After four weeks of training, I felt ready to take on my first story. After the Arts & Entertainment section’s intern party, I felt like I had found my college family.

Gwenna McKee went into the audition determined to do her best.

Alain Mabanckou’s career has led him out of his native Republic of Congo to France and onward to the United States.

Austin-based theater troupe Rude Mechanicals brings its over-the-top, yet extremely knowing, antics to the Kirk Douglas Theatre for a second time this year, with just such a musical, “I’ve Never Been So Happy.”

A powerbomb of a play that effectively satirizes politics, power and race in the United States is in its West Coast debut in Westwood.

“Blood Wedding”
_Odyssey Theatre
Through August 14_

In the world of theater, a classic is everything that the Odyssey Theatre’s production of “Blood Wedding” is not.

On July 30, 1975, a troupe of five actors opened their production of Tennessee William’s “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Their version, however, was without the leading roles of Stanley, Stella, Mitch or Blanche.

As American frontiersmen and pioneers pushed farther west in the late 19th century, they forged their way through some of the most inhospitable regions on the continent.

King Arthur pulled Excalibur from the stone, Thor wielded his mighty hammer, and the UCLA Game Lab has the Eli Broad sword ““ or at least a couple drawings of it on its walls and door.

“Four Clowns,” a performance piece conceived and directed by Jeremy Aluma, perfectly understands this basic characteristic of the clown. During the roughly 90-minute production, staged at the Sacred Fools Theater in Los Angeles, the audience follows four archetypal clowns representing anger, anxiety, sadness and mischief on their journey from childhood to death.