What's Current in

Theater and Dance

Four adults in farmers clothes, their faces lit, look up at a foreboding figure in a mask
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
The allegory that is 'Animal Farm' examines the perils of unchecked power and privilege, the use of words as a political weapon, and revolutions that erode into regimes not unlike those they overthrew.

UCSB theater students take on Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ a fable that still bites

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Seven women in business attire stretching the arms forward with the mouths open
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Selina Fillinger’s “POTUS” has been one of the most produced American plays of the past few years, including a hit production on Broadway

When the president loses it, it’s women to the rescue
modern dancers with arms and legs intertwined
Photo Credit
Fritz Olenberger
UCSB's Santa Barbara Dance Theater

Santa Barbara Dance Theater’s FORUM explores connection and collaboration
group of people in whimsical costumes on beach at sunset
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
UCSB's Naked Shakes

Naked Shakes marks 20th anniversary with Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’
Women in bright colored dresses on stage with a blue background
Photo Credit
Luca Meyers
A play about young women on the cusp of their teenage years, “Dance Nation” portrays their conflicting impulses to stand out and blend in.

UCSB stages ‘Dance Nation,’ a play about ambition, competition and coming of age
A large group of people gathered shoulder to shoulder on a theater stage
Photo Credit
Courtesy LAUNCH PAD
The Amplify Festival brings together veteran and emerging artists to workshop news plays and present public readings.

LAUNCH PAD Amplify Festival pairs student artists with professional playwrights
Two people have a discussion on a stage
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Risa Brainin, right, on stage with a student actor during rehearsals for LAUNCH PAD’s production of “Strange Birds”

An intense thriller with feminist overtones
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
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
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