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Alum Receives Rave Reviews for Starring Role in Local Production

Christine Clark | Feb. 8, 2010

Photo of fallen branches
UCSD alumnus Steven Lone stars in "Boom," an offbeat romantic comedy.

UC San Diego alum Steven Lone, ’06, has been garnering rave reviews for his starring role in “Boom,” a play that just finished production after a one-week extension at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

“This role and the positive recognition have definitely given my career a boost,” said Lone, who recently earned entrance into the Actor’s Equity Association, a union for professional theater actors.  “I have been performing in underground theater for years now, but this is the first starring role I’ve had at a professional theater in San Diego.”  

“Boom” is an offbeat romantic comedy about a marine biologist, Jules (played by Lone), who is convinced that a comet is going to hit Earth at any minute, destroying everything in its path. Through a personal advertisement posted on Craigslist, he lures an aspiring journalist, Jo (played by Rachael VanWormer) to his underground lab, hoping to procreate to save mankind. The story unfolds when Jo begins to realize Jules' real intentions.

James Herbert, theater critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune, described the play as perfectly goofy and stated that Lone was “solidly in touch with his character’s clueless enthusiasm.”

Lone is the first of his family to graduate from college and came to UC San Diego from the Bay Area because of the university’s excellent theater program. “The graduate department of theatre and dance at UC San Diego is world renowned,” he said. “And all of those resources are available to undergraduate students. I got to work with the same acting professors that the MFA students worked with, such as Todd Salovey, Amy Scholl and Ursula Meyer. I even was lucky enough to get cast in supporting roles in some graduate productions.”

Lone first knew he wanted to be an actor when he was a junior in high school. “One of my teachers suggested that I take an acting class because I was so energetic,” he said. “I enjoyed sports, but discovered a passion for acting. At one point, I had the opportunity to play football or take a part in a musical and I chose the musical.”

Lone transferred to UC San Diego from Foothill College and said he couldn’t have attended the university if he didn’t receive financial aid. “My mother was a single mom who moved here from El Salvador when she was in her twenties to get away from the violence that was going on her country,” he said. “For me, coming from a low-income household, it was amazing to receive financial aid and grants. I was able to navigate through the process of applying for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and had assistance from the financial aid counselors at UC San Diego.”

While attending UC San Diego, Lone was cast in parts at various theater companies around San Diego and remained determined to act professionally after he graduated. “Patience and persistence have really paid off,” he said. “This isn’t a profession where you get to sample the fruits of your labor early on. There was a time when I went four months without being in a production and, for me, that felt like an eternity.”

Currently, Lone works full time at the La Jolla Playhouse as an assistant box office manager and will next star in the Ion Theatre’s production of "Elliott: A Soldier's Fugue” March through April 10 at the Compass Theatre in Hillcrest.

 “I work full time and most plays rehearse six days a week, so I rarely get a day off,” he said. “But I can’t complain because I feel so fortunate to get the opportunity to do what I love.”

The UC San Diego department of theatre and dance has been recognized as one of the nation’s top three, along with Yale School of Drama and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

 

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