Tag archives: Alcazar Theatre

Hold on: Caulfield’s Coming to Carpinteria
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 27, 2026

How often do you get the chance to see a veritable decades-long star of stage and screen perform a one-man play in a nearly 100-year-old theater that seats barely 200 people?  If you’ve picked up your paper on publication day (July 23), head over to the Alcazar Theatre where acclaimed actor Maxwell Caulfield – will […]

‘Stand by Mother’ Screening Draws Packed Crowd and More News Bytes
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 28, 2026

The Alcazar Theatre was filled to capacity for a special Earth Day-inspired screening of Stand by Mother, a family-friendly environmental film created by director Kerrilee Gore in collaboration with ShelterBox USA. The fantasy film, starring Emmett Long and Disney Channel actor Dakota Lotus, delivers a message of environmental stewardship, empathy, and youth empowerment. The event […]

SBIFF Salutes Oscars, Screens Theater
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 24, 2026

As often happens, select Oscar-winning movies head back to theaters in the wake of the awards, but now a number of them will be playing in SBIFF’s own McHurley Film Center downtown. Re-opening on the big screen on Friday, March 20, are One Battle After Another, whose five award-winners (six Oscars) were all part of […]

Stage It: Arming Teens to Speak Up About Guns
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 7, 2025

Enough! is a nationwide reading of six new 10-minute plays by teen writers that confront gun violence, with the aim of allowing youth voices to be heard, sparking conversation and inspiring action against one of the most pressing issues of our time. The plays, which were selected by a committee of nationally renowned playwrights, will […]

Feelin’ Groovy: ‘Social Insecurity’ Premieres and More Thespian Happenings
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 16, 2025

Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre channels the radical era of the 1960s for the world premiere of Mark J Heller’s Social Insecurity, about an aging couple that long to experience the counterculture movement they just missed in their youth. Bea and Pete Lewis get a second chance at a retro-themed retirement community, where they encounter a free-spirited […]

Alcazar’s One-Acts  
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 10, 2024

The Alcazar Ensemble is staging a second weekend September 6-8 of the Hanne Pedersen Playwright Competition. That competition features four one-act plays from tri-county authors in honor of its late namesake, one of the co-founders of the Carpinteria Community Theatre. Sophie Goldstein’s This House is Legacy traces a neighborhood that no longer exists but has […]

This Magic Moment: New Festival at the Alcazar
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 27, 2024

Recovery from the pandemic is still a part of our world, and if there’s anything that hasn’t fully come back, it might be our shared experiences of humor and magic. Combining those two for an immersive weekend is the point behind the first annual Comedy & Magic Festival at the Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria. Fourteen […]

Faragher Brothers & Family at the Alcazar
By Joanne A Calitri   |   August 6, 2024

I talked with Tommy Faragher this week about his band, The Faragher Brothers, who will be doing a two-night residency at the Alcazar Theatre, Carpinteria, August 9 and 10. The original band was formed in the 1970s up in Redlands, CA by four brothers, Tommy, Davey, Jimmy,and Danny Faragher. While their long history in the […]

Alcazar Theatre Announces Renovation Fundraiser with the Doublewide Kings
By Joanne A Calitri   |   January 23, 2024

Palmer Jackson Jr.’s band, the Doublewide Kings, is doing a benefit show to raise funding for the Alcazar Theatre’s 2024 renovations on February 2 and February 3. The band has a huge following and announced that early sponsorship VIPs include Montecito’s Scott Brittingham of Brittingham Family Foundation, Bill and Katie Garland,Board Treasurer of Casa del […]

The Alcazar Theatre New Board President and VP
By Joanne A Calitri   |   November 14, 2023

Mike Lazaro is appointed the Board President of the Alcazar Theatre Carpinteria as of Oct. 28. We talked via phone Nov. 5, and he shared: “Right now, these are exciting days for the Alcazar Theatre. We are blessed with so many opportunities to show the diversity of what the theater can provide, from live performances, […]

Sounds Around Town 
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 8, 2023

After a bit of a mid-summer lull, the Santa Barbara Bowl is back in action, and exudes eclecticism in its quartet of concerts this week. The August 4 show is a conglomeration of its own as co-headliners Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Ziggy Marley are supported by Mavis Staples and the Robert Randolph Band […]

Alcazar Theatre Celebrates 95th Anniversary
By Joanne A Calitri   |   July 4, 2023

The Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria is a center for performing arts and entertainment. It was founded 95 years ago, and on June 9 it held a celebration to commemorate the anniversary. Community members came to share in the birthday cake and performances by Cecilia James and BFD (Bob Montanes, John Finseth, and David Hekhouse). Emcees […]

The Growth of González
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 10, 2023

When COVID crushed live entertainment in March 2020 for more than a year, Gilberto González turned to working in the studio environment. González, a guitarist who was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, but has spent just shy of a quarter-century in Ventura County, began recording regularly at Emmet Sargent’s Beagle Studios, making video recordings with a […]

The Absurdity of It All 
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 15, 2022

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 […]

Back at the Haunted Pumpkin Patch
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 1, 2022

The Pumpkin Queen is in need of your assistance again. It seems that scoundrel Louie D’Ville is now scheming with the despicable Chuck Bunger to turn all of Isla Vista into parking lots, strip malls, and high rises.  Yes, with October coming to a close, IV Recreation & Park District and Lucidity Festival’s Halloween Haunted […]

Laugh to the Tune of Improv
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 20, 2022

Chris Shurland, one of the improv instructors and company members at both Santa Barbara Improv and the recently revived Carpinteria Improv at the Alcazar Theatre, has a confession. He really doesn’t like doing musical improv. Or, it turns out, singing at all.  “I’ve done karaoke one time in my life, and that was literally the […]

Alcazar’s Concise Community-centric Comedy
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 9, 2022

Last summer, the community theater company at Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre launched Laugh Out Loud, a one-weekend summer series of several short comedic plays, both to keep its actors and the community engaged, and to test the waters of producing live theater during the pandemic.  Audiences responded, filling up more than half of the seats at […]

Theater Talk: Crossing the Rubicon
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 10, 2022

Later this month, Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre Company finally reopens, more than two years after the pandemic put the kibosh on live theater everywhere, and long after virtually every other venue in the area has returned to roughly regular schedules. The mounting of theater shows again at the converted church a few blocks from downtown Ventura […]

Some Birthday Fun-draising
By Joanne A Calitri   |   January 4, 2022

One of our most renowned musical residents, Alan Parsons, held a star-studded fundraiser at the Alcazar Theatre Carpinteria on his birthday on December 20, to raise funds for the nonprofit venue in lieu of gifts.  The event, produced by Mike Lazaro, of Lazaro Event Management and founding board member of the Alcazar Theatre, started with […]

All It’s ‘Crack-ed Up to Be
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 21, 2021

Some folks spend all year looking forward to the holidays just so they can watch The Nutcracker once again. Others don’t care if they never hear Tchaikovsky’s classic again.  There’s no doubt on which side State Street Ballet founder Rodney Gustafson resides.  “I’ve seen our production so many times,” said Gustafson, who just returned to […]