Tag archives: theater
It takes a lot to coax theater veteran Robert Kelley to head five hours south from his Bay Area home. After all, it’s been five years since he retired as the artistic director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (TSV), that retirement preceded a year earlier by his company (founded in far-off 1970) winning a coveted Regional […]
Last February 2, Rubicon Theatre Company closed out its first-ever partnership to launch the national winter tour by The Acting Company, the veteran New York ensemble co-founded in 1972 by John Houseman via the first dramatic graduating class of The Juilliard School. Exactly 10 months later, RTC and TAC – the latter of which served […]
My theatrical tastes tend toward dramatic and dark versus musicals, however I must admit that I was thoroughly delighted by Just in Time, the life story of Bobby Darin – born Walden Robert Cassotto with a heart defect and not expected to last past his teens – which everyone was raving about! Set up like […]
War, both real and made up – as well as the battle between the sexes and the standoff between truth and fiction – runs through season-opening productions from the two major theater companies in town. To launch the season with a bang, Ensemble Theatre presents War of The Worlds: The Panic Broadcast while SBCC Theatre […]
Arms and the Man, which performs at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre October 8-25, goes back even further in history, as Shaw’s 1894 play is set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war. Though the work – the first in Shaw’s “Plays Pleasant” catalog – is much more of a romantic comedy, it skewers class discrimination, the politics of […]
Enough! is a nationwide reading of six new 10-minute plays by teen writers that confront gun violence, with the aim of allowing youth voices to be heard, sparking conversation and inspiring action against one of the most pressing issues of our time. The plays, which were selected by a committee of nationally renowned playwrights, will […]
The women’s ritual theater collective known as Anima, Theater of the Feminine Underground, returns to Center Stage Theatre on October 9-10 with a brand-new set of performance pieces drawn from the participants’ real-life stories, dreams, yearnings, and most meaningful moments. The artists dive deep into not only their creative process, but also their psyches and […]
Naked Shakes isn’t just a clever name; it is, in fact, completely representative of the concept. The annual program at UCSB presents Shakespeare plays cast with a mix of advanced BFA theater majors and strangers to the stage as young as incoming freshmen. The program was created by Irwin Appel two decades ago to focus […]
Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre channels the radical era of the 1960s for the world premiere of Mark J Heller’s Social Insecurity, about an aging couple that long to experience the counterculture movement they just missed in their youth. Bea and Pete Lewis get a second chance at a retro-themed retirement community, where they encounter a free-spirited […]
There are only two characters, but that’s enough to explore major subjects in Jerry Slaff’s Lies, his play that has its official West Coast premiere August 28 to September 6 at Center Stage Theatre. Lorelei is based on Mildred Gillars, an American who took to the airwaves in Germany during World War II, spewing Nazi […]
Santa Barbara-based MORE Theatre’s Moby Dick-inspired series continues with Ahab’s Tale, the latest original site-specific theater piece based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Written by Catt Filippov and directed by Ford Sachsenmaier, Ahab’s Tale stars Stanley Hoffman as the infamous character during his last days with his nemesis, the white whale. MORE creates original plays […]
Eight years ago, Elaine Gale was the center of adoration in the wake of her provocative and daringly self-revealing one-woman autobiographical play One Good Egg. The moving and riotous meditation on fertility and frustrating relationships had enjoyed a sold-out run at Center Stage Theatre. The show drew the attention of a producer in Los Angeles, […]
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. […]
In a world where most families gather around the dinner table to discuss school, sports, or weekend plans, the Arthurs family of Santa Barbara takes a different stage – literally. At the heart of their world is Stage Left Productions, a thriving local theater company they founded 25 years ago to share their passion for […]
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 […]
Santa Maria-based PCPA theatrical conservatory’s Santa Ynez Valley summer season takes place at the charming Solvang Festival Theatre, the recently renovated open-air amphitheater in downtown Solvang. Launching the four month run of shows under the stars is Waitress, the “deliciously empowering” story of Jenna, a server and talented pie-maker. Trapped in both an abusive marriage […]
Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks’ musical adaptation of his classic comedy film, was nominated for Best Musical at the 2008 Tony Awards. Now a humorously horrifying new production kicks off two successive shows at the Ojai Art Center, both dealing with well-known dangerous characters but strictly for laughs. The present production is about the reluctant grandson […]
Ensemble Theatre Company ended its 46th season at the New Vic with the southern California premiere of Justice by Lauren Gunderson, a visceral exploration of courage, legacy, friendship, and the enduring influence of three extraordinary women – Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor – and their impact on the U.S. Supreme Court. […]
Yulya Dukhovny, Westmont artist in residence, won a Santa Barbara Indy Award for Stage Artistry for her work on The Wind in the Willows on May 20 at Soho Restaurant & Club. Dukhovny first joined Westmont in 2018 when she performed her unique style of visual theater, featuring paper animation in a vertical 2D scenic […]
Think of the Young Playwrights Festival as a reverse Launch Pad. The springtime program at Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic Theater gives aspiring playwrights ages 14-19 the opportunity to create a play that is produced and staged with professional directors and actors, and then presented as a staged reading at the theater. The Young Playwrights […]
