Out of the Limelight: Local Stages Launch Shows

With the major local theater companies at rest in January, three smaller organizations are opening productions this weekend with wildly divergent genres. The newly-formed HappySad Theatre Company – from Santa Barbara-raised, SBCC-acting educated Robert Rodarte and his wife, Riley, who met at Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway in New York – launches with The Effect, Lucy Prebble’s “clinical romance” about two participants in an anti-depressant clinical drug trial. The patients, played by the Rodartes, quickly develop feelings for one another, but aren’t sure if their romance is merely a pharmaceutical side effect. This creates complications for two psychiatrists played by Santa Barbara High’s theater director Gioia Marchese and Montecito’s Joseph Bottoms. The play, which was nominated for awards both in London and Off-Broadway, runs at Center Stage Theatre January 16-17. 

Laguna Blanca’s Theatre Department presents Charles Morey’s Laughing Stock, a hilarious backstage farce that offers a warm and witty tribute to the world of live theater, January 16-18 at Spaulding Theatre on the Laguna Blanca campus. The action takes place at a rustic, underfunded New England summer stock company that has scheduled a wildly ambitious repertory season of Dracula, Hamlet, and Charley’s Aunt. Audiences follow the earnest but overextended company from outlandish auditions to ego-driven rehearsals to opening nights that go disastrously off the rails. Visit https://tinyurl.com/LagunaBlancaLaughing for more information.

Former Oscar nominee James Franco presents Desert Films, a new play he wrote, directs and stars in. Franco’s play was inspired by David Lynch’s Lost Highway, as part of a celebratory long weekend honoring the late visionary filmmaker at Ojai Playhouse. The play is a work-in-progress that blends a traditional stage performance with film projection in a surreal trip through fame, fantasy, and myth of the enigmatic Mystery Man character portrayed by Robert Blake in the film. The January 15-20 celebration also features free screenings of several of Lynch’s other films along with ancillary events. Visit www.ojaiplayhouse.com

Also in Ojai, Santa Barbara’s Meredith McMinn stars in Simon Stephens’ Morning Sun. The show –  Stupid Courage Productions’ first – will take the stage in Ojai, at Veritas Theater, 226 W. Ojai Ave., for two weekends, January 16-25. The play is a deeply felt exploration of the family bonds that shape our lives, and a poignant portrait of three generations of women set amid the turbulent backdrop of Manhattan from the ‘60s through the 90s. Visit https://tinyurl.com/yf5bssvd.