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theFortnight 1 0 – 24 M A R C H | 2 0 1 7
W W W. S A N TA B A R B A R A S E N T I N E L .CO M
10 – 24 MARCH
by Steven Libowitz
Tell us all about your art opening, performance, dance party, book signing, sale of something we can’t live without, or event of any other kind by emailing fortnight@santabarbarasentinel.com. If our readers can go to it, look at it, eat it, or buy it, we want to know about it and will consider it for inclusion here. Special consideration will be given to interesting, exploratory, unfamiliar, and unusual items. We give calendar preference to those who take the time to submit a picture along with their listing.
Building a Better World
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oaTree, which only last year moved into its new headquarters on the site of the former Muddy Waters Coffeehouse, unveils The Better World Series, which is an ongoing project that represents an intentional opportunity to build a better world within the community. The series, which brings together change-makers to inspire and activate them, is comprised of five different “Waves”, or themes, which address a timely and relevant topic. It kicks off March 16, surfing the wave of “Environmental Psychology” with a focus on tearing down feelings of incapability to replace them with inspiring messages of action. Dr. Renee Lertzman, an internationally recognized thought leader and adviser, will speak on how understanding the psychology of sustainability can amplify, accelerate and leverage efforts to engage far greater numbers of people for a sustainable future. Her talk will consider whether current approaches undermine those efforts, noting her belief in the need to practice radical empathy with all and through all media of communication. With LoaTree subscribing to the aphorism that “Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged, and come together to demand it,” each wave will have three components, including Gathering (bringing individuals together to learn from a thought-leader or an expert); Activation (providing an opportunity through intimate events to go deeper with each topic through discussion or a hands-on workshop); and Mobilization (Creating digital campaigns designed to push learning and calls-to-action far and wide, inspiring deep rooted, sustainable change). Future “Waves” include “Women & Climate Justice,” “Peace Out, Plastics!”, “Regenerative Agriculture,” and “Art as Activism.” Thursday’s event takes place 6-9pm at LoaTree’s office, 508 E. Haley Street. Tickets cost $25. Visit www.nightout. com/events/psychological-insights-fora-changing-world-a-better-world-seriesevent/tickets.
Big BASSH
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ASSH moved to the New Vic Theater in 2015, and the gorgeously remodeled theater also seemed to
revive the then 15-year-old show as well. The annual performance revue for local dance professionals to showcase both their choreography and their own (and their students’) dancing prowess covers a wide variety of social dance genres. The last couple of years has seen an expansion beyond the original acronym-producing Ballroom, Argentine Tango, Swing, Salsa, and Hip-Hop to include many more Latin dances, jazz, dance fitness, aerial, and more. Founder Derrick Curtis returns once again for the shows – slated for 7:30pm Friday, March 17, and 2 & 7:30pm on Saturday, March 18 – as both host and performer, this time joined by belly-dance maven Beth Amine, who will also DJ the onstage after party on Saturday night. That’s also when they’ll present the 2017 Local Dance Hero award to Christopher Pilafian, artistic director of Santa Barbara Dance Theater and dance professor at UCSB, who will also get on stage with the BASSH cast. Tickets are $20-$25, which translates to about $1 per troupe. The New Vic is at 33 West Victoria Street. Call 9655400 or visit www.newvictheater.com.
wines. Open your throat – for both imbibing and singing – from 6-8pm on Monday, March 20. No need to buy tickets in advance and they’re available at Dargan’s door for $15 for adults, $10 for children, which include a song book and a beverage. And while you’re at it, mark your calendars for Monday, May 1, for Revels’ 10th annual May Day celebration, complete with garlands, nosegays, and ribbons to twine ‘round the May pole. Coming in September, the third Fall Equinox concert, which was a sell-out at the Presidio Chapel last year. The repertoire includes material from Revels’ changing seasons, as last year’s Scottish traditions butt up against highlights from the upcoming production at the Lobero Theatre in December, when Revels presents a new, original show written especially for our big anniversary season: The Christmas Revels: An Early California Celebration of the Winter Solstice. As Revels people always like to say, “Join us and be joyous!” Visit www. santabarbararevels.org or call 5659357.
