Tag archives: ETC
Prince Harry, 38, was this close to hosting the iconic NBC show Saturday Night Live as part of the promotional tour for his bestselling memoir, Spare. But talks reportedly stalled at the final hurdle and he went on to appear on other high-profile shows, including 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper and The Late Show with […]
Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) kicked off its first performance of the New Year with the suspenseful Californian premiere of the thriller Selling Kabul, written by Sylvia Khoury and directed by Nike Doukas. An off-Broadway hit and 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama, the suspenseful play of abiding family love centers on an Afghani former interpreter […]
The veteran actor, director, and choreographer Jamie Torcellini is no stranger to Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC), having performed at ETC in The School for Lies and The Mystery of Irma Vep, and directed both Tell Me on a Sunday and The 39 Steps. It’s the latter play that’s most germane, as Torcellini has been enthralled […]
People have been bewitched and beguiled by the story of Carmen as consistently as the fiery gypsy seduces the brave men she encounters. Bizet’s opera remains wildly popular worldwide, almost 150 years since it premiered in Paris, and countless adaptations in dance have spun the tale through musical movement. Even Oscar Hammerstein fell under Carmen’s […]
Social gridlock reigned at the historic Santa Barbara Club when the Ensemble Theatre Company marked its 43rd season with a Curtain Up! gala for 150 guests, raising more than $200,000 for productions at the New Vic. Susan Van Abel chaired the fun fête that featured the ubiquitous Chris Fossek on classical guitar, singer Linda Purl, […]
Ensemble Theatre Company has concluded its 42nd season at the New Vic with an absolute cracker! Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning 1970 play Sleuth, directed by Jenny Sullivan, staged on a magnificent baronial set, is an absolute old-fashioned delight with two perfectly chosen British actors, Daniel Gerroll and Matthew Floyd Miller as the principal characters of […]
The New Vic sounds like a theater in England, but the downtown venue is actually an old, converted church, although Ensemble Theatre Company’s lavish remodeling left few of those attributes visible inside. But there’s no way ETC’s old digs at the antiquated Alhecama Theater could have supported the sets and stagecraft required for its next […]
Ensemble Theatre Company staged its tour-de-force one-man show Vincent at the New Vic, originally presented by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in March to sold-out audiences as it mounted its highly acclaimed Vincent Van Gogh exhibition. The play paints a thoughtful, imaginary scenario about one of the most famous names in the art world […]
Ensemble Theatre Company is bringing back its production of Vincent, the critically-lauded one-man show created by Leonard Nimoy, who spent years researching the hundreds of letters exchanged between the artist Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo, to fashion the intimately-scaled 1980 play in which the actor portrays both brothers. Veteran thespian Charles Pasternak takes […]
Ensemble Theatre Company has a new head honcho. Following a national search, the New Vic-based organization has appointed Scott DeVine, who brings 20 years of theater management experience to the role, as its managing director. “Scott has skillfully managed complex artistic organizations and been responsible for ensuring theaters he has served have maintained a sound […]
Racial dynamics are at the forefront of the Ensemble Theatre Company’s latest New Vic show American Son. The nail-biting drama, directed by Jonathan Fox, takes place at a Miami, Florida, police station where, in the middle of the night, the parents of an African American teenager anxiously await news of their son, who may have […]
After two false starts forced by the pandemic, ETC is finally bringing American Son to the New Vic Theatre for a mid-April run. The nail-biting drama takes place in real-time in the waiting room of a Miami police station where the parents of a bi-racial African American teenager anxiously await news about their son, who […]
While film lovers will be flocking to Santa Barbara over the next 10 days to watch scores of world premieres and welcome widely loved movie stars in the Arlington and other cinemas, the Ensemble Theatre will be staging a premiere of its own just across Victoria Street in the New Vic, one that also boasts […]
CAMA – Community Arts Music Association – kicked off its 103rd season with its first performance in 22 months at the Granada with one of the world’s leading orchestras, the 75-year-old Royal Philharmonic from London under the trusty baton of Russian music director Vasily Petrenko, who took charge less than a year ago. Our tony […]
There’s a plethora of a cappella singing groups at Yale, the Ivy League School known for theater and music as much as the liberal arts. “I think there’s 16, including four all-male,” said Jacob Wu, the current tour manager and a bass singer for Baker’s Dozen (BD), which despite its name actually boasts 16 singers. […]
Were it not for a pandemic-induced postponement, former 20-year Laguna Playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle would have returned to Ensemble Theatre to direct The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s witty companion piece to Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and the second in a planned trilogy that serves as an imagined […]
It’s not hyperbole at all to suggest that the original production of Kismet that will play three performances at the Granada Theatre later this month might be the most exciting show ever to play in Santa Barbara. While official touring shows of classic Broadway hits and more modern musical fare are still appearing at the […]
Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) director Jonathan Fox spoke to the audience at the Santa Barbara Club, saying, “I dreamt over and over while we were building the new theater, ‘If we build it, will they come?’” No problem they came but will they come back? The answer is yes. The new season has been announced. […]
I’m going to reveal something right here you may not know about me: I’m a 6 on the Enneagram, the ancient personality typing system that dates back before Christianity, which is at the heart of the fear-based triad of types. So as scary as the idea of catching COVID was, the lockdown worked for me, […]
For Ensemble Theatre Company’s education director Brian McDonald, the theme for this year’s fundraiser for the ETC’s education and outreach programs was a bit of a no-brainer: “Come Together.” After all, the title of the Beatles song from their penultimate album provides the perfect prescription for emerging from a pandemic that has kept people apart […]
