Tag archives: UCSB
Actor Jeff Goldblum, who has starred in many of Hollywood’s top-grossing films, including Jurassic Park and Independence Day, showed off his musical talents at UCSB’s Campbell Hall when his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra entertained a packed house. An accomplished pianist, Goldblum, 66, and his jazz band of friends play regularly at L.A.’s Rockwell Table and Stage […]
Former British foreign secretary David Miliband was the center of attraction at the historic Montecito estate, Val Verde, when UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted a pre-talk bash for the ex-politician and Oxford graduate at the sprawling home of hedge fund manager and New York Times cruciverbalist Pete Muller and his wife, Jillian, who bought the […]
Tarana Burke, social justice activist and senior director of the Brooklyn-based Girls for Gender Equity, presented at the UCSB Arts & Lectures on November 5 about the “Me Too” (#metoo) movement. She spoke in a straightforward fashion for an hour, and outlined how and why the organization called “Me Too” started, where they are now […]
An even newer work also gets its Santa Barbara debut over the same two weekends as UCSB Theater presents Vanity Fair, based on William Makepeace Thackery’s classic 1848 novel, and adapted for the stage with a modern twist by playwright Kate Hamill. Thomas Whitaker directs the tale of misadventures, friendship, and morally questionable acts, which […]
Eddie Tuduri’s life turned upside-down when the same thing happened to his body during a surfing accident off Carpinteria back in 1997. The former drummer for The Beach Boys, Rick Nelson, Engelbert Humperdinck, and many other acts broke his neck and was paralyzed. But his recovery began as soon as he was transferred to The […]
The venerable Granada Theatre has been having a busy week. Cirque Mechanics, an inventive play on circuses of old, kicked off the week in a UCSB Arts & Lectures show, “42 ft: A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels.” The innovative 80-minute show had machines interacting with acrobats, dancers, jugglers, and contortionists, much to the delight of […]
Anne Torsiglieri has been seen on Broadway in Top Girls, Parade, Blood Brothers, and Miss Saigon, as well as in the official national tour of Les Misérables. Her off-Broadway and regional performance have taken place everywhere from Manhattan to the Pacific Northwest, and she earned DramaLogue and Garland awards for her portrayal of Catherine Sloper […]
Man and his machines form the basic elements of Cirque Mechanics, the modern company founded 14 years ago by former BMX bike champion Chris Lashua, who began by creating an innovative aerial apparatus. In his and his team’s vision, circus certainly has acrobatics and clowning around, but also is rooted in realism achieved by the […]
Uber philanthropist Sara Miller McCune‘s new Montecito manse was socially gridlocked when she hosted a dinner party for VIP patrons of UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures program and the first guest of the 60th anniversary season, legendary trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis, 56, who has won nine Grammy awards […]
The calendar is crammed as the new arts season arrives in earnest, although the biggest place in the land is more of a warm-weather venue. That would be the Santa Barbara Bowl, where it’s actually, unironically, unlikely to rain when Alanis Morissette takes the stage on Friday, September 27, followed two days later by the […]
National Review editor, Los Angeles Times columnist, speaker, Fox News commentator, author, and teacher (for nearly a year he taught English to Czech citizens after the breakup of the Soviet Union), Jonah Goldberg is a product of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Jonah’s father was Jewish; his mother Christian; Jonah was brought up Jewish. Some may […]
On the Verge (OTV), Santa Barbara native Kate Bergstrom‘s repertory theatre company founded in 2015 with a mission of marrying new work created by female and LGBTQ writers with the local community of actors, directors, producers, and theater-goers, is taking a slight detour for its fourth year. In place of presenting several different plays in […]
Arriving at the Women of Impact event on July 19, at the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum (AD&A), I was happy to note there were more brains than Botox on the speaker panel and attending. Women in their perfect glory with accomplished professional experience and education, from Marine vets, scientists, engineers, advocates of juveniles, […]
When someone from Los Angeles says to me, “What is there to do in Santa Barbara? They are inferring it’s such a small town. I always think, “What is there not to do?” We have our own symphony, our own ballet company, and our own opera company to name just a few. And then we […]
Get ready to sink into a lawn chair at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens – UCSB Arts & Lectures’s free Summer Film Series starts up again on Friday night, July 6. If you’ve been buoyed by Bond movies, stirred by silent film classics, or moved by dancing scenes in classic movie musicals in […]
UCSB’s popular Arts & Lectures program is celebrating its 60th anniversary with an eclectic program of 65 events, including 16 premieres and debuts. To launch the new season, which begins September 29 with music great Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Granada, Celesta Billeci, Miller McCune executive director, hosted a […]
My favorite kind of music is Broadway, so I was in heaven at UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) last Granada performance for the season highlighting the world-renowned soprano Audra McDonald. She is the winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award, not to mention being named one of Time […]
Soprano Audra McDonald, who has a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammys, and an Emmy, was in top form when she appeared in the last Granada performance of the UCSB Arts & Lectures current season. New York-based McDonald, who received a National Medal of Arts in 2015, the highest honor for achievement in the arts, […]
The UCSB Department of Music annual Spring 2018 Concert Series – in which nearly all of the student ensembles perform for the public from Sunday, May 27, to Friday, June 8, to close out the academic year – is perhaps putting its best foot forward with the opening offering this weekend. The University Wind Ensemble […]
Too many cooks spoil the broth goes the old adage, but culinary wizards were in abundance when UCSB Arts & Lectures threw a benefit gala at the Museum of History with Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN’s Parts Unknown. The 61-year-old, who flew in from Bali via Dubai for the 300-guest fete, gave an expletive-filled speech […]
