Tag archives: Center Stage Theater
You could say that Robin Gerber has had a backwards career. After working as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and then serving as a well-paid Congressional lobbyist for trade unions for 15 years, Gerber, experiencing self-described burnout, junked it all for a life as a writer for newspapers and magazines. Then her mentor suggested she […]
Just like redemption doesn’t come easy, recovering from the wounds of 2020 from the COVID pandemic and other tough situations this year will likely take significant time. But perhaps a local take on a legendary allegory can go a short way toward helping the healing, or at least create a satisfying enough diversion to bring […]
Every year, the December performances of Santa Barbara Revels are meant to mark the winter solstice, which represents the shortest day of the year, the deepest dive into darkness before emerging back into the light. So perhaps it was fitting that my conversation with Susan Keller, founder of and still the main force in the […]
Humorist-author-comedian-actor Mike Birbiglia, who has enjoyed success as a writer, stand-up comic, director, and actor (including a recurring role in Orange is the New Black, shows up on your computers and other devices in a special stream for UCSB A&L as part of the House Calls virtual series. Birbigs will read from his new memoir, […]
Despite complications from COVID-19, Personal Stories, Center Stage Theater’s popular series that features local authors and actors performing true first-person stories drawn from their own lives never actually went on hiatus. Sure, the PS performances were put on hold, but auditions and coaching continued in hopes that the theater would soon be reopening post-pandemic. Now […]
Center Stage Theater’s daily Digital Arts Festival came to a close back in May, with the daily doses of videos, photos and interviews with local artists of all kinds to share their creative processes and samples of their work perhaps set to return later this summer. In the meantime, a Quarantine Edition of Speaking of […]
Center Stage Theater (CST), the black-box venue that makes itself available to the community through largely low-cost rentals, is also stepping up its game in perhaps an even bigger way by offering a new streaming service every night through the end of the month. The segments will run each night at 7 pm, also starting […]
Dozen of local, national, and international dance artists are set to come together under one roof in Nebula Dance Lab’s sixth annual HH11 Dance Festival at Center Stage Theater this weekend (February 27-March 2). Artists both emerging and established present more than 30 different pieces over the course of the three performances, which include appearance, […]
Ensemble Theatre Company’s area debut of a musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma – which will run at ETC’s New Vic Theater on the same February performance dates at Never Not Once at the Rubicon (see above) – also has another close tie-in with the Ventura company. The musical version of the romantic comedy features […]
Intimacy coach and sensuality/creativity workshop leader Lisa Citore – who is also the founder of Anima, Theater of the Feminine Underground, which has its next installment at the Center Stage Theater in early February – leads Healing Body Shame – Awakening Body Wisdom 7-9 pm on Friday, January 24, at Yoga Soup. The Self-Love Ritual […]
Pianist Jeremy Denk isn’t the only MacArthur Fellow returning to town under the auspices of Arts & Lectures this week. Michelle Dorrance, the founder of the New York City-based dance company that bears her name, won the prestigious prize back in 2015. ETM: Double Down is the title for her latest evening-length work that merges […]
Lights Up! Theatre Company, a new school-year teen theatre conservatory program offering acting, singing, and dance instruction that just started in August, won’t mount its first full production until spring, when the company will take on the musical version of Big Fish at the Marjorie Luke in April. But the teens were just too talented […]
Man and his machines form the basic elements of Cirque Mechanics, the modern company founded 14 years ago by former BMX bike champion Chris Lashua, who began by creating an innovative aerial apparatus. In his and his team’s vision, circus certainly has acrobatics and clowning around, but also is rooted in realism achieved by the […]
Nobody who lives and breathes and can hear music needs an introduction to the Beach Boys, the band of brothers and cousins that more or less put Southern California on the musical map with a surfeit of surf hits followed by pop songs and, later, Pet Sounds, perhaps the greatest pop album of all time. […]
New York choreographer Doug Elkins, after a month-long residency at the Lobero as part of DANCEworks 10th anniversary, put on a fan-tastic 40 minute performance Kintsugi as the culmination of his creative stay in our Eden by the Beach. The 10-year-old company’s six talented dancers – Carolyn Cryer, Alexander Does, Cori Marquis, Donnell Oakley, Eric […]
Santa Barbara native Carisa Carroll began her dance training with Montecito School of Ballet at the age of 7. She started her professional career with American Dance & Music’s Carrie Diamond, and trained with State Street Ballet, performing in every work in the company’s repertoire during the 2012-13 season, including tours, and appearing in the […]
Violinist Jennifer Koh has brought her three-part “Bach and Beyond” and the cutting edge “Bridge to Beethoven” recital series to Hahn Hall for several concerts with UCSB Arts & Lectures over the years. Now, the fearless fiddler is returning to town with her most ambitious endeavor to date: “Shared Madness”, a set of 30 short […]
In an offering that wouldn’t appear out of place at a Fringe Festival, New York’s acclaimed theater company Bedlam makes its Santa Barbara debut on April 19-20 with a two-night stand featuring two different programs of classic works. The four actors take on 49 characters in adrenaline-fueled performances unexpectedly funny, stripped-down stagings of Shakespeare’s Hamlet […]
Samantha Eve laughed when I told her that the only time I saw American Idiot, the Broadway musical version of Green Day’s iconic album, I hated it so much I wished I had left. Really loud. A story that was too hard to follow and a little dated, and so much incongruous activity I wasn’t […]
Fledgling actor-comedian Lauren Watson first thought of creative performance art mimicking Donald Trump late in 2015, when the real estate mogul and reality TV star announced his candidacy. After Trump won the presidency, Watson also stepped up his game, taking his impersonation into some local retail outlets, such as McDonald’s and Ross Dress for Less […]
