The first sign of the Summer Solstice Celebration approaches!
In a first, the judging panel for the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice chose two long-time participants and artists as winners of the 2015 poster competition, combining the best of both their designs.
My latest for Open Culture: Have fun with this virtual tour of Abbey Road Studios.
When William Koseluk walked into the Village Country Club in Lompoc eight years ago, he immediately had a thought.
“I Do! I Do! This needs to be done in this space.”
This year, the musical director gets his wish, as 1966’s “I Do! I Do!” comes to Lompoc Civic Theatre, the city’s first musical in town since 2012’s “Tick, Tick . . . BOOM!” Directed by Marian C. Stave and Patricia Roby, the play stars Lea Schultz and David Gaertig as a married couple who evolve over time, from wedding night to growing old and moving on. Written by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the creators behind the hit “The Fantasticks,” it features charming songs like “My Cup Runneth Over with Love,” “The Father of the Bride” and the title song.
When Rick Benjamin and his Paragon Ragtime Orchestra play music in front of classic silent films, like they will do on Monday night when they accompany a screening of Buster Keaton’s “Steamboat Bill, Jr.,” audiences not get something to listen to, but a re-creation of a time and place, a look into a sound industry that was disrupted by new technology like ours is now, and a rediscovery of early 20th-century composers whose fame and popularity dissipated when the sound era erupted.
In 1985, Mr. Benjamin discovered a treasure trove of lost scores, music written for the silent movie era that was thought to have been gone. It wasn’t like modern scores in the sense of a singular work for a film. It was closer to scores for soap operas, where cue sheets outlined the emotional outline of a film, sending a conductor to that cinema’s library to put together a score. “Like Legos,” says Mr. Benjamin.
Here’s a piece I wrote for Open Culture on one of Sesame Street’s first psychedelic animations: Jazzy Spies.
The Santa Barbara Arts Council will celebrate the announcement of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle as this year’s Poet Laureate with a special ceremony this afternoon during the City Council meeting at city hall. Coinciding with National Poetry Month, the award will kick off a full two years of special events and commissioned writing for Ms. Rolle, who has long been a part of the Santa Barbara poetry community, and has been one of the important players in the creation of the Laureate title through the Arts Commission. April will be the busiest month for the poet, with a full schedule of events and appearances.
Previous Poets Laureate include Barry Spacks, Perie Longo, David Starkey, Paul Willis and Chryss Yost.
The Santa Barbara Arts Council will celebrate the announcement of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle as this year’s Poet Laureate with a special ceremony this afternoon during the City Council meeting at city hall. Coinciding with National Poetry Month, the award will kick off a full two years of special events and commissioned writing for Ms. Rolle, who has long been a part of the Santa Barbara poetry community, and has been one of the important players in the creation of the Laureate title through the Arts Commission. April will be the busiest month for the poet, with a full schedule of events and appearances.
When Out of the Box’s Samantha Eve put out the call for actors for “The Wild Party,” Andrew Lippa’s musical based on Joseph Moncure March’s Prohibition Era poem of the same title, she got a surprise.
“We had responses from people all over the place. I had someone write me from Florida (who wanted to audition).” Turns out that “The Wild Party” is on many musical actors’ to-do lists, with its wealth of meaty roles and its smart lyrics. Everybody wants to get invited; it’s that kind of party. It’s also an Out of the Box production in which a majority of the cast members are new to the company.”
When “Chicago” comes to the Granada this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, it brings along actress, singer, comedian and voice actor Roz Ryan , who in 2013 broke the late Marcia Lewis’ record of 223 weeks playing the essential role of Matron “Mama” Morton. She’s now in that show’s 19th year. When asked if she remembers the day they told her she’d broken the record, she says, “I can’t remember the day they called and told me, but I was on Broadway when it happened.” (The date was Oct. 21, 2013, in case somebody wants to check.)
Bolstered by Tony Awards and then Oscars, this Bob Fosse, Fred Ebb and John Kander musical continues to grow in popularity. Based on two real-life murderesses from the Roaring ’20s, the musical equates vaudeville with the media circus that pops up around salacious murder trials. It is smart, cynical, sexy and sad, and always helped by a saucy poster campaign filled with leggy stars wearing fishnet stockings. The production coming this week also stars Dylis Croman as Roxie Hart, Terra C. MacLeod as Velma Kelly and Jacob Keith Watson as Amos Hart.
When “Chicago” comes to the Granada this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, it brings along actress, singer, comedian and voice actor Roz Ryan , who in 2013 broke the late Marcia Lewis’ record of 223 weeks playing the essential role of Matron “Mama” Morton. She’s now in that show’s 19th year. When asked if she remembers the day they told her she’d broken the record, she says, “I can’t remember the day they called and told me, but I was on Broadway when it happened.” (The date was Oct. 21, 2013, in case somebody wants to check.)