UCSB’s Launch Pad Summers at the New Vic, and More Entertainment Matters

UCSB Theatre’s long-standing new play development program Launch Pad moves off campus to downtown Santa Barbara for the first time for a special one-day only staged reading of two works-in-progress at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic Theatre on August 27. It’s the result of both a new one-year-old collaboration between ETC and Launch Pad and Director Risa Brainin’s decision to eschew teaching the full summer class on campus this summer. 

“It’s a great way for us to broaden our reach,” explained Brainin, adding that people’s reluctance to head to UCSB’s western Goleta campus can be a deterrent. “We’re excited to find a new audience downtown where we hope to get some of Ensemble’s regulars who love being involved with new work.”

Indeed, the readings are performed with scripts in hand and minimal staging, instead focusing almost exclusively on the text, as actors voicing the author’s line offer the playwright input as they continue to refine the work. Meanwhile, audiences get to experience theater in an early creative phase, as well as hear directly from the artists about how the play evolves from first draft to opening night. 

The new works in question for August 27 are Julia Izumi’s The Banana Factory, which will be directed by visiting artist Kate Bergstrom, the Santa Barbara-educated actress-writer-director who now runs Repertory Theater of St. Louis; and Megan Tabaque’s The Rink at the End of the World, directed by UCSB’s Julie Fishell. Banana investigates activism and examines how that impacts children, while Rink centers around a crew of mall-rink figure skaters unexpectedly heading to a competition in Croatia when a crisis of a different order arises. 

“They both have the perspective of coming from young people, looking at how high school kids are thinking about what’s going on in our world and what actions people are taking,” Brainin said. “Even though they’re dealing with dark subject matter, and there’s a lot of very sharp and interesting dialogue and characters, there’s also a lot of humor.”

Both playwrights are connected to the 4 Seasons Residency program, composed of four development organizations that include Launch Pad; Tabaque was last year’s participant, and Izumi is the current one. The Rink at the End of the World is actually in the middle of its three level UCSB connection, having also been a part of the Launch Pad’s Amplify Reading Series Festival last season, and is slated to have a fully produced run this coming spring. 

“That makes it even more interesting for audiences who will have a chance to see it at the different stages of development, which is very rare,” Brianin said. 

Not having Launch Pad tethered to the summer class – which usually brings in a different playwright and new work for each week of the session – not only allowed Brainin to have them run concurrently but also call on the community and other professionals for cast members rather than an exclusively student group. Rink will feature both Westmont’s longtime theater prof Mitchell Thomas and UCSB’s Annie Torsiglieri among the players. 

“Some of the cast are also able to appear in both, which should also be fun for the audiences,” Brainin said. 

Both shows run 90 minutes without intermission, and will feature audience talk backs with the playwrights, directors and some of the cast after each performance. Admission is free.

Visit www.launchpad.theaterdance.ucsb.edu/reading-series/2026

Tales for the Fall

The groundbreaking Sings Like Hell brought singer-songwriters and other emerging artists to the Lobero for more than 20 six-concert series, long before a great number of them went on to fill larger venues. SLH sadly went by the wayside almost a decade ago. But Tales from the Tavern – which replicated the concept in a more acoustic series of shows at smaller venues in Santa Ynez and has shared headliners with SLH – is still thriving. Concerts are on Wednesdays at the Maverick Saloon, the often rowdy country bar that turns into a quiet listening room for the Tales shows. The next TFTT series – which also differs from SLH in that every show is recorded on digital video along with an interview with the artist(s) for the archives – gets underway on August 26 with Bob Schneider, followed by England’s Black Feathers September 16, Jimmie Dale Gilmore (see my interview a few weeks back) and Butch Hancock on October 7, Kim Richey on October 14, a fascinating pairing of John Gorka with progressive bassist Michael Manring on October 21, and John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) with his Circle Band on November 11.

Visit https://talesfromthetavern.com

Gotts Pix? Celebrity Photog on the Walls and Beyond at Riviera Resort 

Andy Gotts MBE MA, the celebrity photographer based in both London and Los Angeles, has won acclaim for his extensive series of black-and-white portraits of pop musicians, Hollywood stars and other icons. Among the famous faces captured by Gotts over the last quarter century are Dolly Parton, Ozzy Osbourne, Ringo Starr, Rita Ora, Elton John, B.B. King, and many others. The El Encanto has secured the artist’s first-ever exhibition in California, dubbed “The Playlist,” which will feature 40 large-format fine art prints located throughout the historic property, each of which spotlights Gotts’ signature style of raw, high-contrast extreme close-ups left deliberately unretouched. The show runs August 27-November 30, and various packages to experience both the artwork and Gotts are available.  

Visit www.elencanto.com