Tag archives: New Vic

‘Dracula’ Doesn’t Suck
By Richard Mineards   |   October 22, 2024

Ensemble Theatre Company opened its latest season at the New Vic with Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, directed by veteran actor Jamie Torcellini and written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. The five-member cast played a variety of characters with the blood-sucking count portrayed perfectly – not to mention amusingly – by muscle-bound hunk Adam […]

Broadway Legends at the New Vic
By Richard Mineards   |   August 20, 2024

Social gridlock reigned at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic when it staged a sold-out Play It Forward: Legends of Broadway which raised more than $50,000 for the theater’s education and outreach programs. The celebratory concert, featuring the music of the greatest musical theater composers of our time, and veterans of the Great White Way […]

ETC’s Newest Play Brings Understanding and Entertainment to the Constitution
By Zach Rosen   |   August 13, 2024

As a high school student with governmental aspirations, I attended a two-week program in Washington, D.C. to study constitutional law – one of the highlights on the syllabus was the promise to meet and hear one of the Supreme Court Justices speak.  While Antonin Scalia may not have been my personal choice of who to […]

I Like Ike
By Richard Mineards   |   July 23, 2024

Broadway veteran John Rubinstein was a true tour de force in the New Los Angeles Repertory Company’s Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground by Richard Hellesen, presented by the Ensemble Theatre Company at the New Vic. Directed by multi-award winner Peter Ellenstein, the two-hour show, with simple but effective scenic design by Michael Deegan and Sarah […]

A Laudable Lehman Play
By Richard Mineards   |   April 16, 2024

The Lehman Trilogy, a Tony Award winning three-man show by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power and directed by Oanh Nguyen, at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic is not to be missed! The three-hour-long production, with two ten-minute intermissions, chronicles the rise and fall of the Lehman brothers, a 160-year journey of three immigrant […]

The Moving ‘Willesden Lane’
By Richard Mineards   |   February 13, 2024

Ensemble Theatre Company’s latest New Vic production The Pianist of Willesden Lane, a true story about a young Jewish musician navigating the Nazi regime in Vienna and London during the Blitzkrieg, is a truly thought-provoking show. Told by Mona Golabek, a world-renowned Grammy nominated pianist and the daughter of Lisa Jura – a pianist who, […]

Holiday Show of the Week
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 2, 2024

This past year has seen the revival of Santa Barbara Comedy Hideaway, the erstwhile series that imported comics from major venues and streaming services on a weekly basis at several different locations in town. While weekly shows are at 1203 State Street, the Hideaway steps it up to hang out at the New Vic Theatre […]

A Fiery Performance
By Richard Mineards   |   December 12, 2023

The Ensemble Theatre Company’s latest production Ring of Fire, Richard Maltby Jr.’s musical review of singer Johnny Cash’s extensive body of work is a real Christmas cracker! The hugely entertaining cast at the New Vic consists of five actor-musicians – L.J. Benet, Glenn Stanton, Valerie Larsen, Kasper,and Sam Linkowski – under the direction of Randy […]

Honoring ETC’s Jonathan Fox
By Richard Mineards   |   November 14, 2023

An old friend, Jonathan Fox, who was artistic director of the Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) for 17 years, has been honored for his sterling work at the New Vic. First District Supervisor Das Williams has proposed a resolution marking Jonathan’s many contributions to Santa Barbara’s art and culture. Under his supervision, ETC acquired and renovated […]

Defining ‘War Words’
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 31, 2023

The nonprofit New Beginnings has turned its focus toward ending veteran homelessness in the county by the close of 2025 through its Supportive Services for Veteran Families program that works to transition currently unhoused veterans back into stable housing and assist those whose housing situation is threatened. But in addition to putting its money where […]

New Vic Turns Ten
By Richard Mineards   |   August 22, 2023

Santa Barbara’s iconic New Vic theater celebrated its 10th anniversary in energetic style with a Play It Forward on-stage gala starring a colorful cavalcade of talent as the resident Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) prepares for its 45th season in the West Victoria Street venue. After 25 years at the rustic 140-seat Alhecama Theatre and a […]

Seared’ Extends Savory Run 
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 27, 2023

Emotions ran high on opening night for Seared – the kitchen comedy sans kitsch that closes out Ensemble Theatre’s current season as well as artistic director Jonathan Fox’s career at the company. It came from both the smartly cast quartet of actors in the play about art-vs.-commerce and power struggles, but also the audience who […]

An Order of Theater, Well ‘Seared’
By Richard Mineards   |   June 20, 2023

Jonathan Fox, who is departing as artistic director of the Ensemble Theatre Company after 17 years, has come up with a culinary cracker with his last production Seared, a fast-paced kitchen comedy, which is also the last show of the current season at the New Vic. Andrew Elvis Miller does an excellent job as the […]

For the Love of Beethoven
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 2, 2023

Love & Justice: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Rebel Opera – is the second film in Lompoc native and former Santa Barbara resident Kerry Candaele’s Beethoven trilogy, and an effort we may safely describe as a case of art imitating life imitating art. Candaele, who taught for years at Cate School, spent the last decade […]

Kabul at the Vic
By Richard Mineards   |   February 14, 2023

Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) kicked off its first performance of the New Year with the suspenseful Californian premiere of the thriller Selling Kabul, written by Sylvia Khoury and directed by Nike Doukas. An off-Broadway hit and 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, the suspenseful play of abiding family love centers on an Afghani former interpreter […]

Am I My Country’s Keeper?
By Montecito Journal   |   November 15, 2022

Bible teaching on citizenship begins with five words that historians will write on the head stone of the United States when it dies. Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The downfall of decency and democracy in our time is the failure of institutions and ordinary people to answer that question in the affirmative. Let’s […]

Focus on Film: SBJFF Checks into New Vic
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 1, 2022

The annual Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival kicks off at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, November 2, with an opening reception onstage at The New Vic Theatre downtown. Toast the return of the five-day event boasting films that span from documentaries and dramas to romantic comedies from around the world, plus guest speakers, morning coffee-and-bagels meetups, […]

‘Carmen Jones’ Opens at the New Vic
By Richard Mineards   |   October 18, 2022

Carmen Jones, the Oscar Hammerstein musical that opened the latest season of the Ensemble Theatre Company at the New Vic, took two years to come to fruition given the pandemic delays, but it was clearly worth the wait! Directed by Artistic Director Jonathan Fox, the hugely entertaining show featuring an all-Black cast and based on […]

The Show Must Go On
By Richard Mineards   |   September 6, 2022

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, […]

Case Closed on ETC’s Big Season
By Richard Mineards   |   June 21, 2022

Ensemble Theatre Company has concluded its 42nd season at the New Vic with an absolute cracker! Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning 1970 play Sleuth, directed by Jenny Sullivan, staged on a magnificent baronial set, is an absolute old-fashioned delight with two perfectly chosen British actors, Daniel Gerroll and Matthew Floyd Miller as the principal characters of […]