The Show Must Go On

Social gridlock reigned at the historic Santa Barbara Club when the Ensemble Theatre Company marked its 43rd season with a Curtain Up! gala for 150 guests, raising more than $200,000 for productions at the New Vic.

Susan Van Abel chaired the fun fête that featured the ubiquitous Chris Fossek on classical guitar, singer Linda Purl, who starred in the Rosemary Clooney play Tenderly last season, watched by her husband former Dallas actor Patrick Duffy, and Constance Jewell Lopez, who will be starring in the new season production of Oscar Hammerstein’s Carmen Jones, based on Bizet’s opera and set in World War II. She was accompanied by William McDaniel, the play’s music director, on piano.

Other upcoming productions, artistic director Jonathan Fox revealed, include a new version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Selling Kabul, The Children, and Seared.

“These are proof and verification that there is nothing like live theater,” he enthused.

Other attractions included live painting by Ruth Ellen Hoag, a Sleuth set photo opportunity and a silent auction featuring a Manhattan getaway for two, including tickets for two Broadway shows, a stay at the Belmond El Encanto, and a two-night trip to Hermosa Beach.