Tag archives: Santa Barbara High School
George Orwell’s 1945 novella “Animal Farm” was written as a satirical political allegory in response to the rise of Stalin’s totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union. The plot concerns mistreated farm animals who rebel against their owner to instead build a free and equal society, only for a group of power-hungry pigs to turn the […]
Santa Barbara Polo’s high goal season comes to its conclusion with the final weekend of the U.S. Polo Association’s Pacific Coast Open, the most prestigious tournament of the summer and one of the oldest as it got started a few years after the turn of the last century. Just five teams are competing for the […]
Considering how many 1980s movies have been turned into Broadway musicals – from Footloose, Heathers, and Little Shop of Horrors to Fame, Xanadu, and even Back to the Future – it’s almost shocking nobody has adapted John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club for the stage. After all, the iconic film praised for its authentic portrayal of […]
VADA Talks is an ongoing series of events featuring renowned guests from varied professions as they discuss how art has inspired the work they do. The series was created to support The Visual Art & Design Academy at Santa Barbara High School, which integrates rigorous academic coursework with project-based, career-focused art and design instruction in […]
Santa Barbara’s three major public high schools’ theaters are all buzzing this weekend with their big fall productions. SBHS’s Teenage Wasteland is an original piece of theater created by the Theatre Department’s 19 performers, including three student designers and eight ensemble members who have come up with a combined performance, concert, love story, fashion show […]
Santa Barbara High School is the first of the local public schools to mount their spring production, leading the charge with the ever popular The Rocky Horror Show, the stage musical from which the 1975 cult film was adapted, running April 14-22 at the school’s theater. New theater department director Gioia Marchese chose the deliberately […]
On May 30, 2022, around 10:30 pm, several concerned community members called the Santa Barbara Police Combined Communications Center to report they heard loud, unusual noises and breaking glass coming from Santa Barbara High School property. Several Officers responded to the High School to investigate the reported suspicious activity. When Officers arrived on scene, approximately […]
Nearly two years after taking over for the legendary Santa Barbara High School theater director Otto Layman, newcomer Justin Baldridge is getting his chance to put his stamp on the kind of big classic musical Layman loved to bring to the school’s auditorium. Chicago, the second longest-running show in Broadway history, is a song-and-dance filled […]
The iconic multilevel campus of the historic Santa Barbara High School was my destination to meet James Claffey, English teacher extraordinaire. An instructor at the Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) division of the school he was highly recommended by a most reliable source: one of his students! In an attempt to make a timely […]
Though it is sometimes difficult to stand out in Montecito’s competitive landscape, Cayley Boyd rises to the challenge, fully embodying what it means to be a high achiever. Cayley is an accomplished athlete, musician, and businessperson who has spent her more recent years navigating the nail-biting corporate jungle of New York City. But Cayley’s resumé […]
The following video was produced to raise funds for members of the Santa Barbara High School community who are food or housing insecure and could use a little help from their friends.
In a COVID coincidence, the second weekend of the school’s zany take on Greek myth cozies up to a more serious – and perhaps even more ambitious – approach to some of the same material in the Ensemble Theatre Company’s live stream of the one-man show, An Iliad. The work is crafted around the stories […]
As if persevering through a pandemic isn’t sufficiently perplexing, Santa Barbara High’s theater arts department is undertaking the challenge of cramming years of classic sagas into a single evening performance. In The Iliad, The Odyssey, and All of Greek Mythology in 99 minutes or less, written by Jay Hopkins and John Hunter, the student actors […]
If I know one fact about the Visual Arts and Design Academy at Santa Barbara High School, it’s that VADA is home to many talented students. If I know one fact about Santa Barbara in general, it’s that State Street has experienced a serious decline in quality since all the cool, independent shops have been […]
Most of what the students in the Visual Arts & Design Academy (VADA) at Santa Barbara High create is seen on the school’s near-downtown campus. But the program has made a lot of efforts to exhibit the students’ artwork in public places, including showcases as part of the monthly First Thursday gallery walk. But with […]
A lot can be learned from a book, but wisdom and insight are often obtained through life experiences. The elders of a community are naturally the most experienced and have their entire lives to reflect back on the lessons they’ve learned along the way. At a time when we are all looking to remain connected […]
For some, stepping in as Santa Barbara High School Theatre’s new director might have included imagining the daunting task of filling the oversize shoes of predecessor Otto Layman, who retired last spring after 25 years at the helm. But Justin Baldridge doesn’t see his role as trying to duplicate what the beloved Layman accomplished in […]
On Tuesday, October 20, a few dozen teenagers held a protest outside the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s headquarters on Santa Barbara Street. Carrying signs bearing messages such as “We Want to Go Back to School” and “Give Us a Choice,” the group had a clear message for local school officials: After more than a […]
As we mark the end of the 2019/2020 school year and head into summer break, we want to honor the graduates of the Class of 2020, all of whom celebrated their commencements without the normal pomp and circumstance of a traditional graduation ceremony. Instead, our local high schools celebrated their seniors in unique ways: from […]
With the Fall 2020 school year rapidly approaching, Santa Barbara High School (SBHS) is finalizing its plan for how to bring as many of its roughly 2,200 students back to campus as safely as possible. The key word here is, you guessed it, “safely.” Right now, the school is awaiting official rulings from Governor Gavin […]
