Tag archives: Rod Lathim

Students in Montecito Union School’s second-grade art class were recently taught about using neon in sculpture by local neon multimedia artist and theater mainstay Rod Lathim.  MUS K-6 Art Specialist Alyssa Gonzalez requested that the Montecito Journal report on the project. For the annual art project, the students create an art collage using their music […]

It was just last year that Santa Barbara based actor-dancer Michael Downey wrote and performed a one-person play titled The War Shirt, which was produced and directed by former Access Theater founder turned visual artist Rod Lathim for Marjorie Luke’s streaming series. The story explored Downey’s experiences as a gay man, his relationship with a […]

Santa Barbara playwright, director, and producer Rod Lathim has been hitting the Big Apple with his latest art exhibition Let There Be Light at the Kate Oh Gallery, just a tiara’s toss from the Ralph Lauren flagship store at the historic Rhinelander Mansion. The three-week debut show opened last month and Rod tells me they’ve […]

If campy and clever is your path to pleasure – at least in the theater – you can do no better than the mirth-making musical Something Rotten. The show, which earned 10 Tony nominations on Broadway just five years ago, takes place in the 1590s when the theatrically-minded Nick Bottom, whose lot is a lot […]

Shapeshifting, in mythology and folklore, is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, or sorcery, Wikipedia says. Metaphorically, at least, and leaving out the part about demonic manipulation, that pretty much sums up Santa Barbara’s The ShapeShifters, the new supergroup/house band hosts created by Randy Tico.  “It’s about changing […]

The Marjorie Luke Theatre is proud to present The ShapeShifters band collective as they celebrate Solstice at The Marjorie Luke Theatre on June 25th beginning at 7 pm, located at 721 East Cota Street.  The evening will feature a two-set concert composed of Santa Barbara’s premier musicians and vocalists accompanied by a courtyard celebration with […]

On October 9, Rod Lathim and Chris Gocong premiered their collab art — large-scale abstract acrylics on canvas with neon light accents — at Commen Unity, a new Funk Zone barbershop and art gallery owned by Isaac Gonzalez.  Lathim, no stranger to our town for his prolific work to establish live theater as the founding […]

The performing arts venues in Santa Barbara each responded to the pandemic in different ways. SOhO, the Granada, and the New Vic Theatre more or less went into hibernation, save for a one-off production or two (Montecito’s Pete Muller recording a Save Our Stages video; Grace Fisher’s holiday show; and Ensemble’s one-man An Iliad, respectively, […]

Last month, I wrote about The Big Yellow House – now the big white house – which evoked lot of reads and plenty of memories for many people. In one of our early morning Facebook Messenger chats, Wullbrandt texted me photos of one of the old Green Gables restaurant (pre-Big Yellow House) jackets he wore, […]

Two years after it opened, the owners of Montecito’s Magic Castle Cabaret Milt and Arlene Larsen are moving on, I can exclusively reveal. “The Cabaret has been closed for a long year and we are not getting any younger,” laments Arlene. “When we started, we seemed a lot younger. “After talking it over for many […]

Back in 1988 nobody could have predicted the success or impact of Storm Reading, a theatrical play starring and based on the life experiences of Neil Marcus, a humorist-philosopher who lives with a neurological disorder called Dystonia that dramatically impacts his ability to speak and control movement. That includes Rod Lathim, who as head of […]

The Internet and townsfolk are all abuzz about the Big Yellow House’s new “yellow” paint job. About a month ago, I received a text with a photo of the building being painted. It read: Dear Summerland correspondent, The Big Yellow House is being painted cream. Signed, Nancy Drew I was relieved that the super bright, […]

Writer-producer-director Rod Lathim has an interesting new pastime during the pandemic: producing fig balsamic. “I have a prolific fig tree that I’ve never really paid any attention to, but in the summer it’s become a cornucopia of sweet purple figs and I do an annual harvest to make my fig balsamic, which I give away […]

UCSB’s Department of Theater and Dance’s new season got underway last weekend with a reprise of its summer production of Immortal Longings, a serious take on deals on issues of power and corruption in Shakespeare adapted and directed by Irwin Appel. This weekend, Appel launches its first-ever Naked Shakes Solo Festival featuring renowned artists Debra […]

Venues and artists throughout the world are struggling with how to thrive or even survive during the extended pandemic. For Marjorie Luke board president Rod Lathim, joining the zeitgeist of endless Zoom performances proved completely unpalatable. Instead, the Luke – which only a year or so ago started producing its own events rather than simply […]

Santa Barbara Junior High’s Marjorie Luke Theatre was socially gridlocked when Generosity of Eye, directed by Emmy-winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘s husband, Brad Hall, was shown to raise funds for the theater. The entertaining film, which debuted at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, focused on Julia’s late billionaire father, William, who died three years ago […]

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is no stranger to the camera as the actress has starred as Elaine in the iconic sitcom Seinfeld and the title character in the just-concluded HBO hit VEEP, as well as several feature films. She’s collected 11 Emmy Awards, a SAG prize and a Golden Globe. But perhaps her most personal work appears […]

Rod Lathim, Santa Barbara director and producer, has been celebrating an 18-year motorcycling tradition, The Paradise Pit, an all-volunteer event supporting nearly 3,000 riders and crew of the California AIDS Lifecycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The annual ride came through our Eden by the Beach last week and the Paradise Pit, which […]

With tickets being given away for free, the Lobero Theatre was at capacity for Liv On, a community concert organized by Rod Lathim and Thomas Rollerson, with Aussie songbird Olivia Newton-John, and award-winning songwriters Amy Sky and Beth Nielsen Chapman. “After what has happened in the community, we wanted to lift spirits,” says Rod. “They […]