Westmont’s John Blondell, a longtime professor of theater arts, puts his own contemporary, site-specific spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as part of a mini-festival about the famous tragedy Thursday, Feb. 29, at 7 pm; Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2, at 7 pm and 9 pm; and Sunday, March 3, at 7 pm […]
In the film Pretty Woman, courtesan Vivian catches lightning in a bottle when she meets Richard Gere’s charming and chivalrous billionaire businessman. Being cast in the title role of the film’s touring stage musical serves as a similarly unlikely lucky break for Ellie Baker. A really big break. Not only does Pretty Woman: The Musical represent […]
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It was shortly after the dawning of the new millennium that Santa Barbara Unified School District and a new nonprofit got together to upgrade the auditorium at Santa Barbara Junior High that had gone dark and fallen into disrepair. What started as a cleanup turned into a full-blown renovation of the historic Spanish colonial revival […]
With its 2024 annual Christmastime show, Santa Barbara Revels becomes the first of the regional Revels companies to present the organization’s newest endeavor: The Revels: A Winter Solstice Celebration – Tales from Ellis Island. Inaugurated in Cambridge just last year, the story finds a Mexican medical supervisor informing the newly-arrived immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and […]
There’s something quite magical and yet weighty in the way in which Lights Up! Theatre Company has taken a firm toehold in the Santa Barbara youth theater scene – one that has never been sorely lacking in the first place. Theater stage and screen veteran Amy Love has parlayed her professional and teaching background into […]
Ensemble’s Johnny Cash tribute/story-through-song musical revue winds up its run at the New Vic with a final extended weekend through December 17. The Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria has a second and final weekend helping of its homegrown adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street featuring an all-local cast and production crew, also closing December 17, the […]
Morgan Scott was understandably excited Monday morning over the phone from the Coachella Valley, where The Cher Show had just wound up five performances over the weekend in Palm Desert. The area is home not only to one of Cher’s famed exes, Sonny Bono, who was both mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. representative […]
The annual invasion of local productions of The Nutcracker doesn’t begin until mid-December, as Festival Ballet and then the State Street Ballet roll out their full-fledged renditions of Tchaikovsky’s Christmas classic. But this weekend brings a tasty holiday appetizer, especially for the tots and teens, as State Street Ballet Academy presents Rudolph, the charming holiday […]
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 […]
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Congratulations to director Mitchell Thomas, the cast, musicians and creative team for putting together such wonderful performances during Godspell, October 12-15. Unfortunately, the student actors and musicians have other artistic and scholarly commitments and the production has run its course. The enthusiasm and energy that emanated from this tightknit group of actors delighted audience members […]
If the innumerable performances of Shakespeare’s plays are any testament – theater has the ability to preserve a story for centuries. And it is exactly that preservation that the play Survivors hopes to achieve at the Raise Our Voices event at the Marjorie Luke Theatre this Thursday, October 19, at 7 pm. Written by Wendy […]
State Street Ballet (SSB) launches its 2023-24 season, its first under new leadership following the transition from founder Rodney Gustafson to new Artistic Director Megan Philipp and Cecily MacDougall as Executive Director. Philipp, who has been with SSB for a decade, is staging this weekend’s performances of Giselle, one of the most beloved ballets of […]
The project-based Moving Dance Company, whose recent works include View/Chew for the Versatility Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., made its Santa Barbara debut with HOLOGRAM at last year’s Nebula Dance Festival. MDC returns to Center Stage on October 21 with This is Not Content, a multimedia show that explores the human experience […]
José Limón – or at least the dance company founded by the famed dancer and choreographer from Mexico who developed a technique that employs visceral gestures to communicate emotions – runs deeply through the new season from Santa Barbara Dance Theater (SBDT), the professional dance company in residence at UCSB. Which is not surprising, given […]
