'American Alien'

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“It taps into a lot of cultural Some theater actors including Navah Rahbar, Megan Araneta and Joshua Lang felt personally touched by getting to tell and represent stories that are closer to home.

“It taps into a lot of cultural trauma,” Rahbar said. “It’s nothing that very blatantly happened to my family, but it’s stuff that could have [and] it makes me think like this person could have been me, my mom and my grandmother. I think that really messes with my head a lot.”

Film major Roya Row said that she had been actively involved in writing out the scene inspired by a girl named Mona “Ghazal” Heydari, who was murdered by her husband and his brother in February 2022.

“I feel like a lot of people in America or any other country don’t really know [about it] and they think this stuff happened very long ago. But it's still happening,” Row said. “Another three sisters [were] killed by their father and their brother in Canada because they chose to [live] a western life.”

The crux of this play is to bring underdogs into the spotlight and highlight perspectives people haven’t seen on a bigger stage. Ciriaco said that he’s glad the stories are getting some exposure.

“They have us being ourselves, mostly telling our stories and reaching out, but we are also performing on behalf of the people who aren’t on stage,” Ciriaco said. “It’s very heavy sometimes, but I’m happy with the way we just all talked about it and grouped up and gave life to these stories.” pkalidasan.roundupnews@gmail.com

“American Alien” opens Friday, May 6, and runs two weekends on the Performing Arts Building Mainstage. Tickets can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com.

Graduation ceremonies

The Lavender Graduation Celebration will be on May 17, at 4 p.m.

The event will be virtual.

To reserve seats, visit 2022LavenderGrad.eventbrite.com.

Pierce College Graduation will take place on June 7, from 6-8 p.m. at Rocky Young Park.

The ceremony will be held outdoors, so no COVID restrictions are in play. No registration is needed to attend.

The 12th Annual Black Graduation Celebration will be on May 24, from 3-5 p.m.

The Los Angeles Community College District African American Outreach Initiative program (LACCD-AAOI) will host the event at First AME Church of Los Angeles, 2270 South Harvard Blvd., Los Angeles.

The Mi Gente Graduation Celebration will be on June 5, from 4-7 p.m.

The event will bring together Latino students and their families from all nine college campuses at East Los Angeles College, Weingart Stadium,1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park.

For more information, or to reserve seats, visit Mi Gente Graduation RSVP, or contact Ben Gillman at MiGente@laccd.edu.