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 […]
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 […]
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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 […]
In the early days of the pandemic, Angelin Preljocaj, the French choreographer famed for creating contemporary classics, dove into developing his distinctive version of Swan Lake, perhaps the most iconic ballet in the canon. Transforming the timeless tale of love, seduction, betrayal, and remorse into a modern cautionary story of ecological tragedy and societal failure, […]
If Diamond to Dust: A Flying A Fantasy is even half as much fun as interviewing the principals who dubbed themselves “good whiskey collaborators” in a conference call, audiences are in for a heckuva ride. This screwball comedy from the pen of actor/director/UCSB Theater professor Michael Bernard will have its world premiere at Westmont this […]
Ask me what our greatest Montecito exports are and I’ll say: Spanish-style tile, Pierre Lafond wine cake, and talent! Although born and raised in Los Angeles, today’s Dear Montecito feature has strong roots in Montecito that have inspired her to take up theater. Eleven-year-old Sadie Brickman Reynolds grew up hearing about her mother’s career in […]
Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) kicked off its first performance of the New Year with the suspenseful Californian premiere of the thriller Selling Kabul, written by Sylvia Khoury and directed by Nike Doukas. An off-Broadway hit and 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, the suspenseful play of abiding family love centers on an Afghani former interpreter […]
An age-old artists’ conundrum of the relationship between creativity and madness gets explored anew in a world premiere original play, The Patient, at Center Stage Theater this weekend. Peter Frisch, the veteran theater director, TV producer, and educator, collaborated on the writing with Shay Munroe, an L.A.-based actress and writer (and former student of Frisch’s […]
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Santa Barbara Dance Theater, which in its association with the UCSB Department of Theater/Dance is the only professional dance company that is in residence in the entire UC system, presents its 2023 season, Intimacy & Autonomy, next week at the Hatlen Theater on campus. The second season under new artistic director Brandon Whited, who is […]
The veteran actor, director, and choreographer Jamie Torcellini is no stranger to Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC), having performed at ETC in The School for Lies and The Mystery of Irma Vep, and directed both Tell Me on a Sunday and The 39 Steps. It’s the latter play that’s most germane, as Torcellini has been enthralled […]
New York Magazine called Ain’t Misbehavin’ the perfect Broadway musical when it premiered back in 1978, the show celebrating the music of Thomas “Fats” Waller and the joint is a jumpin’ scene of 1930s Harlem. Considered among the first major musical revues, Ain’t Misbehavin’ went on to win three Tony Awards, including best musical, and […]
Santa Barbara’s regular traditional holiday shows such as The Nutcracker and Christmas Revels will be arriving next month, along with sing-along Messiahs and holiday parties. But the highlight of the season just might be taking place even before the calendar flips to December as American Theatre Guild’s Broadway in Santa Barbara series presents A Magical […]
Jumping from high school to college, and from a harrowing drama to an absurdist comedy, there’s also UCSB Theater’s offering of a long weekend of The Government Inspector at the Hatlen Theater on campus November 16-20. UCSB faculty member Michael Bernard, whose tenure in town following 10 years as Associate Artistic Director of the 52nd […]
