Weiwen Balter said the very act of existence can be a form of rebellion.   Balter was suspended for openly identifying as queer as a high school student in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Read more...

Photo: Third-year political science student and art series director for the Cultural Affairs Commission Weiwen Balter (not pictured) helped organize Kerckhoff Art Gallery’s “This Body is a Rebellion,” to celebrate National Coming Out Week and Disabilities Awareness week. (Miriam Bribiesca/Photo editor)

Set and prop designers Lisa Lechuga and Evan Bartoletti spent the past three years pulling strings to bring their latest piece to life. Alumni Lechuga and Bartoletti founded Lechetti Art & Design, a scenic design company that specializes in creating sets for theater and live events. Read more...

Photo: Alumni Evan Bartoletti and Lisa Lechuga form design company Lechetti Designs. Their latest project together involved designing sets and puppets for the show “Voices Carry,” an interdisciplinary production involving dance, abstract puppetry, music and performance art in Downtown Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Silvia Spross)

Joseph Mango knows friends can be the best therapy – and Phoebe, Joey, Rachel, Ross, Chandler and Monica are the best therapists. Mango, a senior public administrative analyst for the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society, penned a play called “The One With Friends,” about a struggling Los Angeles actor who meets a writer who is scripting a reunion episode for the television show “Friends.” Both the main characters of the play, which will debut at the Tamkin Auditorium on Friday, struggle with depression and eventually find comfort and healing through their newfound companionship and mutual love for “Friends.” Mango, a lifelong “Friends” enthusiast, incorporated more than just his love of the 1990s sitcom into his play. Read more...

Photo: UCLA employee Joseph Mango (right) wrote the play “The One With Friends” about characters with mental illnesses that find friendship over a shared interest in the sitcom “Friends.” (Anthony Tran/Daily Bruin)