ARTS & CULTURE
Society805’s Art & Culture section keeps your finger on the pulse on the arts and the cultural moves inside the 805. We get around the noise and beneath the hype to give you the real issues inside the 805 arts scene and the people in them. We bring you the key events shaping the 805 cultural landscape so you do not miss out on what is important and the direction of the 805 culture in art, theater, music, and film. Remember, you can’t live in style without art and culture.
CLASSICAL CONCERTS ON THE HILL presents
THE LUMINOSO PIANO QUARTET
IN AN AFTERNOON OF CHAMBER MUSIC
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Luminoso Piano Quartet will present AN AFTERNOON OF CHAMBER MUSIC: Piano Quartet, with music by Handel, Widor, Dvorak and more, on Sunday, May 20, 2018 at 2:00 pm at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, located at 403 W. Hillcrest Dr. in Thousand Oaks. The afternoon features classical favorites performed in an intimate setting. A concert in the Large Rehearsal Room is like attending a concert in the Château de Versailles in Paris! (Well, it has mirrors and is about the same size, less the artwork and history, but you can just close your eyes and imagine you are there!) The Luminoso Piano Quartet features Araksia Nazlikyan, Violin; Diana Ray-Goodman, Violin & Viola; Jan Kelley, Cello; and Ornela Ervin, Piano.
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Arts & Culture News
Friday, 20 April 2018 20:18
Review: American Buffalo
Written by Erik ReeL - Arts and Culture Contributing Editor at Large
Theatre
Review
The Santa Paula Theater Center and company has launched the second play in an excellent season of tough, great theatre, with their current production of David Mamet’s legendary play, American Buffalo.
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Published in
Performing Arts
Friday, 20 April 2018 04:36
Review: MacBeth
Written by Erik ReeL - Arts and Culture Contributing Editor at Large
Theatre
Review
When it rains, it pours, they say. While we don’t get a lot of professional Shakespeare in our regional theatre, and thus one would expect there to not be much of a pool of Shakespearean actors locally, the 805 currently has two major Shakespeare plays on offer: Rubicon’s fine King Lear, and The Ojai Art Center Theater’s Macbeth. Not only that, but both productions are trying to do something new and interesting with their productions.
Lady and Macbeth. Ojai Art Center Theater in conjunction with the Ojai Performing Arts Theater's Macbeth
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Performing Arts
Tuesday, 27 March 2018 09:39
Review:King Lear
Written by Erik ReeL - Arts and Culture Contributing Editor at Large
Theatre
Review
King Lear at Rubicon
King Lear is one of Shakspeare’s greatest plays, some say greatest. People usually do Lear because they want to do something with it. Like Wagner’s Ring, Shakespeare’s Lear has, in modern times, become a formidable vehicle for taking a production to the limits. This usually means something in terms of either its direction, staging, or acting, or some combination or all three. Rubicon accordingly tries a lot of different things with this ambitious production in a well-worth seeing Lear.
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Performing Arts
LOS ANGELES, CA — Savage, vicious and ferociously funny. Dana Resnick directs Bad Jews, a fierce yet hilarious take on family, faith and legacy by Joshua Harmon, running April 21 through June 17 at the Odyssey Theatre.
There's nothing like a death in the family to bring out the worst in us. In Joshua Harmon’s biting comedy, a beloved grandfather has died and a treasured family heirloom with religious significance is up for grabs — but who’s the most deserving? Is it bossy, overbearing, self-declared “super-Jew” Daphna Feygenbaum (played by Larkin Bell – Colony Collapse at Boston Court)? Or her wealthy, less observant cousin Liam (Noah James – Stanley Jerome in the Odyssey’s Broadway Bound) who has a shiksa girlfriend (Lila Hood – The Man Who Came to Dinner at Actors Co-Op)? Meanwhile, Liam’s younger brother Jonah (Austin Rogers – White Marriage at the Odyssey) finds himself in the impossible position of peacemaker as the two rivals argue, insult and try to outwit each other to the bitter, hilarious end.
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Arts & Culture News
Review
Dance
UCSB Arts & Lectures presented Spain’s national dance company, Compañía Nacional de Danza, for its contemporary adaptation of Carmen over two nights, Tuesday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at The Granada Theatre.
While the dancers possessed great skill and gave theatrical performances, the piece as a whole fell short of a truly contemporary retelling.
Monday, 19 March 2018 20:44
Groundbreaking ‘Native Son’ adaptation gets a SoCal premiere at Antaeus
Written by
GLENDALE, CA- Andi Chapman directs the Southern California premiere of Nambi E. Kelley’s visceral, groundbreaking stage adaption of Richard Wright’s racially charged novel, Native Son, for Antaeus Theatre Company. Wright's iconic novel about oppression, freedom and justice comes to life on stage at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale beginning April 19, with performances continuing through June 3. Low-priced previews take place April 12–18.
Set in 1930s Chicago, where opportunities for African-American men are elusive, Kelley’s adaptation focuses on the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind as a series of unleashed events violently and irrevocably seal his fate.
More...
Review
Dance
Beyond The 805
Maxim Mironov (right) as Orpheus, with dancers from the Joffrey Ballet, in LA Opera's 2018 production of “Orpheus and Eurydice.” Photo Credit: Ken Howard
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Dance
Wednesday, 14 March 2018 04:08
ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY presents Pulitzer Prize writers' Ayad Akhtar in a co-production with the ENGLISH THEATRE FRANKFURT "The Invisible Hand".
Written by
ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY presents the 4th of its 2017-2018 Season -
A Co-Production with the English Theatre Frankfurt!
THE INVISIBLE HAND
Written by Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Jonathan Fox
March 13, 2018…Santa Barbara, CA…ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY (in a co-production with the ENGLISH THEATRE FRANKFURT) is thrilled to announce the fourth show of its 2017-2018 Season, a witty and provocative new thriller, THE INVISIBLE HAND, written by Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced) and directed by Jonathan Fox. THE INVISIBLE HAND begins previews on Thursday, April 12, opens on Saturday, April 14, and runs through Sunday, April 29, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara. The production will then transfer to the English Theatre Frankfurt on May 9, 2018.
Review
Dance
Beyond The 805
The Joffrey Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is a dynamic, contemporary take on the classic ballet. From the various costumes and settings spanning the 1930s, 1950s, and 1990s to the contemporary twists to the ballet choreography, watching Joffrey Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet is a refreshing and captivating experience.
Christine Rocas and Rory Hohenstein The Joffrey Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet. Photo by Cheryl Mann
Christine Leong & Andrea Vargas
March 15 - May 13, 2018
Fox Fine Jewelry, Ventura, CA
Christine Leongs Mountains in Blue
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Visual Arts