Tag archives: Lobero Theatre
November 21-December 30 Santa Barbara Sounds at SOhO The popular restaurant nightclub took a little longer than almost all other establishments to reopen after the forced COVID closures expired at the end of spring, but the entertainment-every-night emporium is now fully back in action. Peruse the calendar carefully for the hangout owned for more […]
Ganna Walska Lotusland and the Lutah Maria Riggs Society are collaborating to screen the award-winning documentary, Lutah – A Passion for Architecture: A Life in Design, this Saturday, November 20, at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. Lutah Maria Riggs is an integral part of Santa Barbara architectural history. Lotusland’s archives contain several drawings by […]
Santa Barbara nonprofit CALM, which is celebrating its half-century, hosted its 10th Annual Calm at Heart Lunch Transforming Communities at Los Suenos, the Montecito estate of corporate attorney Robert Lieff and his wife, Susan, which raised around $300,000 from 260 guests. Fortunately, the sea mist cleared for blue skies and sunshine for the boffo bash, […]
Back in early 2020, Nebula Dance Lab had planned to produce a ballet version of Island of the Blue Dolphins to celebrate the local story’s 60th anniversary since the publication of the novel. But a decision to delve deeper in diversity issues revolving around Dolphin produced a pandemic pivot to adapt another tale of a […]
To interview Charles Lloyd, you’ve got to be willing to abandon your list of questions and simply surrender to wherever it is that the master musician wants to go. The saxophonist’s career dates back to the 1960s when the Memphis-born musician was part of the San Francisco scene, sharing bills at the Fillmore with the […]
Susan Keller’s 13-year-old Santa Barbara Revels, after what seems an eternity of pandemic doldrums, is revving up for action and hosted an Equinox concert at the University Club for 80 guests. Susan also announced the group’s Yuletide concert, with a California 1830s theme, at the Lobero on December 18-19, its first live performance in three […]
Very few artists of any genre have been able to remain relevant anywhere near as long as Pat Metheny, the guitarist who launched his recording career 45 years ago. That was back in the days when terrestrial FM radio stations would play anything from Mountain to Madness and Metheny to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I have […]
As the inaugural collaboration between UCSB’s much-lauded Launch Pad artist residency and performance program with Local Theater Company, the Boulder-based leader in new play development, Yellowstone will have a lot of voices shaping its first-ever fully staged reading on Friday, September 24. But for playwright Jennifer Barclay, the process has been playing out for more […]
Everybody was in the right aria when Opera Santa Barbara’s Marylove Thralls hosted a sunset soirée to launch an entertaining new book, La Mia Pazza Famiglia by Kay Lemke. The dynamic duo met when Lemke, who hails from a small community, San Fior di Sopra, north of Venice, volunteered to help the opera and the […]
WED & FRI, SEPT 8 & 10: L.A. rock, then and now, at Lobero The Wallflowers’ leader Jakob Dylan has spent time in recent years either making or promoting Echo in the Canyon, the documentary that looks back longingly at the mid-1960s when Hollywood’s Laurel Canyon served as creative and residential stomping grounds for such […]
The journey of Santa Barbara native singer-songwriter Glen Phillips from an ambitious 15-year-old forming a rock band with some friends in high school to the 50-year-old multi-faceted artist he is today is something to treasure. That band, Toad the Wet Sprocket, is one of the more successful to have emerged from Santa Barbara, having released […]
As a smooth jazz star, saxophonist Dave Koz has always been acutely aware of audience response, as the genre can often be about providing the sort of soundtrack that people are seeking in their lives. But nearly two years away from performing in front of the public largely due to the COVID pandemic really crystallized […]
The Lobero Theatre is by far the oldest performing arts venue in Santa Barbara. In fact, it’s actually the longest operating theater in all of California, dating back just a couple of decades after California became the 31st state admitted to the union. The Lobero also ranks fourth in seniority among all performing arts buildings […]
“Welcome home!” exclaimed Lobero Associates President Mindy Denson as the group gathered for the first time since the pandemic. We were sitting under the new sail ceiling in the courtyard — a gift from the Associates to the Lobero Theatre. The sun and shade danced above us while a nice breeze flowed throughout. It’s a […]
David Asbell has had it up to here with the pandemic. The longtime general manager of the Lobero Theatre piloted the venue through a pandemic pivot along with everybody else to stay relevant during the last 14 months. For the Lobero, this meant partnering up with an indie producer to host live streaming shows from […]
When Edward Johnson, principal stockholder of the Portola Theater Company, purchased the California Theatre on W. Canon Perdido Street in 1920, he envisioned a bright entertainment future for the town. At that time, there were only four movie houses, and one, the Strand Theatre, was being replaced by a motorcycle shop. By 1922, Johnson had […]
With Valentine’s Day coming up, what did Jose Lobero (born Giuseppe in Genoa, Italy) love? He loved opera and in 1873 he built a theater to house that love. It began as an old wooden schoolhouse and became the largest adobe structure in California for its time, housing the only opera house south of San […]
Every year, the December performances of Santa Barbara Revels are meant to mark the winter solstice, which represents the shortest day of the year, the deepest dive into darkness before emerging back into the light. So perhaps it was fitting that my conversation with Susan Keller, founder of and still the main force in the […]
Back in the first week of summer, as the pandemic shutdown rounded its third month, pop star and longtime Montecito resident Kenny Loggins kicked off a series of low-priced live, pay-per-view concerts streamed on the Lobero Theatre’s website, with proceeds supporting both the venue and the National Independent Venue Association, which has similar one-off theaters […]
Interviewing Charles Lloyd can be almost as enjoyable an experience as attending one of the legendary saxophonist’s concerts, which are always journeys into the ever-in-the-moment confluence of man, musician, and his muse that can veer from riveting to soul-stirring to spiritual near-bliss. That’s because Lloyd, who has lived in the hills of Montecito with his […]
