Maggie Yates

'Puffs,' or 'Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic' (by Matt Cox and presented this week by the students of the Anacapa School of Witchcraft and Wizardry), seeks to tell the stories of one of the less visible houses at a “certain school of magic”: the “puffs.”

The main character is a musical theater writer named Jonathan who's trying to get his foot in the door in the New York theater scene. He's turning 30, his friends are moving up in their careers, and he's learning to manage expectations and reality in his life's endeavors.

There's a lot to like about Ensemble's production of American Son, Christopher Demos-Brown's play about race and privilege in American society. The play feels timely and pertinent, broaching topics that bear weight on the minds of today's human in America: namely those born from the insistent racism that seems grossly intrinsic to our culture. This representation of current events and culture is an important role for theatrical storytelling.

Kendra (played by Tracey A. Leigh) is a Black protagonist who is managing anxiety around her missing, bi-racial son. She and her estranged partner (played by Jamison Jones), who is white, are forced to interact in the police precinct as they play this high-stakes waiting game that unfolds in real time.

Small, Ponce, and Tautz have partnered with local artists and artisans to produce free mythmaking workshops to perpetuate the arts of story creation and storytelling. From these workshops evolved 'Who Knows What You Are,' the finale performance showcasing work developed throughout the workshops. An original song cycle that incorporates theater, music, and film, this production depicts the birth of the world, 'in a mythic, surreal way.'

The production, says Sirianni, has a great message for all ages: no matter what your beliefs are, commit to believing in them with your whole heart. “It will make you laugh, you'll cry, it'll make you think, and most of all, it will put you in the Christmas spirit!”

'The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley' is Jane Austin fanfiction that allows her popular characters life after the end of the novel. By Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, The Wickhams is harmless entertainment that transports the audience back to England of the early 1800s.

“The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley,” written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon and produced by Ensemble Theater Company, is the second of three imagined sequels to Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice.' This play takes place concurrently with the first of this trilogy, “Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley,” which was performed by Ensemble Theatre Company pre-pandemic.

UCSB students get a physical workout in Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, a series of 35 2-minute plays performed in random order based on audience suggestion. It's controlled chaos that ultimately pans out into a sequence of really interesting vignettes that cover the gamut of emotions, offering brief moments of joy, despondency, and humorous absurdity. The cast is a group of players that function as a true ensemble, all matching each other's physical and emotional energy and enthusiasm for this unique play experience.

Ripcord is fun piece to launch SBCC’s 75th season, one with a sense of humor that takes a smart look at relatable interpersonal issues.

Ensemble Theatre Company re-opens the doors at the New Vic with the production of 'Tenderly, The Rosemary Clooney Musical.' This play is a concert experience with a live band that weaves songs from Ms. Clooney’s heyday into a birth-to-death narrative of her life.

Two famous actresses are set to perform their versions of a play at the same theater, one day apart. In this quick-witted farce, the author and fellow actors’ issues with these leading ladies seem to be the problems of utmost importance until a Russian revolutionary enters the scene and threatens to blow up the theater.

Breaking news! The police have been dispatched to Boddy Manor on a homicide call. Our reporters are on the scene, trying to determine the details of who killed whom, where in the manor the body was found, and how was the murder was committed! The suspects include a Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and Mr. Green—all guests of the mansion’s occupant, the late Mr. Boddy.

Don Pasquale, directed by Josh Shaw, is a comic opera that pits the vivacious young Norina (Jana McIntyre) and her lover, Ernesto (Matthew Grills), against Ernesto's blustering, elderly uncle, Don Pasquale (Andrew Potter).

Check out the final installments of Improvability, Spring 2020, on Friday nights at 8 p.m. on zoom. Information available at the website: https://www.facebook.com/ucsbimprovability

To get involved, visit TheOutleProject.art, check out the current prompt, and submit! Follow on Instagram at PowerTheOutlet and on Facebook to see the work others have created.

Written and performed in a time when hashtags such as #MeToo and #BelieveWomen exemplify the changing social dynamic, Kate Cortesi's new play, 'Love,' examines the uncertainties beyond the slogans by drawing and redrawing the unsteady lines of power dynamics related to gender and consent. 

Director Brian McDonald does a nice job of keeping the actors rotating around the multiple microphones on stage (or having them add and remove costuming items) to distinguish between multiple characters. The staging is dynamic and the sight gags are clever, and the actors give pleasant and efficient performances, bringing out the warmth and hopefulness of this holiday tale. Ensemble's production highlights humor and heart for an agreeable, well-produced night of festive entertainment.

'I and the Village' is a dark coming-of-age story that explores the actions of a young girl, an outsider in her small American town, who breaks under the strain of underachieved orthodoxy and enters into an armed battle against society. The RTC production at the Community Arts Workshop this weekend will be the play's American debut. '(It) asks us to examine our society's reaction to non-conformity and people who are different,' says RTC actor Lucan Nelson. 'It also asks open questions about America's casual gun use. Any American community will see themselves in this script.'

Overall, 'A Winter's Tale' has visual richness, but the text is all over the place, and additional elements like modern pop music and choreographed slow-motion stage crosses pile superflua onto an existing wealth of 'eclectic' narrative components.