David Bazemore News

This music-infused interpretation of the Alberta Hunter's life is a true American rags-to-riches success story. Hunter, a jazz and blues singer, achieved critical and commercial acclaim in the 1920s-50s. In the late 1950s, she abruptly abandoned music to become a nurse. Several decades later, Hunter retired from nursing and returned to the stage for a two-week engagement at renowned New York blues bar, The Cookery. At age 82, this jazz legend rekindled the public's love for her powerful voice and spirit-her two-week stint at the Greenwich Village nightclub stretched into a multi-year, late-in-life comeback.

Entrancing but, as the kids in theory class say, 'problematic'

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.

The punk rock musical American Idiot, now on stage at Center Stage, gives Green Day fans an opportunity to immerse themselves into the titular album through dance, imagery, and, of course, music. American Idiot does not tell a story so much as it performs the gesture of punk rock: a clench-fisted rebellion against the banality of American society and culture.

The Invisible Handplays out events in a market atmosphere without stringent guidelines, in which capitalism can run amuck. 'Pakistan is the wild west,' says Tufts. 'How will capitalism thrive in an unregulated environment? It thrives with enormous consequence.' Directed by Jonathan Fox, The Invisible Handalso stars Mujahid Abdul-Rashid and Sarang Sharma. This Southern California premiere runs at the New Vic Theater April 12-April 29th, and then moves to the English Theater Frankfurt in May.

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.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY is thrilled to announce the third show of its 2017-2018 Season, the 2014-2015 Outer Critics Circle & Drama Desk award nominee for Best Play, THE CITY OF CONVERSATION, written by Anthony Giardina and directed by Cameron Watson. Meredith Baxter and Sharon Lawrence star in this deeply moving and thought-provoking story about how the political divide tears apart an American family. THE CITY OF CONVERSATION begins previews on Thursday, February 8, opens on Saturday, February 10, and runs through Sunday, February 25, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara.

In an era defined by a population split by divergent ideologies and heated, propagandistic rhetoric, in which productive discussion about political issues seems impossible, Ensemble presents Anthony Giardina's 'City of Conversation,' a play that brings both sides of the political agenda to the dinner table.

Ensemble Theatre Company has announced the third show of its 2017-2018 Season, the 2014-2015 Outer Critics Circle & Drama Desk award nominee for Best Play, THE CITY OF CONVERSATION, written by Anthony Giardina and directed by Cameron Watson. Meredith Baxter and Sharon Lawrence star in this deeply moving and thought-provoking story about how the political divide tears apart an American family. THE CITY OF CONVERSATION begins previews on Thursday, February 8, opens on Saturday, February 10, and runs through Sunday, February 25, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara.

Featuring a remarkable, awards-worthy, tour-de-force performance by actor John Tufts that will easily win you over no matter what your personal tastes or beliefs or politics may be, this admirable new regional production of Doug Wright's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE---beautifully directed by Jenny Sullivan---continues performances at the Laguna Playhouse through January 28. Emotional, spiritual, and impressively staged, the play is one of these unique theatrical experiences that genuinely deserves your attention.

Laguna Playhouse announces the fourth show in the Laguna Playhouse 97th season, I AM MY OWN WIFE, written by Doug Wright and directed by Jenny Sullivan and starring John Tufts. We are so fortunate to start 2018 with this exquisite play and extraordinary performance, comments Laguna Playhouse Executive Director Ellen Richard. Adds Artistic Director Ann E. Wareham I AM MY OWN WIFE is a remarkable piece of theatre and even more so that the story is true, and still has so much relevance today. Our subscribers and audiences are in for an unforgettable experience. I AM MY OWN WIFE will begin previews on Wednesday, January 10; will open on Sunday, January 14 at 5:30pm and will run through Sunday, January 28, 2018 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Ensemble's Pemberley boasts an attractive set, beautiful costumes, and a talented cast who maintain a smooth, frothy sugarplum taste throughout. But with so little at stake for over two hours and a concerning level of emphasis on a woman's place Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley seems too long and too late for audiences looking for theatre with teeth.

Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) presents their new holiday show, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, a creation by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon. Directed by Andrew Barnicle, this regional-theater hit is a sequel to Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice', and reunites its characters to place the bookish middle sister, Mary Bennet, in the limelight. The production opened last night, November 30, and will run until December 17, 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Though Shakespeare and Miller wrote their plays several centuries apart, the combo is fitting both plays articulate the struggles of frustrated protagonists trying to understand their function in a shifting social scape and their priorities within dysfunctional familial relationships.

'Husbands and Wives,' Woody Allen's film--and now, Ensemble Theater Company's adaptation by Jonathan Fox--examines the slings and arrows of long-term pairing through the relationships of two middle-aged couples in crisis.

There's a lot to unpack from director and professor Simon Williams' production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, the Brecht epic that expands a parable into a detailed exploration of how well human kindness fares in a lawless land of political upheaval within a universe marked by an stylistically absurd mercilessness.

The Leonia Chamber Musicians Society, Inc. will perform the second of a three concert series on Sunday, February 5, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. at All Saints Episcopal Church, located at 150 Park Avenue in Leonia, New Jersey. 

Ensemble's production of Chapter Two, Neil Simon's 1977 living-room comedy about a second marriage, tackles the problems that come with an obsession with the past.

BALAM Dance Theatre (BALAM), a non-profit professional dance theatre company, premieres The Fountain of Pleasure, a new Baroque inspired choreography created by the company's artistic director, Carlos Fittante, in XWhyY: My Genderation Dances of Exploration, for the Queens College-City University of New York's Faculty Choreographic Showcase.  The performance will be presented at M11 Studio Theatre, Rathaus Hall at Queens College, located at 64th Ave in Flushing, New York on Today, December 1 and Friday, December 2 at 7:00 p.m.; Saturday, December 3 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday, December 4 at 3:00 p.m. 

BALAM Dance Theatre (BALAM), a non-profit professional dance theatre company, premieres The Fountain of Pleasure, a new Baroque inspired choreography created by the company's artistic director, Carlos Fittante, in XWhyY: My Genderation Dances of Exploration, for the Queens College-City University of New York's Faculty Choreographic Showcase.  The performance will be presented at M11 Studio Theatre, Rathaus Hall at Queens College, located at 64th Ave in Flushing, New York on Thursday, December 1 and Friday, December 2 at 7:00 p.m.; Saturday, December 3 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday, December 4 at 3:00 p.m.