Tag archives: theater

History in the Making
By Richard Mineards   |   March 1, 2018

Santa Barbara Natural History Museum’s 31st annual Wine and Food Festival on June 30 is going to be the biggest and best yet, raising around $110,000, predicts president Luke Swetland. The popular tourist attraction hosted a pre-fest bash for 60 guests at the Grassini Wine tasting room in El Paseo to promote the event. “There […]

Muppets, Malkovich-Meister and More at PuppetPalooza
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 1, 2018

For Santa Barbara’s first PuppetPalooza, creator Mitchell Kriegman has come up with a festival so vast and imaginatively populated with puppets, marionettes, and just about every other possible permutation of the genre giant and small, including literally the hand and glove, even his own character Clarissa might have a hard time explaining it all to […]

Happy-ness is a Well-Worn Song
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 15, 2018

Happy Traum is merely the opening act for the next Sings Like Hell show starring Jack Sh*t, the super group comprising sidemen for singer-songwriter legends making at least its third visit to the Lobero. But before guitarist Val McCallum (Jackson Browne), drummer Pete Thomas, and bassist Davey Faragher (both Elvis Costello) hit the stage with […]

Mystery Music
By Richard Mineards   |   February 15, 2018

Santa Barbara’s musical youth shone at the First United Methodist Church when the youth opera and youth symphony under Opera SB artistic director Kostis Protpapas performed a creative production of Benjamin Britten’s Noah’s Flood. The 1958 work, based on a 15th-century Chester mystery play, featured bass-baritone Vincent Grana and mezzo soprano Chelsea Melamed as his […]

Look Who’s Talking
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 8, 2018

Anthony Giardina‘s 2010 play The City of Conversation has proven to be even more prophetic than even he might have imagined. Set in Washington, D.C., during three important periods in recent American politics, the play spans nearly 30 years, from Fall of 1979 to January 2009, and traces the evolution of 1960s-raised Hester Ferris from […]

Get a Load of This
By Richard Mineards   |   February 1, 2018

After the massive cleanup following the devastating Montecito mudslides, where to dump it? More than 20,000 dump truck loads – in excess of seven million pounds – of muck have been taken to the Ventura County Fairgrounds, where it is being stored temporarily. But with the totals increasing daily, officials face a daunting task. One […]

Pilobolus Returns to the Granada
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 25, 2018

When your company is named after a fungus that grows on cow poop, clearly you’re involved with an outfit that loves playfulness as well as metaphors. Pilobolus formed at Dartmouth back in 1971 but has grown more explosively than its light-seeking namesake, now numbering more than 120 dance works in its repertoire, including three entities […]

Parody Trumps President
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 11, 2018

Fledgling actor-comedian Lauren Watson first thought of creative performance art mimicking Donald Trump late in 2015, when the real estate mogul and reality TV star announced his candidacy. After Trump won the presidency, Watson also stepped up his game, taking his impersonation into some local retail outlets, such as McDonald’s and Ross Dress for Less […]

Revels with a Cause
By Richard Mineards   |   December 17, 2017

Santa Barbara Revels, presenting its 10th anniversary production at the Lobero, stayed closer to home this year with its theme from the Alta California Rancho period. Written by my Journal colleague Erin Graffy and Revels artistic director Susan Keller, the 1835-era production centered around the nuptials of Anita de la Guerra, daughter of the presidio’s […]