Revels Enjoys Luck of the Irish
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anta Barbara Revels turns 10 in 2017 and there’s a whole host of special events planned for the milestone, beginning with its annual Spring Pub Sing, held – where else? – at Dargan’s Irish Pub & Restaurant, 18 East Ortega Street. Sure, it sounds a bit dorky, but admit it – you love to sing and a chance to do it among others who may not be polished performers, while downing a few, is not so easy to resist. And that’s what makes this fun as all singers, from professional vocalists to those who only do a little random warbling in the shower, are invited to celebrate the Vernal Equinox by joining in the merry mayhem from the folks who put on the annual holiday revue every Christmas season. Mark the change of season by lifting glasses and raising voices on Irish tunes, sea shanties, familiar folk songs, traditional favorites, and novelty ditties. Ken Ryals, Revels former music director, provides the enthusiastic direction with Larry Williams accompanying on the guitar. Also on tap: Dargan’s huge selection of ales and lagers along with
SBJFF covers the bases
ust hours before I wrote this, Israel completed a three-game sweep in the first round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, moving from the 2001 bottom seed in the 16-team draw of the quadrennial Olympics-style competition to the top seed for Round 2 in Japan, and sporting odds of just 201. What this has to do with the Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival that starts at the tail end of this fortnight I’m sure I don’t know but quite a few of the movies do actually come from the country that’s now suddenly something of a baseball powerhouse. Who knew? (About the baseball, not the Israeli movies, which have always been good.) The Israeli entries this year include a bunch of feature films, highlighted perhaps by AKA Nadia, about an Israeli woman who while a seemingly happily married mother of two, can no longer deny her secret past. There are a couple of documentary shorts: (A Heartbeat Away, about an Israeli pediatric cardiologist in Tanzania who performs lifesaving operations on children), and Women in Sink, in which Haifa-based
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian women at a beauty parlor share their stories), and some full-length docs, including Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? about a gay ex-Israeli army paratrooper living in London and a member of its Gay Men’s Chorus who discovers that he is HIV positive, and On The Map, the tale of how the Israeli national basketball team won the European Cup in 1977. (Ah, there’s the WBC connection!) The March 23-27 fest also features films from The Netherlands, the U.S., and Germany – plus a reception and a couple of Coffee and Bagels gatherings for passholders – fulfilling its mission to “bring the community together to experience the power of exceptional films from around the world on themes of Jewish culture and identity.” Organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, the festival also carries the hope that the films and their stories will resonate beyond their unique settings to speak to universal experiences and issues that confront our common humanity. You know, sort of like the World Baseball Classic, only different. All the events take place at the New Vic, 33 West Victoria Street. An all-access pass goes for $95, while individual screenings cost $12 (such a deal!). Info and passes are available at www.sbjewishfilmfestival.org, or call 957-1115.
Hunter as a Lonely Heart?
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ongtime Montecito resident Tab Hunter enjoyed a full and frothy film career for a couple of decades in the 1950s-60s when he was considered one of Hollywood’s main matinee idols. Now he’s enjoying a long run with his autobiography, Tab Hunter: Confidential, which came out back in 2006 and represented his own sort of coming out, as Hunter delved for the first time into what it was like to be a movie star at the end of the big studio era, to be treated like a commodity, to be told what to do, how to behave, whom to be seen with, what to wear – and what it was like to be gay, at first confused by his own fears and misgivings, then as an actor trapped by an image of boy-nextdoor innocence. Hunter will be on hand when the 2015 movie version of the book screens at the Plaza Playhouse Theater, 4916 Carpinteria Avenue in Carpinteria, at 2 pm on Sunday, March 12. Afterward, the actor, somehow still dapper and dashing at 85, is joined by his longtime partner, Allan Glaser, who also produced the documentary, on stage for a Q&A with moderator Peter Bie. Tickets are $20 general admission. Call 684-6380 or visit www.plazatheatercarpinteria.com.