What's Current in

Theater and Dance

Three actors on a stage in colorful makeup and costumes for The Threepenny Opera
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
UC Santa Santa Barbara Department of Theater and Dance is mounting a new production of 1928 play “The Threepenny Opera”

A bracingly contemporary century-old masterpiece

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image of book and its author, William Davies King

Theater scholar’s culminating work unpacks masterpiece of the American stage
A side-by-side image of a female dancer in motion and a woman playing tennis
Photo Credit
Left: Dario Calmese; right: Jeff Liang
The arts and humanities, including UCSB Arts & Lectures, and UCSB Athletics, are key focus areas for the Arnholds' generosity to the university.

John ’75 and Jody Arnhold elevate the arts, the humanities and athletics
Three costumed actors - two men and one women - on a darkened stage
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
“Indecent” tells the story of the 1906 play, “God of Vengeance,” by Sholem Asch.

A dreamlike history play that resonates today
people on stage
Photo Credit
Fritz Olenberger

Maternal love unleashed: ‘Everybody's Favorite Mothers’ premieres at UCSB
Two actors in 1920s attire sitting on a couch, laughing, in a black and white image
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
“Hay Fever” will run from Nov. 14-19 in the Performing Arts Theater on campus.

Noel Coward’s comedy of bad manners
Two male dancers perform on a blackened stage
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
A scene from Santa Barbara Dance Theater's 2023 show, “The Ties that Bind/Los lazos que unen.”

Celebrating diverse voices, identities and perspectives with dance
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Renowned dance artist Alice Condodina connects students with dance lineage 
The Naked Shakes theater company in full dress for "The Death of Kings"
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
"The Death of Kings" will play for three nights on campus before traveling to the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival

Performance group Naked Shakes takes a royal thrill ride through Shakespeare’s England, and lands on a prestigious stage in Italy
Professor William Davies King with a collection of cracker boxes
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
William Davies King with part of his collection of Cheez-It cracker boxes

Expansive collections of ‘things of no value,’ nearly 10,000 items worth nothing, at heart of new Red Barn art exhibition
Actors in costume in a promotional shot for Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
The theater and dance department will stage a production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s 2005 play.

A biblical villain goes on trial in the darkly comic “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”
Female dancers in costume circled in motion on a darkened stage
Photo Credit
Stephen Sherrill

UCSB Dance Company explores spectrum of human sensibility through the lens of female choreographers
Playwright Jacqueline Lawton sits at a desk holding a pen above a red notebook
Photo Credit
Courtesy photo
Playwright Jacqueline Lawton's “Freedom Hill” will be featured in the LAUNCH PAD Amplify Reading Series Festival.

LAUNCH PAD reading festival brings the Black American experience, family and community stories to center stage
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