Staff Spotlight: Fall 2023
UCLA Arts staff are an essential part of our community. Their work underpins every aspect of our operations. Staff Spotlight highlights the creative, scholarly, and professional contributions of our staff, many of whom maintain impressive artistic and creative practices outside their campus roles. Learn more about our remarkable staff in this list of recent activities, accolades, and other exciting announcements.
Keith Johnson/Dancers' Bahareh Ebrahimzadeh, Katie Istvan, and Haihua Chiang in Mercy, Mercy, Me, 2017. (Motion Vivid / Keith Johnson/Dancers)
Bahareh Ebrahimzadeh, Director of Marketing and Communications at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA): Bahareh has dedicated nearly seven incredible years to CAP UCLA, playing a pivotal role in promoting the extraordinary artists who grace their stages. This year CAP UCLA unveiled a brand-new theater in Westwood, The UCLA Nimoy Theater!
Bahareh's passions go beyond marketing. She's also a performer, dancing with Keith Johnson/Dancers based in Long Beach. Their recent performance at Highways Performances Space in Santa Monica was met with enthusiastic acclaim.
Baha also volunteers at a few Los Angeles shelters, where she devotes time to working with large dogs and is extremely passionate about animal advocacy. #adoptdontshop
Installation by artist Jackie Amézquita, left, that incorporates soil from 144 Los Angeles neighborhoods and an installation, Between two windows, by Roksana Pirouzmand, right. (Ashley Kruythoff / Hammer Museum)
Gabriel Noguez, Senior Media Producer at the Hammer Museum at UCLA: Gabriel produced several mini-documentaries for Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, the sixth iteration of the Hammer’s acclaimed biennial exhibition. UCLA Arts’ alumnae Roksana Pirouzmand and Jackie Amézquita were the subject of two of the short films. The entire series can be viewed at the Hammer’s YouTube channel.
Heidi Snyder, Director of Operations at Theater Management Services: Heidi gave birth to Antonio Prosper Herrera-Vaillant a.k.a. “Ocho” on Oct. 12. Heidi, her husband Antonio, and Ocho are enjoying baby cuddles and adjusting to their new lives. The cats, however, are not so thrilled…
A still from Mahnoor Euceph's short film Eid Mubarak (Mahnoor Euceph)
Mahnoor Euceph, Admission Specialist at UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture: Mahnoor ‘17 wrote and directed the live action short film Eid Mubarak about a privileged Pakistani girl who embarks on a mission to save her beloved pet goat from being sacrificed on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Azha. The film is based on Mahnoor's real life experience of celebrating Eid in Pakistan as a child, before immigrating to Los Angeles at the age of eight.
The film is currently in consideration for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards and is currently streaming in the Academy Screening Room, at film festivals all over the world, and at special Oscar screenings in Los Angeles. It will be available to publicly stream soon. You can keep updated about the film’s journey on Instagram @EidMubarakFilm and at Mahnoor’s website.
You can also support the film’s Oscar campaign by purchasing a limited edition signed poster, hand-painted by illustrator Brett Helquist (best known for his illustrations for A Series of Unfortunate Events) at the following link: https://www.nooreuceph.com/shop/eidmubarak.
A photo from a live performance of Walking the Beat. (Fountain Theatre)
Theo Bonner-Perkins, Student Arts Coordinator for CAP UCLA: In August 2023, Theo produced and directed Walking the Beat 2023: C.H.I.N Up! (Critical Hope Is Needed) at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood. Walking the Beat is a theater for social justice program he co-founded.
On Monday, Nov. 6, Theo directed ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence, a nationwide theater initiative that calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theater that spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country.
Verlena’s The Observer is one of 60 images included in her trauma art journal. (Verlena Johnson)
Verlena Johnson, Student Affairs Officer at UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture: Verlena first began to explore her experience with childhood trauma in 2019 with two self-portrait paintings: Protected and Sissy’s Superpower Was Surviving Abuse.
Last June, she started a trauma art journal. What began as an impromptu drawing in an unused journal gradually turned into a space/place for her to explore the myriad of overwhelming feelings and thoughts related to memories (or the lack thereof) from her childhood. The initial self-portrait drawn with a ballpoint pen turned into a surrealist meditation on silence.
Currently, there are 60 images spanning 5 months in her journal which often include brief descriptions of her thoughts or feelings about topics such as anxiety, fear, masking, self-protection, and trauma responses. This image/text based project is extremely important as an artistic expression of Verlena’s healing journey.
Header image: A still from Mahnoor Euceph's short film Eid Mubarak (Mahnoor Euceph)
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