Tag archives: Personal Stories

Adding Needed Depth ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ coming to the Granada Theatre
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 9, 2021

When the musical version of An Officer and a Gentleman plays November 9-10 at the Granada Theatre, it won’t be quite the singular sensation provided by the massive Santa Barbara-only one-off presentation of Kismet at the same venue two weekends ago. But Officer does offer a rare chance for locals to get an early viewing […]

Embracing Experimental
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 28, 2021

As the inaugural collaboration between UCSB’s much-lauded Launch Pad artist residency and performance program with Local Theater Company, the Boulder-based leader in new play development, Yellowstone will have a lot of voices shaping its first-ever fully staged reading on Friday, September 24. But for playwright Jennifer Barclay, the process has been playing out for more […]

SBCC Stories Stream
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 7, 2021

Perhaps ironically, it’s SBCC – which has been largely shut down during the pandemic, thus allowing SBIFF to create its makeshift drive-ins down by the beach in the college’s parking lots – whose Theatre Arts Department has compiled stories written by the SBCC community, including students, staff and faculty, to create three separate performances of […]

Here We Go a-Carol-ing: Dickens of a Time for a Ghost Story
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 31, 2020

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 […]

Personal Stories Perpetuates in Cyberspace
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2020

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 […]

Back to the Future: Santa Barbara Filmmaker Revisits Wounded Knee
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2019

Santa Barbara documentary filmmaker/journalist Kevin McKiernan was a rookie NPR reporter in 1973 when he was embedded at Wounded Knee during the famous armed American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation in South Dakota that left two dead and scores arrested. Embedded himself, actually, as McKiernan had to circumvent government roadblocks surrounding the village and resort to […]