Tag archives: theater
Heroes, Tom Stoppard’s loose translation of Gérald Sibleyras’ 2003 French play Le Vent des Peupliers (“The Wind in the Poplars”), won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy – the highest honor in British theater, equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards. A year later, the funny, heart-warming work – about three aging World War I […]
Broadway veteran John Rubinstein was a true tour de force in the New Los Angeles Repertory Company’s Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground by Richard Hellesen, presented by the Ensemble Theatre Company at the New Vic. Directed by multi-award winner Peter Ellenstein, the two-hour show, with simple but effective scenic design by Michael Deegan and Sarah […]
Ensemble Theatre Company’s two upcoming presentations were already terrifically timely as they arrive within four months of November’s national election. That was part of the purpose behind ETC executive director Scott DeVine’s decision to schedule short productions of Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground and What the Constitution Means to Me as special events this summer. […]
I’ve been singing the Solvang Festival Theater’s praises for decades, and the little amphitheater downtown in the Danish-themed village – call it the Santa Ynez Valley’s scaled-down version of the Santa Barbara Bowl – has only burnished that bountiful reputation with the recent renovations. While concerts and other events now also take place on the […]
Ensemble Theatre Company’s final show of its 45th season at the New Vic, the world premiere of Alice, Formerly of Wonderland, based on a true story of the romance between the girl featured in the Lewis Carrol books and Prince Leopold, the youngest son of Queen Victoria, is a real corker! Switching scenes from Oxford […]
Opera Santa Barbara’s 2024-25 season doesn’t start until November, but the opportunity to purchase single (non-subscription) tickets to OSB’s three productions for less than $30 ends with the month of May. The season features Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (November 8 & 10), Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (February 21 & 23) and Donizetti’s The Daughter of the […]
Mitchell Thomas, professor of theater arts, won a coveted Indy Award for Directing for his role in staging Godspell. The May 20 event was the first time the Santa Barbra Independent has hosted the awards since the pandemic. Thomas was most recently awarded an Indy for directing Pride and Prejudice in 2019. The jazz band […]
Although there’s only one degree of separation between Santa Barbara and Kevin Bacon, the star of the movie Footloose – soundtrack superstar Kenny Loggins, on the other hand, has lived in town for decades – neither will be involved in Lights Up! Theatre Company’s production of the stage musical this weekend. But what we do […]
Indecent is a 2015 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, inspired by the controversial events surrounding the play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch. God of Vengeance was briefly produced on Broadway in 1923 before the producer and cast were arrested and convicted of obscenity due to the play’s depiction of lesbian love. Vengeance […]
After 9/11 the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, with a population of 10,000 residents, was overrun with nearly 7,000 stranded passengers after the FAA shut down airspace nationwide, forcing all planes to land at nearby airports. A total of 38 planes, carrying 6,579 passengers and crew, landed in Gander as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon, […]
Shpilkes is Yiddish for “pins,” as in “sitting on pins and needles.” The Jewish English Lexicon defines the term more colloquially as “Nervous energy, anxiousness, restlessness.” But for local playwright Barbara Gural, Shpilkes is the Yiddish equivalent of “ants in your pants,” an appropriate title for her new comedy, which was inspired by her close […]
Opera Santa Barbara sold out both performances at the Lobero of its highly entertaining show Zorro by Hector Armienta, who wrote both the music and the libretto. The action character, a sort of Spanish Robin Hood, made his debut in a 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano by author Johnston McCulley. The action – with […]
I only managed to catch the first act of Jesus Christ Superstar at Center Stage last weekend, but even 45 minutes of Out of the Box’s local star-studded production was enough to rock my world. The all-female/non-binary cast put a somewhat provocative perspective on the sensational rock opera full of indelible songs by future Broadway […]
Little Women, the American Theatre Guild’s musical version of Louisa May Alcott’s popular novel at the Granada, was an absolute delight. Based on Alcott’s life, the production follows the lives of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March, each determined to lead their lives on their own terms. The timeless, captivating tale – set at […]
About 15 years ago, Broadway actress Anne Torsiglieri, who over her career has appeared in Miss Saigon, Top Girls, Parade, and Blood Brothers as well as the official national tour of Les Miserables, found herself totally unprepared for a role. She’d won awards for her portrayal of Catherine Sloper in The Heiress at Berkeley Rep, […]
SBCC Theatre Group closes out its 2023-24 season with Paul Slade Smith’s comedy The Outsider from April 10-27 in the Jurkowitz Theatre on SBCC’s West Campus. The comedy concerns a newly appointed governor of a small state who is terrified of public speaking and paralyzed by TV cameras, but great at actually governing. Determined to […]
The Lehman Trilogy, a Tony Award winning three-man show by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power and directed by Oanh Nguyen, at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic is not to be missed! The three-hour-long production, with two ten-minute intermissions, chronicles the rise and fall of the Lehman brothers, a 160-year journey of three immigrant […]
Three-time Emmy-award winning actor Tony Hale spent an afternoon with Westmont theater arts students before sharing humorous stories and insights with a large crowd in Porter Theatre. Colorado actor Heather Ostberg Johnson (‘11) facilitated the event, Comedy and Faith with Tony Hale, on March 19th that students said helped them visualize a career in the […]
Santa Barbara is alive with the sound of music… especially for one young performer! Chance Challen is preparing to leave our cozy community to join the international Broadway tour of the beloved musical, The Sound of Music. This incredible opportunity showcases the talent and dedication of Chance, who has continually demonstrated outstanding ability and passion […]
What’s the buzz? A revolutionary rock musical presented in a revolutionary reinvention in the latest production from Out of the Box Theatre Company; which normally focuses on alternative/contemporary musicals. Jesus Christ Superstar, the sung-through rock opus musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that stunned Broadway in 1971, juggles the gender in the tale […]
