Jenny Sullivan News

Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) announces its 2019-20 Season of plays. ETC's 41st Season is the company's seventh year at The New Vic in downtown Santa Barbara, and features a thrilling selection of extraordinary works, including William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, a radio play version of the beloved holiday story It's a Wonderful Life, a musical adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, the West Coast premiere of the Broadway play American Son, and an inspirational pop and jazz musical about the legendary Rosemary Clooney. ETC's 2019-20 Season will build upon the momentum of its successful and celebratory 40thAnniversary 2018-19 Season.

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 21st "Coming of Age" season with the World Premiere of WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS, a play inspired by and loosely based on the remarkable journey of Lorraine Serena and a dynamic group of California-based artists who founded the non-profit Women Beyond Borders (WBB). Determined to "make art as if the world matters," Serena and her friends fell upon the idea of box as metaphor: hope chest, treasure chest, womb, coffin, etc. They replicated a miniature wooden box no bigger than the size of a human heart and sent the boxes to curators and friends in other countries with the goal of encouraging dialogue, collaboration and community among women and honoring creativity. The founders of WBB were astonished at what came back to them - eloquent expressions of the enormous depth and variety, but also the universality, of women's experiences throughout the world. The boxes were accompanied by equally astonishing artists' statements, in the form of letters, poems and stories asking about transcending barriers: geographical, social, racial, economic, emotional, gender-related, spiritual, etc.

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 21st 'Coming of Age' season with the World Premiere of WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS, a play inspired by and loosely based on the remarkable journey of Lorraine Serena and a dynamic group of California-based artists who founded the non-profit Women Beyond Borders (WBB).

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 21st "Coming of Age" season with the hilarious and harrowing, politically incorrect comedy FUDDY MEERS by playwright DAVID-LINDSAY-ABAIRE. In this outrageously funny roller-coaster ride of a play, Claire, an amnesiac. wakes up each day having forgotten the details of her life. This morning, like all mornings, her seemingly devoted husband Richard greets her with a cup of coffee and a scrapbook of memories. But when he steps away, a limping, lisping man claiming to be Claire's brother pops out from under her bed and says he is there to save her. He takes her to her mother's home in the country, where Claire meets a naive man with a foul-mouthed puppet, discovers her husband and son have kidnapped an aggressive lady cop, and comes face-to-face with her past.

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 21st "Coming of Age" season with the hilarious and harrowing, politically incorrect comedy FUDDY MEERS by playwright DAVID-LINDSAY-ABAIRE.

LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE presents a co-production with the Rubicon Theatre Company, HEISENBERG, written by Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) directed by Katherine Farmer (South Pacific, Gulf View Drive) and starring Faline England (Valentine's Day) & Joe Spano (Hill Street Blues and NCIS).

Ensemble Theatre Company's production of The Legend of Georgia McBride, directed by Jenny Sullivan, avoids the landmines. It's neither preachy nor offensive, and it tells a story of redemption that's timely, socially relevant, and charming. The show takes place over the period of a year, starting and ending around Christmas, an appropriate staging choice for a piece with such a clear connection to the general themes of the yuletide season. Georgia McBride is about family, forgiveness, celebration, and general joy to the world.

Elvis has indeed left the building! ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY (ETC) has announced the second show of its 40th Anniversary Season, THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE, written by Matthew Lopez, directed by Jenny Sullivan with choreography by Jamie Torcellini. THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE begins previews on Thursday, December 6, opens on Saturday, December 8, and runs through Sunday, December 23, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara.

For Ensemble's upcoming extravaganza, 'The Legend of Georgia McBride' (by Matthew Lopez, directed by Jenny Sullivan), actors Stephen Spencer and Bill Brochtrup have stepped up to the challenge of transforming into drag queens. The play follows Elvis impersonator Casey (Spencer), who gets fired from his gig at a Florida bar to make room for the newest entertainment sensation, a drag show starring Miss Tracey Mills (Brochtrup). With a pregnant wife at home, Casey has to adapt or find another job, so he tries his hand at female impersonation.

Elvis has indeed left the building!  ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY (ETC) is thrilled to announce the second show of its 40th Anniversary Season, THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE, written by Matthew Lopez, directed by Jenny Sullivan with choreography by Jamie Torcellini. THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE begins previews on Thursday, December 6, opens on Saturday, December 8, and runs through Sunday, December 23, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara.

