Three-year-old Alison Elliott sat in her car singing the haunting lines of Ophelia in “Hamlet”. By the time she was 4, Elliott’s parents had to pretend she was a theatrical understudy and create fake five-minute rehearsals to indulge her yearning to be on stage. Read more...

Photo: Alumna Alison Elliott is currently starring in “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” a play that premiered Saturday in Pasadena. Elliott performs alongside her mother, father and younger brother, and said her close relationship with her family allowed her to get past the strange relationships the characters experience in the play. (Courtesy of Craig Shwartz)

Eight-year-old Khamari Bendolph set his stereo down in the crosswalk of Quincy Street in Boston, preparing for a dance battle with the neighbor’s kid. He synced the Harlem shake dance with the pulse of the music and shuffled his energetic feet to the heel toe, stopping only when cars needed to pass. Read more...

Photo: Fifth-year dance student Khamari Bendolph grew up in Boston’s troubled inner city, where he lost his father and brother in a drive-by shooting. Bendolph now tries to help youth dealing with the same struggles by mentoring them away from the dangers of inner-city life and hosting dance workshops. (Tehya Faulk/Daily Bruin)

Mark Royston’s number one rule for “Devised Puppetry Project” was “Don’t read the newspaper.” The articles tended to distract the actors as they built their puppets out of leftover Daily Bruin newspapers. Read more...

Photo: Four UCLA students spent six weeks preparing for “Devised Puppetry Project,” which has no props or dialogue. The actors made the puppets themselves out of Daily Bruin newspapers. (Mackenzie Possee/Daily Bruin)