As if to underscore the timelessness of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragic tale gets a different site-specific spin through Westmont College’s John Blondell as part of a mini festival this weekend. The veteran professor of theater arts has cut and refashioned Shakespeare’s play into something called The Capulet Black-and-White Ball, refracting the classic through a […]

“Who doesn’t want to play pirate?”  That’s how Michael Bernard explained one of his big reasons for choosing a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved adventure story Treasure Island to direct for SBCC Theatre Group’s next production at the Garvin Theatre. “It’s such a classic story and it’s a really fun show, which there […]

Although he handily won both of his presidential elections, Dwight David Eisenhower wasn’t looked upon as a very effective chief executive a year after his term ended in the early 1960s. That’s the impetus for Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, the new one-man show getting its first local production at the Rubicon in Ventura following […]

What was a singly superb 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival ended with a bit of a downer as Annette Bening, announced as the winner of the inaugural Arlington Award – the fest’s newest and the last to be awarded this month – had to cancel the tribute event due to illness. (On the […]

While we were busy with winter rains and staring at stars strolling down the red carpet for SBIFF at the Arlington, the Music Academy – Montecito’s great claim to fame in the classic music world – has been brewing up some bright new things.  Make that the Music Academy of the West. Thankfully, the strange […]

Montecito filmmaker Daniel DeVorzon, son of Oscar nominee Barry DeVorzon and his wife Jelinda, has found the purrfect project. Daniel, who is also the producer and composer, has made Nine Lives about the connection between one free spirited cat and the humans who love her. Despite a perilous start in life as a feral feline […]

Brian Regan has been doing comedy for decades, dating back to The Tonight Show in the last month of Johnny Carson’s tenure (when he “got the couch” as they used to say) to regular appearances with Jimmy Fallon. He’s put out several popular albums, made eight stand-up specials for major streamers and, most recently, co-starred […]

Attention all local high school students! Time to pick up your drawing penzils and pads, digital or analog, and create a logo for the Funk Zone Live Logo Contest, entries due by March 1, 2024.  The winning logo is set to be featured on all merch and posters for SB Funk Zone Live events – […]

Jonathan Glazer’s new Oscar-nominated film, The Zone of Interest, has finally hit SB screens, and if you’ve yet to check it out, it’s a definite must-see. But be warned: it’s a difficult watch. Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, lives – quite literally – next to the largest and most notorious of concentration camps. There, […]

SBIFF is surely sliding toward the end of this year’s festivities, but there’s still plenty to enjoy over the final three days, with opportunities to partake in pretty much all that the fest has to offer. That includes SBIFF’s tributes, the legendary sessions in which the actors engage in 90-minute or longer programs on their […]