (; 11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. He was born in Rze ...

, acting theorist and founder of the Polish Laboratory Theater, joined the drama faculty in 1983,Koehler, Robert, "O.C. Theater," ''Los AngelesTimes'', 07/23/1991. and conducted his Objective Drama project in the fields and barn south of the main campus. UCI graduate drama student James Slowiak was his chief assistant during the project years.

Music department

The Music department offers both a B.A. and a B.Mus at the undergraduate level, as well as a two-year M.F.A. degree program. Emphases at the Master's level include choral conducting, collaborative piano, guitar/lute performance, instrumental and piano performance, and vocal arts. There is also a Ph.D. degree in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT) and Musicology.http://music.arts.uci.edu

Notable alumni

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot'' (1971), where he arranged ...

, American sculptor and conceptual performance artist known for his self-mutilations, including ''

Shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the sp ...

,'' performed while a student, in which an assistant shot him in the arm *

Barbara T. Smith Barbara Turner Smith (born 1931 in Pasadena, California) is an American artist known for her performance art in the late 1960s, exploring themes of food, nurturing, the body, spirituality, and sexuality. Smith was part of the Feminist Movement in ...

, American artist known for her performance work in the late 1960s *

Glenn Kaino Glenn Akira Kaino (born 1972 in Los Angeles) is an American conceptual artist based in Los Angeles. Early life, education and artistic training Kaino grew up in Cerritos and East Los Angeles; he is fourth-generation Japanese-American. He att ...

, American conceptual artist based in Los Angeles *

Allison Case Allison may refer to: People * Allison (given name) * Allison (surname) (includes a list of people with this name) * Eugene Allison Smith (1922-1980), American politician and farmer Companies * Allison Engine Company, American aircraft engine ...

, American actor known for her part in the "Tribe" in the Broadway revival of ''Hair'', following her appearance in Keith Fowler's staging of ''Hair'' in the Claire Trevor Theater * caryn morse desai, MFA alumna director, artistic director of the International City Theater, Long Beach, California *

Crista Flanagan Crista Flanagan (born February 24, 1976) is an American actress and comedian, best known for her work as a cast member on the Fox sketch comedy series ''MADtv'' from 2005 to 2009, various roles in films made by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, ...

, a regular on ''Mad TV'', a recipient of an MFA degree from the Claire Trevor School * Bob Gunton, Drama Desk Award-winning actor on stage and screen * Jon Lovitz, American comedian and actor *

Kevin Kwan Loucks Kevin Kwan Loucks is a Korean–American classical pianist, arts entrepreneur, and nonprofit executive. In September 2021, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chamber Music America in New York City. He previously served as Director of ...

, CEO of

Chamber Music America Chamber Music America (CMA) is an American non-profit organization that provides small ensemble professionals with access to a variety of professional development, networking, and funding resources. CMA's regular initiatives include grants, awards, ...

; co-founder of Chamber Music OC; member of classical music ensemble Trio Céleste * Beth Malone, American

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

-nominated stage actress, a performer at the

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American L ...

, New York, and the Sundance Theater Lab in Utah *Amanda McRaven, MFA alumna director, Winner of Ovation award as "Best Director," 2014 * Teresa K. Pond, MFA alumna director, artistic director of Cyrano Theater Company, Anchorage, Alaska * Andrew Samonsky, American actor known for his role as Lt. Cable in the 2008 Broadway revival of ''South Pacific'' *

Brian Thompson Brian Earl Thompson (born August 28, 1959) is an American actor. His career began with a small role in the 1984 film ''The Terminator''. He played the villainous "Night Slasher" in the 1986 film ''Cobra (1986 film), Cobra''. His first named r ...

, American actor, known for his work in action films and TV series * Teal Wicks, American stage actor, known for her role as Elphaba in the Broadway and touring productions of ''Wicked''. Teal was Sheila in the 2003 version of ''Hair'' on the Claire Trevor stage.

References

Links

* {{authority control University of California, Irvine Art schools in California Drama schools in the United States Dance schools in the United States Music schools in California Performing arts in California Performing arts education in the United States School buildings completed in 1970 Theatres completed in 1970 1970 establishments in California William Pereira buildings Modernist architecture in California University subdivisions in California Brutalist architecture in California