Ringing in 2018 with opera, exhibitions, dance performances and more, the UC Santa Barbara winter arts season ranges from the classical to the avant-garde, with a robust slate of events featuring faculty, students and special guests.
Listen Up
The Department of Music features diverse performances this winter, starting with UCSB Opera Theatre’s presentation of a Mozart classic, “The Marriage of Figaro” (Le Nozze di Figaro). Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 and Feb. 10 in the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. Opera Santa Barbara’s General and Artistic Director, Kostis Protopapas, will conduct the production, with Isabel Bayrakdarian, a UCSB assistant professor of voice, serving as stage director and Benjamin Brecher, UCSB professor of voice, serving as music director and producer. The opera will feature many of the program’s top graduate students, including Tyler Reece as Count Almaviva, Julie Davies as Countess Almaviva, Naomi Merer as Susanna, Byron Mayes as Figaro and Kelly Newberry as Cherubino. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $10 for non-UCSB students, $5 for UCSB students and free for children under 12.
On Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day), the UCSB Percussion Ensemble — under the direction of music scholar Jon Nathan — will present its annual winter concert at 7:30 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall. The event is free for students and children under 12, $10 for general admission and $5 for non-students.
The UCSB Music of India Ensemble will perform Indian classical music March 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall. The concert will be directed by Scott Marcus, an ethnomusicology professor who founded the ensemble in 1989. The event is free for UCSB students and children under 12, $10 for general admission and $5 for non-UCSB students.
Tickets can be purchased at the door of each event, via the Associated Students Ticket Office (UCEN Room 1535 or 893-2064) or online. More information is available at http://www.music.ucsb.edu/news.
Winter Treats
The Art, Design & Architecture Museum will kick off its winter offerings with an opening reception at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 12. The exhibitions “Chiura Obata: An American Modern” and “Jane Gottlieb Photographs France” will run through April 29, while “UCSB Campus Architecture: Design and Social Change” will run through December 2018. A show featuring an array of works by Keith Puccinelli goes until April 1. More details are available at http://www.museum.ucsb.edu/exhibitions/upcoming.
At 5:30 p.m. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, the museum presents “Still We Rise: A Collaborative Performance of Art, Music, Dance, Theater and Poetry,” dedicated to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) Dreamers among the student population at UCSB.
The multidisciplinary performance will involve UCSB students, poet Rick Benjamin, an adjunct professor, and choreographer Monique Meunier, a theater and dance assistant professor. An abstract examination of immigration and DACA, the event also features a scene from upcoming LAUNCH PAD play “Staging the Daffy Dame,” directed by professor Risa Brainin.
“As we face the turmoil and uncertainty of immigration, we strive to protect minors who were brought to this country through no fault of their own,” said Meunier, a daughter of immigrants. “They are Americans who only lack legal recognition. For those of us that live here, we have to understand we are all immigrants and compassion is vital.”
The events are all free and open to the public. More information is available at http://www.museum.ucsb.edu/news/event/636.
‘Shakespeare on Film’
The UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center is presenting “Shakespeare on Film,” a five-film series beginning Tuesday, Jan. 16. The series will address the ongoing romance between Shakespeare and film through screenings of classic adaptions, “Chimes at Midnight,” “Macbeth” and “Hamlet,” as well as contemporary films “Haider” and “She’s the Man.”
Produced from 1948 to 2006, the five movies were selected by Patrice Petro, a film and media studies professor and director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, and James Kearney, associate professor of English. As part of the series, a UCSB moderator will conduct post-screening question-and-answer sessions with guest film experts.
“As an academic research center, Carsey-Wolf is committed to expanding critical engagement with media, including film, television and new media,” Petro said.
Details on each screening can be found at http://www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu.
Center Stage
The Department of Theater and Dance boasts a busy schedule for the new year, with a creative array of performances.
This month, Santa Barbara Dance Theater features choreographic explorations of complex human experience and physical phenomena. Directed by studio professor Christopher Pilafian, the company’s professional dancers will be accompanied by apprentices from the Department of Theater and Dance. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. Jan. 17-20 and 2 p.m. Jan. 21. at Hatlen Theater.
“The World of Extreme Happiness,” a play written by assistant professor Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, centers on Sunny, a naïve but ambitious woman determined to escape her life in rural China. Directed by visiting associate professor Daniel Stein, performances are at 8 p.m. Feb. 16, 17 and 20-24 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 17, 24 and 25, at the Performing Arts Theater.
Later in the quarter, LAUNCH PAD presents “Staging the Daffy Dame,” written by Anne García-Romero and directed by professor and department chair Risa Brainin. Raising issues of race, class and gender, the play focuses on Lupe, a Latina theater professor at a California public university, as she directs a production of the 1613 Spanish Golden Age comedy, “La Dama Boba” (The Daffy Dame). Performances are at 8 p.m. March 2, 3 and 6-10 and 2 p.m. March 4 and 10-11 at Studio Theater.
Tickets for each event range from $12 to $20, with Blue and Gold options.
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