This post was updated June 11 at 8:44 p.m. The lines between fantasy and real life blur in Benedict Conran’s theater design thesis. The third-year lighting design MFA student took Ellen McLaughlin’s play “Ajax in Iraq” and merged it with augmented reality technology to create an interactive and symbolic performance about an American soldier fighting in Iraq in the 2000s. Read more...

Photo: A rendered image from Benedict Conran’s thesis project shows audiences interacting with the set of a play on their phones. The third-year lighting design MFA student merged the play “Ajax in Iraq” with AR technology to create an immersive theater experience, he said. (Courtesy of Benedict Conran)

Artists and audiences kicked off Los Angeles Pride weekend with a picture-perfect celebration at the Getty Center. In partnership with LA Pride, the Getty Center presented an exhibition and conversation with three LA-based photographers on Wednesday. Read more...

Photo: From left to right, moderator Tony Valuenzuela is joined by photographers Rick Castro, Amina Cruz and Texas Isaiah onstage. The panelists were invited to the Getty Center as part of the “Queering the Lens” event in collaboration with Los Angeles Pride. (Shengfeng Chien/Daily Bruin staff)

For his work on “Camelot,” Lap Chi Chu has been theatrically knighted with the title of “Tony Award Nominee.” The professor and head of lighting design at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television recently received a Tony Award nomination for Best Lighting Design of a Musical for his work on Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot.” The 1960s musical returned to the stage last month with a new book written by Aaron Sorkin. Read more...

Photo: Lap Chi Chu poses for a photo. The professor and head of lighting design at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his work on “Camelot.” (Courtesy of Rebecca Wisocky)