Good Grief, That Could be the Summer Winner
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 27, 2020

For Brian McDonald, selecting You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown as the production for Ensemble Theatre Company Young Actors Conservatory this summer was a no-brainer once it became clear that COVID-19 had made his original choice – Hello, My Baby, by Montecito’s Cheri Steinkellner – impractical. Not only had ETC’s Education Director played the title […]

Elocutia Does Pygmalion
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 6, 2020

Cheryl L. West’s plays have been performed on and Off-Broadway and on stages in England as well as myriad regional theaters across the U.S. including Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, Old Globe, The Goodman, Indiana Rep, Williamstown Festival, Cleveland Play House, South Coast Rep. Those venues have collectively produced some of her long list of titles […]

 

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Online ‘Personal’s
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2020

Center Stage Theater’s daily Digital Arts Festival came to a close back in May, with the daily doses of videos, photos and interviews with local artists of all kinds to share  their creative processes and samples of their work perhaps set to return later this summer. In the meantime, a Quarantine Edition of Speaking of […]

Play Reading Season Launches on Zoom at UCSB
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 16, 2020

After the sensational success this spring of UCSB Launch Pad’s Alone, Together project that found more than 20 past playwrights-in-resident contributing short original works created to be performed and directed by theater students and faculty over Zoom, the 2020 Summer Reading Series: New Plays in Process might seem a bit anticlimactic. But don’t sell the […]

ETC Easing Re-entry to Theater
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 2, 2020

Ensemble Theatre Company has announced a hybrid approach to cope with COVID for its upcoming 2020-21 season, which will consist of four plays, including spring productions of American Son and Tenderly that were originally scheduled for the previous season that was interrupted by the pandemic closures. The remaining two plays are reportedly set to be […]

Stream Three for Free
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 2, 2020

RTC has also another gift for theater lovers this month by offering free viewings of Arlene Hutton‘s Nibroc Trilogy via Vimeo recordings of the award winning works directed by the company’s own Katherine Farmer. Nibroc is a set of three plays about the challenges of a young couple living in Kentucky and Florida in the […]

Layman Leaves a Lasting Legacy After 24 years at SBHS Theater Helm
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 17, 2020

If things were different, if the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 hadn’t turned into a global pandemic shutting down almost everything across the world, this would have been a weekend of wonder for Otto Layman. The theater director had planned a big blowout of a show to serve as his crowning achievement in a career that […]

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  • Improv for the Ages
    By Steven Libowitz   |   March 12, 2020

    The current cast members of the long-running TV improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? are bringing the touring version, dubbed “Whose Live Anyway?”, back to town for a single show at the Lobero Theatre. Cast members Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis, and Joel Murray will put together a 90-minute set of comedy […]

    Jane Austen’s Emma at ETC
    By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

    Ensemble Theatre Company’s area debut of a musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma – which will run at ETC’s New Vic Theater on the same February performance dates at Never Not Once at the Rubicon (see above) – also has another close tie-in with the Ventura company. The musical version of the romantic comedy features […]

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    Carey On at the Rubicon: A Powerful, Poignant Point of View
    By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

    Carey Crim finished her original draft of Never Not Once – which gets its area premiere at the Rubicon Theatre Company this weekend – three months before the revelations about Harvey Weinstein exploded into the #MeToo movement in the fall of 2017. “So it became unexpectedly – and unfortunately – timely,” the playwright said over […]

    Noah (and Jacob) Bake Bread for the Soul
    By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

    More than three decades ago, Noah benShea created Jacob the Baker, a simple but wise character whose plainspoken wisdom and commonsense approach to life are delivered as parables and often funny pearls of wisdom. The Jacob books, four in total now after We Are All Jacob’s Children ended a 20-year hiatus in 2018, have provided […]

    The Mystery of Martha
    By Steven Libowitz   |   November 14, 2019

    On the surface, What Martha Did might seem a strange choice for Launch Pad, UCSB’s innovative model of new play development that serves as a high-tech lab for playwrights-in-residence, UCSB theater students, faculty, and guest artists. The darkly funny drama about regret, facing the truth, and finding forgiveness features largely middle-aged characters, a bit of […]

    Surf Film Fest Surfaces
    By Richard Mineards   |   November 7, 2019

    Surf movies, especially those with a Santa Barbara connection, have been a popular sidebar at SBIFF for many years. This weekend the genre steps to a fest of its own with the first annual event celebrating the “Santa Barbara Surf Culture” on film. The two-day fest, slated for full 12-hour plus schedules on both Saturday […]

    Brilliant New Book
    By Richard Mineards   |   November 7, 2019

    Journal columnist Ashleigh Brilliant has published his first book in 20 years and the tenth in his series of original illustrated epigrams, known as Brilliant Thoughts based on his popular Pot-Shots newspaper series. The $25 soft cover volume, I Need More Time – And I Probably Always Will, has 400 of his epigrams in its […]

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