Curtains Open for Local Teens

About 120 junior high and 40 high school students enjoyed a special matinee performance of Little Women by the Westmont Theater Arts Department on March 5 in Porter Theatre. The event, made possible through a grant from the Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts, brought students from La Colina, Santa Barbara and La Cumbre Junior High schools as well as Santa Barbara High to a live performance, many for the first time. 

“We kind of forget this, but a lot of kids today are still coming out of COVID and most didn’t have field trips in elementary school,” says Rich Lashua, theater arts teacher at Santa Barbara Junior High School. “This is the first live performance some of them have been allowed to see. I am also a big believer in arts education, and since Westmont is in our backyard, this is an example of a school they could go to someday and continue to pursue their arts education, if this is what they enjoy.”

Towbes Foundation grants have allowed Westmont to invite young students to see Romeo & Juliet in 2024 and the Fringe Festival in 2025. “Last year’s season-wide K-12 student outreach experiment confirmed our beliefs that the arts are an essential part of childhood education and contain stories that need to be shared,” says Jonathan Hicks, who chairs the Westmont theater arts department. “Through artistic activities, children gain new ways to express themselves and learn to appreciate the world, leading to the holistic development of well-rounded individuals.”

Hicks sent each class a pre-show summary, which included theater etiquette and vocabulary to help the students understand and retain the content. 

“I’m a big fan of building connections with other groups in our community, and so hopefully this run with Westmont is just kind of the beginning of a great new relationship,” Lashua said.