‘Rent’ control hits Santa Barbara over holiday weekend

By STEVE LIBOWITZ - July 3, 2009

What with giant Ponzi schemes, illegal wars, political sex scandals galore – not to mention the mysterious death of Michael Jackson – it seems almost quaint that a high school theater production could cause a controversy. But that’s exactly what happened when the mid-1990s hit Broadway musical “Rent” finally became available in a “school edition” for production during the current academic year. Nearly 40 schools across the country announced plans to mount the slightly toned down version of the musical that won the 1996 Tony Award, and three of them were eventually forced to cancel.

Now Santa Barbara is entering the fray. Stage Left Productions, a local youth theater program founded by Shana Lynch Arthurs and Steven Lovelace that has focused gentler family fare, is producing “Rent” as its summer show, this weekend.

Emmy-award winning Montecito-based writer-producer Cheri Steinkellner (“Family Ties,” “Cheers”) is directing a cast that features former Stage Left students home from studying at Yale, Emerson, Stanford and NYU in concert with current high-school students in Santa Barbara’s first non-professional presentation of the edgy musical – the themes include AIDS, sexual diversity and drug use. Show times are 7 p.m. tonight and 2 p.m. on Sunday at SBHS. Call 965-0880 for tickets.

Maybe it was the move to the edgier environs of the Center Stage Theater away from the more traditional Victoria a few blocks away. Who knows? But DIJO Productions and Virtual Theatre Company has changed genres as well as venues, leaving behind a run of serious and/or historical dramas to produce the current “Ives Lives,” aiming for belly laughs, a target a lot lower in the body than where their normally heady fare aims.

The six one-act absurdist comedies by David Ives, the New York playwright with a penchant for quirky characters and strange situations, features pieces drawn from Ives’ compilation evenings “All in the Timing” and “Lives of the Saints” as well as other works. The show includes the classics “Words, Words, Words,” which puts into practice the notion that three monkeys given enough time could composer Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Final performances are at 8 p.m. tonight and 2 & 8 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $25 general, $20 students. Call 963-0408 or visit www.centerstagetheater.org.

Elsewhere, the West Coast premiere of the totally terrific “Tony & the Soprano” continues at Circle Bar B Dinner Theater, and PCPA’s critically-acclaimed production of “Les Miserables” runs at the Solvang Festival Theatre, both through July 12.

Classical Corner

“Excuse me,” the elderly woman seated next to me at the Academy Festival Orchestra performance at the Granada last Saturday said at the conclusion of the concert. “They’re all faculty members, right?”

“Uh, no,” I replied. “They’re the students.”

“They just got here this week, right?”

“Yes. On Monday.”

“And they play this well?”

‘Nuff said.

The Music Academy of the West season is underway and the acoustic pyrotechnics have begun. You can check out the Academy Chamber Orchestra – a slightly smaller version of the AFO – under the direction of the same conductor (Larry Rachleff) at the Lobero on Sunday evening, when the great pianist Christoper Taylor also onstage for music by Messiaen, Varese and Mozart.

Focus on film

How do you define patriotism? Santa Barbara Town Hall Meetup wisely chose the days on either side of July 4th to screen “Torturing Democracy,” a new documentary that examines America’s recent treatment of detainees and other victims of the war on terror. The film plays for free at 7:30 p.m. at public libraries out in Goleta tonight (500 North Fairview Ave.) and downtown on Sunday (40 East Anapamu Street) surrounding Independence Day celebrations. Optional donations will be accepted at both locations. Get more info at www.meetup.com/SantaBarbaraActivists, or you can watch the film online at www.torturingdemocracy.org.

Meanwhile, the Ojai Film Festival has rechristened itself the Ojai-Ventura International Film Festival, and named Meegan Huff its new executive director. Huff replaces Mo McFadden, the former local publicist for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, who served in the post for less than a year. We can only guess whether expanding into Ventura in name – if not necessarily via a whole lot of venues – is an attempt to head off the fledgling Ventura Film Festival, which launched last April as a mostly digital three-day event in downtown Ventura.

The VFF is also winding up another week of events this weekend, with screenings at venues all over town, including the Majestic Ventura Theatre. The new OJIFF takes place in October.

How does this affect our own SBIFF? Probably not at all. But stay tuned.

Searching for alternatives to the summer movie doldrums? Both UCSB A&L and the Santa Barbara Zoo have some answers, and both on the same night of the week. The University film series offers eight off-the-beaten-path choices from July 8 to Aug. 26, all screening at Campbell hall. The series begins this Wednesday with two newly-restored shorts by legendary French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse, “The Red Balloon” and “White Mane.” Future titles include “Fados,” exploring Portugal’s melancholy musical genre and featuring frequent Santa Barbara visitor Mariza, documentaries “The Call of the Killer Whale” and “Virtual JFK – Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived,” “The Duchess of Langeais” (a French feature adapted from the Balzac novella) Jan Troell’s “Everlasting Moments,” which was a critical and fan favorite at 2009 SBIFF, the Israeli film “Lemon Tree” (which won the Audience Award in Berlin), and “Summer Hours” (a humor-and-heartbreak vehicle starring Juliette Binoche). Tickets are $6 each or you can buy a Summer Cinema Festival Pass for $35. Call 893-3535 or visit www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.

Meanwhile, the Santa Barbara Zoo is bringing back Zoovies, screening G & PG rated family fare on the great lawn overlooking East Beach on Wednesdays all month. “Horton Hears a Who” kicks things off on July 8, followed by “Space Chimps” on July 15, “The Princess Bride” on July 22 and “The Endless Summer” on July 29. Each night also features short movie screenings, refreshments for sale and special themes. Gates open at 7, movies start at 8:15 and tickets cost $6 adults, $4 children/seniors or, for zoo members, $15 for a family. Call 962-5339 or visit www.sbzoo.org.

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