On Nov. 3, California State University, Dominguez Hills welcomed actress/comedienne and theatre arts alumna Niecy Nash back to campus, where she spoke to students, faculty and the community at the Loker Student Union. Until last August, she has been the original host and producer of the Style Network's number one-rated program, “Clean House.” Nash is also well-known for her role as Officer Raineesha Williams in Comedy Central's “Reno 911!,” which aired from 2003 to 2009. She is currently a celebrity host on CBS Entertainment's “The Insider,” for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award last summer. Nash addressed her audience at CSU Dominguez Hills with the story of her journey to a successful ... Read More
Art and Design
Shonni Johnson-Albritton: Alumna Wins 2010 NAACP Theatre Award
Shonni Johnson-Albritton (Class of '06, B.A., theatre arts) was recognized as “Best Supporting Actress” at the NAACP Theatre Awards, which was held in August at the Director's Guild of America in Hollywood. The theatre arts alumna received the award for her role in the 2009 university production of August Wilson's “Jitney.” Her most recent work is in the short, “Pearl,” directed by Zac Petrillo. A veteran of the university stage with roles in CSU Dominguez Hills' productions of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” “Lend Me a Tenor,” “A Doll's House,” and “The Vagina Monologues,” Johnson-Albritton began her studies in the MFA program in theatre arts at ... Read More
Guerilla Art Project Takes to LaCorte Hall
California State University, Dominguez Hills graphic design major Paul Whisenhunt put some of his talents up against the wall–a wall on the first floor inside LaCorte Hall, to be precise. As part of the Art and Design Department's Art 342-Conceptualization class, associate professor of art design Michele Bury assigned 11 groups of students a “guerilla design” project, which exercised a form of art that utilizes public spaces and is commonly known as “street guerilla art.” The assignment was for students to install their guerilla art projects in various locations on campus. The installations were displayed from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2. Whisenhunt and his project partners, Christine ... Read More
History – and Ageless Storytelling – Repeat Themselves with Reinterpretation of “Macbeth”
For alumna Naomi Buckley (Class of '00, B.A., theatre arts), necessity has proven to be the mother of invention. The director of this month's production of “Macbeth” at California State University, Dominguez Hills says that the decision to set the play amid the contemporary drug cartels of Juarez, Mexico, was an economically driven one. “We have no money to set this in Scotland in 1040,” she notes. “Present time is always cheaper than setting it in a time period, so we tried to think of something in... the present day that was close to the sort of violence and dark themes that 'Macbeth' has.” Buckley drew inspiration for herself and her stage crew from stories on the Internet about the ... Read More
Daniel Terrazas: Music Student Performs with Award-Winning Latina Songstress
California State University, Dominguez Hills music major Daniel Terrazas, who plans to become a music educator, worked with Mexican singer and gold- and platinum-record winner Graciela Beltrán during a recent three-day tour in Oklahoma. Terrazas works part time around the Los Angeles area playing the tuba for Mexican Folk groups in music styles including banda sinaloence, sirreno, and norteños. One of the promoters for these groups offered Terrazas the opportunity to play for the widely popular Latina singer Beltrán, who has performed corridos, romanticas, and baladas for at least a decade. Terrazas took the job to get a higher level of professional experience under his belt. “The ... Read More
