Tag archives: Rick Mokler

‘Rotten’ Returns: Shakin’ up the Bard and Other Theater Things
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 5, 2025

Something Rotten! imagine the birth of the musical as brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom’s bid to foil William Shakespeare’s reign as the Renaissance rockstar playwright. The idea arrives via a local soothsayer determined to assuage Nick Bottom’s agony of defeat, foretelling thus that the future of theater will simultaneously stitch together acting, singing, and dancing. […]

Musical Monster Mash-up and More
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 15, 2025

The Theatre Group at SBCC opens its 80th season with Mel Brooks‘ musical adaptation of his own smash hit film Young Frankenstein in the first big professional production of the show that was boffo on Broadway, one that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the film earning an Oscar nomination. The plot finds Frederick Frankenstein […]

Also on Local Stages This Week
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 25, 2023

Ensemble Theatre Company’s area premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s 2016 drama The Children winds up its three-week run at the New Vic on April 23. ETC favorite helmer Jenny Sullivan directs the trio of well-traveled actors Michael Butler, Linda Purl, and Nancy Travis – all of whom are familiar to recent ETC audiences – in the […]

A Marriage Made for Santa Barbara
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 18, 2023

Rick Mokler is updating Our Town for our times and, well, our town too.  With George and Emily Get Married, the (now officially retired) longtime theater teacher at area high schools, who also later chaired the SBCC Theater Department, has taken the young lovers from Thornton Wilder’s 85-year-old chestnut, updated their professions to a recent […]