Tag archives: Rubicon Theatre
Sure, Christmas is almost a month in the rear-view mirror. Yes, Estella Scrooge, which takes place on a present-day December 24-25, is absolutely meant to be a Yuletide holiday story. But if you have yet to see this clever mashup of A Christmas Carol with several of Charles Dickens’ other books, now would be a […]
Rubicon Theatre in Ventura has done a lot of great work, from classic musicals to heart-rending dramas to serving as a home for developing new works. But over the years one show has stood out as qualifying for all three of those categories: Little Miss Scrooge, subtitled “A Dickensian Christmas Story,” which was conceived by […]
6Q’s with the writer of RTC’s A Song Rubicon Theatre’s September Blitz, a month-long festival featuring more than 30 events in 30 days, takes a turn away from classic fare toward a moving and innovative new one-act play with music from emerging young playwright Taylor Fagins. Preston Butler III, Greta Oglesby, Krystle Rose Simmons, and […]
Since the pandemic forced its doors to close in March, Rubicon Theatre rose to the challenge by quickly pivoting in creating digital content, including taking its summer youth programs online, but also launched the nation’s first theatrical drive-in concert series. Now, as its Rubicon Goes Retro Drive-in Concert Series comes to a close this week, […]
Every arts organization has responded to the coronavirus crisis in their own way and in their own time, from raiding the archives to shutting down completely to, in the case of Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre (see above), trying innovative new ways to still go live and in person despite the pandemic. PCPA Theaterfest, which in normal […]
Actress-singer Teri Bibb has played the role of understudy-turned-star Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera more than 1,000 times, both on Broadway and with the national tour that included singing a command performance at the White House. A veteran whose experience includes appearing in more than 50 musicals across the country, Bibb’s credits […]
RTC has also another gift for theater lovers this month by offering free viewings of Arlene Hutton‘s Nibroc Trilogy via Vimeo recordings of the award winning works directed by the company’s own Katherine Farmer. Nibroc is a set of three plays about the challenges of a young couple living in Kentucky and Florida in the […]
Jazz singer Tierney Sutton has such a clear, compelling, and communicative voice, it’s surprising to learn that early on in the 20-plus-year career of the band that carries her name, Sutton was a reluctant focal (and vocal) point for the group. “When I came out to L.A., my heroes were Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Flora […]
Tony Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) wrote Heisenberg a couple of years after TV’s Breaking Bad anti-hero Walter White stared down another major meth manufacturer in the Arizona desert and demanded that his rival say the criminal’s nickname that had made him the DEA’s fictional enemy No. […]
Long time Southern California and frequent Ensemble Theatre Company director Jenny Sullivan doesn’t want people to make same mistake she did, which was to wait until the last performance of The Legend of Georgia McBride when it ran at the Geffen Theater in LA in spring 2017. “It was so funny and so moving. I […]
Bringing Return to the Forbidden Planet back to the Rubicon Theatre just two years after the Ventura debut of the hit early-1990s jukebox musical based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet was a case of a trite theater cliché actually turning out to be true. “It very definitely is […]
Montecito has always been an integral part of the Santa Barbara Studio Artists (SBSA) Open Studios tour. But not so much this year. The annual Labor Day weekend event when local artists who are members of the organization welcome guests into their working home studios or off-site locations has just one site for visitors to […]
John Tufts‘s most recent pair of theater jobs featured the actor playing multiple roles. In I Am My Own Wife – in which Tufts just finished reprising his stunning turn in Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning one-man show that played at Ensemble Theatre in 2016 at the Laguna Playhouse – he played some 40 different roles, […]
Rubicon Theatre Company (RTC) is making no bones about comparing Shakespeare’s tragic King Lear to the current American president. “Timely and trenchant,” the press release states, “Lear the story of a narcissistic ruler who craves adulation, casts out those who doubt his decisions, and neglects those on the fringes of society…. A haunting and epic […]
Back in 2015, Joanna Murphy was searching for an outlet in art to counter frightening medical issues she was suffering as a result of trauma when she came across alcohol-ink paintings on the social media site Pinterest. Drawn initially by the bright colors associated with the medium, Murphy found an even greater affinity once she […]
