Tag archives: theater
Every literate person knows who Shakespeare was, but if a couple of his aging actor friends hadn’t taken it upon themselves to get all of the Bard’s plays published in a single, bound volume after his death in the early 1616, chances are nobody would have ever heard of Romeo or Juliet, or Hamlet, King […]
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 […]
Jonathan Fox, who left the Ensemble Theatre Company after 17 years as artistic director, has been spending the summer in Santa Barbara’s sister city Kotor, Montenegro. Jonathan has been presenting a production of An Iliad, a modern-day retelling of Homer’s classic. The opening performance was at the 18th century St. Nicholas Franciscan monastery. The production […]
Guys and Dolls garnered a standing ovation in its glorious opening night at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre last Friday in a production that deserves kudos not only for its smartly-matched and crisply-directly 25-member cast – with plenty of chemistry in the two main couples – but also for its impressive full-scale set, terrific live orchestra, and […]
If Anikka Abbott’s career had taken a different turn, she might be about to sing a soprano role at the Granada in the Music Academy’s opera in Santa Barbara this weekend. As what happens in life, there’s been a bit of a detour, including serving as first runner-up to Miss Washington in the Miss America […]
PCPA Theaterfest kicks off its 2023 summer season on June 22 at the Solvang Festival Theater with Emma in the West Coast premiere of Joseph Hanreddy’s latest adaptation of a beloved Jane Austen novel. Opting to direct the playwright’s new piece was an easy choice for Polly Firestone Walker, a veteran PCPA resident artist (and […]
Travel guru Charles de L’Arbre is the new board president of the Lobero Theatre Foundation. Charles, CEO of the Santa Barbara Travel Bureau, a family company started in 1947, has had a long association with the historic theater. He formerly enjoyed a long career as a stage actor and voiceover artist, performing in several shows […]
Montecito chef Dario Furlati, who owns the Ca’Dario chain of Italian eateries, has been helping out with the Ensemble Theatre Company’s latest production Seared, directed by departing artistic director Jonathan Fox. “The play takes place in a small restaurant kitchen that suddenly gets acclaim in New York Magazine and is absolutely overwhelmed with customers,” says […]
Jonathan Fox, artistic director of the Ensemble Theatre Company for the last 17 years, is moving to newer pastures. Jonathan, who I’ve known since moving to our Eden by the Beach in 2007 when the company performed at the rustic Alhecama Theatre, directs his latest and last play Seared at the New Vic, the final […]
During the lockdown period of the COVID pandemic, the Westmont College-spawned Lit Moon Theatre met online for nearly two years as an international collective of artists and actors. The 18-member group created online versions of Libby Appel’s translations of Chekhov plays: Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters,and Ivanov. This weekend, Lit Moon World emerges in person with […]
The small-town civic theater is an enduring symbol; the unassuming downtown performance company – founded long ago by beloved local dandies – that secretly fuels the community’s daily life. The butcher, baker, and candlestick maker (the professional class, that is) have always been the gray-flannel measure of community progress. The town playhouse, though – dowdy […]
Anastasia – the Broadway musical inspired by the 1997 animated film and the 1956 live-action movie that ran in New York from 2017-2020 and has been performed more than 2,500 times worldwide – has its Santa Barbara debut at The Granada Theatre on April 25-26 as part of The American Theatre Guild’s Broadway in Santa […]
Ensemble Theatre Company’s area premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s 2016 drama The Children winds up its three-week run at the New Vic on April 23. ETC favorite helmer Jenny Sullivan directs the trio of well-traveled actors Michael Butler, Linda Purl, and Nancy Travis – all of whom are familiar to recent ETC audiences – in the […]
Rick Mokler is updating Our Town for our times and, well, our town too. With George and Emily Get Married, the (now officially retired) longtime theater teacher at area high schools, who also later chaired the SBCC Theater Department, has taken the young lovers from Thornton Wilder’s 85-year-old chestnut, updated their professions to a recent […]
Like every musical Out of the Box produces, Once is near and dear to company founder Samantha Eve’s heart. But its plot – the charming tale of an Irish busker musician ready to give up on his dream, the Czech immigrant in adoration of his songs, and their being drawn together by their shared love […]
Santa Barbara High School is the first of the local public schools to mount their spring production, leading the charge with the ever popular The Rocky Horror Show, the stage musical from which the 1975 cult film was adapted, running April 14-22 at the school’s theater. New theater department director Gioia Marchese chose the deliberately […]
Opera Santa Barbara’s latest production The Light in the Piazza at Center Stage Theater, this year’s annual showcase of the Chrisman Studio Artist Program, was an absolute gem. With music and lyrics by Adam Guettel and a book by Craig Lucas, the show was based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer and the 1963 […]
TV and film writer-producer Jonathan Prince – whose adaptation and book for the world premiere of a musical based on Dark of the Moon opens at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura this weekend – wasn’t going to let anything stand in his way; least of all the discovery that several big theatrical icons had previously […]
Several former Dos Pueblos High School “theater geeks” who are pursuing their dreams of a professional life in the performing arts have created a cabaret show called Our Time: Celebrating High School Theater Kids Gone Pro. The one-night only event serves to honor Clark Sayre, their beloved high school theater teacher and Broadway veteran (Merrily […]
Wet weather and storm watches didn’t keep people away from the opening weekend of the Westmont College Festival Theatre’s world premiere Diamond to Dust: A Flying A Fantasy. Director John Blondell and writer Michael Bernard, a local actor, educator and playwright, have brought Santa Barbara’s treasured cinematic history to the stage in a creative exploration […]