Elvis has indeed left the building! ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY (ETC) is thrilled to announce the second show of its 40th Anniversary Season, THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE, written by Matthew Lopez, directed by Jenny Sullivan with choreography by Jamie Torcellini. THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE begins previews on Thursday, December 6, opens on Saturday, December 8, and runs through Sunday, December 23, 2018 at The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria Street in Santa Barbara.

Rubicon Theatre Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns today announced that London-based director Katharine Farmer will helm the company's next two productions, a two-piano version of South Pacific (Dec. 5 - 23, 2018) which concludes Rubicon's 20th Anniversary Season, and Heisenberg (Jan. 30 - Feb. 17, 2019), a co-production with Laguna Playhouse, where the show runs Mar. 27 to Apr. 14, 2019).

Rubicon Theatre Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns today announced that London-based director Katharine Farmer will helm the company's next two productions, a two-piano version of South Pacific(Dec. 5 - 23, 2018) which concludes Rubicon's 20th Anniversary Season, and Heisenberg (Jan. 30 - Feb. 17, 2019), a co-production with Laguna Playhouse, where the show runs Mar. 27 to Apr. 14, 2019).

ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY (ETC) ?at the New Vic and event Chair? Sybil Rosen ?are delighted to announce the third annual Ghost Light Night, ETC's spirited benefit bash! Building on two previous highly successful Ghost Light Night galas, this year's celebration will bring together ETC patrons and new friends of the theater to celebrate and raise funds for the company's award-winning programming and education outreach activities.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY is thrilled to announce its 40thAnniversary 2018-2019 season of shows as it offers a stunning selection of extraordinary experiences for its subscribers and audiences.

WIESENTHAL tells the powerful true story of Simon Wiesenthal, often called the "Jewish James Bond," a Holocaust survivor who, after cheating death at the hands of Hitler's S.S., spent his life bringing to justice the most notorious war criminals in human history. This provocative solo performance, written and performed by Tom Dugan and directed by Jenny Sullivan, is an uplifting and highly entertaining one-man show that unfolds like a gripping spy thriller, telling how Wiesenthal devoted his life to bringing more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice after WW II.

Playwright Jane Anderson was revered for the Baby Dance and is currently represented at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura with the Baby Dance: Mixed. In our conversation she tells us about the urgency of the updated, practically new play. Will you talk at length about the play and why the update at this time? I wrote the original Baby Dance in 1989 and the main theme of the play was about the class divide in America - white America, that is.  The adopting couple from Los Angles were affluent, educated and liberal. The birth couple were desperately poor, uneducated and living in a trailer park in the south. Both couples were white and the conflict between them was cultural and economic. Many years later, Jenny Sullivan, who directed the or

Casting has been announced for the World Premiere of THE BABY DANCE: MIXED, a new adaptation by Emmy Award-winner JANE ANDERSON ("Olive Kitteridge") of her acclaimed 2004 play The Baby Dance. A drama delicately laced with comic overtones, THE BABY DANCE: MIXED is a compelling and urgent play about race, class, and wanting the perfect child. In the story, Regina and Richard, an affluent mixed-race couple in Los Angeles, have everything except a baby. Wanda and Al, an African-American couple living in an overcrowded trailer in modern-day Louisiana, are too poor to keep their soon-to-be-born child. Through an adoption attorney, the two couples broker a deal. However, circumstances arise that affect their decision and the situation spins out of control. The Wall Street Journal described The Baby Dance as "filled with emotional power and nimble humor." The L.A. Times called it "a stunner…funny as well as perceptive."

Casting has been announced for the World Premiere of THE BABY DANCE: MIXED, a new adaptation by Emmy Award-winner JANE ANDERSON ('Olive Kitteridge') of her acclaimed 2004 play The Baby Dance. A drama delicately laced with comic overtones, THE BABY DANCE: MIXED is a compelling and urgent play about race, class, and wanting the perfect child.

Singer/songwriter duo Sylvie Davidson and Trevor Wheetman first met each other while performing in Lonesome Traveler at Rubicon Theatre. Seven years later they return to the stage, married, and with a brand new album to celebrate. Join them for an evening of love and laughter as they share the stories and songs of their lives together.