Colors, Continued

Yulia Maluta has been performing, producing, and teaching dance in town for decades, and is also the creative force behind a multicultural dance and music variety show called Colors of Love at Center Stage Theater at least twice a year since well before the pandemic. The summer show – “dedicated to Women’s Empowerment Honoring Mother Earth, Diversity, and Unity” – takes place on Saturday, July 25, with a list of performers including 17 separate acts. Among the styles represented are Argentine Tango, Samba, Belly Dance, Latin, Flamenco, Irish and modern, with a number of live musicians and singers providing much of the soundtrack. Beth Amine, who among other endeavors produces and stars in dance shows at Santa Barbara’s Wildcat Lounge on a regular basis, serves as emcee. 

What makes this iteration important? 

“The shows are always fantastic,” Maluta said in a chance encounter last week at Elings Park. “But we could all use more love right now.”  

Visit https://centerstagetheater.org

New Works Festival Returns

Meanwhile, back in Caulfield’s hometown, the 29th annual Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC) New Works Festival presents five even newer works than 2025’s The Lost Gospel over four days (July 30 to August 2), the culmination of a two-week conference that includes workshops, panel conversations, and other events open to the public. 

OPC is among the most respected play development programs in America, a place that has nurtured numerous Broadway, off-Broadway and/or Pulitzer Prize-winning plays since its founding in 1998. Among the notable works developed or workshopped at the conference are the Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home, Pulitzer finalist Other Desert Cities, and Olivier Award Best New Musical Caroline, or Change. This year’s entries include three dramatic works in Jaclyn Backhaus’ The Collectivists, Keith Bunin’s The Loyal Opposition and Harrison David Rivers’ Except That It Is God plus two comedies in Mat Smart’s The Last Nun at Lake Leaf Monastery, Grace McLeod’sClosing Costs.

Visit www.ojaiplays.org for details and tickets

‘Crazy’ Goes to Washington… and Off-Broadway

Ojai is also at the heart of Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love & Madness, Ojai realtor Sharon Scott Williams’ one-woman autobiographical play about growing up in a small Southern town with a mother suffering from severe mental illness, and learning to find resilience, understanding and hope. Williams’ husband, famed Happy Days star and veteran TV Director Anson Williams, helped shape the script and directed the premiere at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura in spring 2025, which starred veteran actress Linda Purl. Now the three are taking the piece to the East Coast where it will be featured as part of an official congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., highlighting the role of the arts in reducing stigma around mental illness on September 10 before it makes its Off-Broadway debut a week later.

Visit www.RubiconTheatre.org