The Theatre Group at SBCC Sets 2015-16 Season: THE MUSIC MAN, IN THE NEXT ROOM & More

The Theatre Group at SBCC is excited to announce the upcoming 2015-2016 season which be our 70th Anniversary.

In 1945 the Alhecama Theatre was given to Santa Barbara City Schools and that season the Alhecama Players began producing community theatre in this intimate space. In 1955, the Alhecama Players moved to the larger Lobero Theatre and continued to present crowd-pleasing theatre for Santa Barbara under the direction of Frank Fowler. In 1975 the Garvin Theatre was built on SBCC's West Campus and opened with Cabaret. During the following seasons, Alhecama Players divided its productions between the Lobero and the Garvin Theatres under the direction of Pope Freeman. In 1985 the Alhecama Players moved exclusively to the Garvin Theatre and changed the name to SBCC Theatre Group, continuing to present quality and affordable theatre to the Santa Barbara community. In 2012 after an extensive upgrade and remodel, the Garvin and Jurkowitz Theatres reopened and have continued to host classics, new plays, musicals and comedies for everyone to enjoy. We hope you will join us to celebrate the start of another 70 years of great theatre in Santa Barbara. Be sure to watch for special upcoming anniversary events.

Our first production of this season will be July 10-25, 2015 in the Garvin Theatre THE MUSIC MAN, Book, Music and Lyrics by Meredith Willson, Story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey.

By turns funny, warm and romantic, The Music Man is family entertainment at its best. Meredith Willson's six-time, TONY Award-winning musical comedy has been entertaining audiences since 1957 and is a family-friendly story to be shared with every generation.

The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band he vows to organize - this despite the fact he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town go awry when he meets his match, Marian the librarian, whose savvy sweetness may just convince him to finally face the music.

October 16-31, 2015 in the Garvin Theatre we present the thrilling Sherlock Holmes mystery, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, adapted by David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright.

London. Autumn. 1889. The famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and colleague Dr. John Watson are called in to investigate a most intriguing mystery: What could have frightened Sir Charles Baskerville to death? Is there an ancient curse on the Baskerville family? Is Sir Henry Baskerville, Sir Charles' young heir, being stalked by a supernatural Hound from Hell or a diabolically clever murderer? In this new adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's greatest , Holmes and Watson pursue the answers to these questions from their rooms in Baker Street, through the teeming streets of London and on to the windswept moors of Devonshire. With a dash of humor, this thrilling feast culminates on the fog-bound reaches of Dartmoor, where finally the secret of The Hound of the Baskervilles is revealed.

Seattle Weekly says- "Pichette and Wright have taken a familiar story and invested it with thrills and chills aplenty."

Next in the Garvin Theatre, March 4-19, 2016 we will present Sarah Ruhl's comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity, IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play.

In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating "hysteria" in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor's laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter-and wonders exactly what is going on in the next room. When a new "hysterical" patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their complicated relationship into the doctor's home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.

Please note: Contains adult material - not suitable for children

The New York Times called it - "Insightful, fresh and funny, the play is as rich in thought as it is in feeling...one of the most gifted and adventurous American playwrights to emerge in recent years."

The final show in the season will be PROOF by David Auburn, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, April 15-30, 2016 in the Jurkowitz Theatre.

On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father's who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father's madness-or genius-will she inherit?

As our student showcase production, the SBCC Theatre Arts Department presents GOOD KIDS by Naomi Iizuka, November 12-21, 2015, in the Jurkowitz Theatre. Originally commissioned by the Big Ten Consortium.

Something happened to Chloe after that party last Saturday night.
The problem is, she can't remember anything. And everybody at high school is talking about what happened. Was she raped? Did she ask for it? How could those boys do that to her? Or did they? Set in a high school in the American mid-west, in a world of Facebook, Twitter, smart phones and YouTube, Good Kids explores the very public aftermath of a sex crime and its cover-up. Who's telling the truth? Whose version of the story do you believe; and what does that say about you? Loosely based on the Steubenville High School rape case, Good Kids is provocative, haunting and stunningly current.

This play contains adult language and situations.

Season tickets are available by phone or in person at the Garvin Box Office. Tickets for 4 plays are available for as little as $60 per person. The Garvin and Jurkowitz Theatres are wheelchair accessible, have the assisted listening system, and selected performances are live-captioned for the hearing impaired. There is plenty of free parking near the theatres. Single tickets will go on sale June 15. Call the Garvin Box Office at 805-965-5935 for a season brochure or check out www.theatregroupsbcc.com.

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