Dancing Through the Realms
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 19, 2024

UCSB Dance Company, the ensemble that changes every year as it’s composed of senior dance majors, once again has no male members. But rather than deciding to double down again by creating a program with all female choreographers as in 2023, director Delila Moseley instead chose to diversify. In Different Realms… el arte perdura, which […]

Swashbuckling on Stage
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2024

“Who doesn’t want to play pirate?”  That’s how Michael Bernard explained one of his big reasons for choosing a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved adventure story Treasure Island to direct for SBCC Theatre Group’s next production at the Garvin Theatre. “It’s such a classic story and it’s a really fun show, which there […]

 

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We Like Ike
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2024

Although he handily won both of his presidential elections, Dwight David Eisenhower wasn’t looked upon as a very effective chief executive a year after his term ended in the early 1960s. That’s the impetus for Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, the new one-man show getting its first local production at the Rubicon in Ventura following […]

Still at It
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2024

Playwright James Still has authored several dozen plays over his long career, many of which focus on a combination of political, cultural, and personal topics, including The Velocity of Gary, Appoggiatura, and the much-translated, globally produced And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. But his current passion project is one […]

Audience Thrust into ‘The Capulets’
By Scott Craig   |   February 27, 2024

Westmont’s John Blondell, a longtime professor of theater arts, puts his own contemporary, site-specific spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as part of a mini-festival about the famous tragedy Thursday, Feb. 29, at 7 pm; Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2, at 7 pm and 9 pm; and Sunday, March 3, at 7 pm […]

Playing the Part
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2024

Stepping onto the stage to perform a one-woman show in your first-ever theatrical acting experience might seem to be sheer folly. But for Mona Golabek – starring in The Pianist of Willesden Lane which makes its Santa Barbara debut at Ensemble Theatre from February 2-18 – it is an opportunity to share her family’s story; […]

Sullivan’s Travels 
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2024

In something of a coincidence, Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre also stages a poetic, powerful and poignant family story, J for J – theater veteran Jenny Sullivan’s semi-autobiographical memory play about her relationship with her developmentally disabled older brother, Johnny. The title comes from a phrase her father – famed Hollywood actor Barry Sullivan (The Great Gatsby, […]

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  • Crossing the Borders of Dance
    By Steven Libowitz   |   January 30, 2024

    Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance – an art exhibition, symposium, and a pair of dance performances – takes over several venues at UCSB and downtown this weekend in a multifaceted celebration of immigrant and BIPOC artists whose work challenges previous histories of dance to consider how war, inequality, and injustice shaped 20th century […]

    Lighting Up ‘The Tempest’
    By Steven Libowitz   |   December 19, 2023

    There’s something quite magical and yet weighty in the way in which Lights Up! Theatre Company has taken a firm toehold in the Santa Barbara youth theater scene – one that has never been sorely lacking in the first place. Theater stage and screen veteran Amy Love has parlayed her professional and teaching background into […]

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    Setting the Stage
    By Steven Libowitz   |   December 19, 2023

    Ensemble’s Johnny Cash tribute/story-through-song musical revue winds up its run at the New Vic with a final extended weekend through December 17. The Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria has a second and final weekend helping of its homegrown adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street featuring an all-local cast and production crew, also closing December 17, the […]

    The Beat Goes On: It Takes Three Actresses to Play Cher
    By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2023

    Morgan Scott was understandably excited Monday morning over the phone from the Coachella Valley, where The Cher Show had just wound up five performances over the weekend in Palm Desert. The area is home not only to one of Cher’s famed exes, Sonny Bono, who was both mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. representative […]

    Lobero Nose Ballet 
    By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2023

    The annual invasion of local productions of The Nutcracker doesn’t begin until mid-December, as Festival Ballet and then the State Street Ballet roll out their full-fledged renditions of Tchaikovsky’s Christmas classic. But this weekend brings a tasty holiday appetizer, especially for the tots and teens, as State Street Ballet Academy presents Rudolph, the charming holiday […]

    ‘Poor Clare’ Offers Theater for the Soul
    By Scott Craig   |   December 5, 2023

    Westmont Festival Theatre reimagines the life of Saint Clare of Assisi as if she spoke like a Beverly Hills teenager in Chiara Atik’s Poor Clare on December 7-9 at 7:30 pm and December 9 at 2 pm in Porter Theatre. Tickets, which cost $20 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors, may be […]

    Out of the Box and Down the Rabbit Hole
    By Steven Libowitz   |   November 14, 2023

    Out of the Box Theatre (OOB) has specialized in selecting off-beat, often off-Broadway contemporary musicals to mount in town in the intimate space of Center Stage Theater ever since its founding by Samantha Eve. The latest example in the universe of alternative conversation-inspiring shows is OOB’s first production of the new season, Alice by Heart, […]

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