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IT’S ALL RELATIVE: San Marcos High School students Michael Libera (left) and Carter Boden star as Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, opening next Thursday, November 13.
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f you are playing a historic figure, trast between her bright yellow Lakers T-shirt you’ve got to do your homework,” and her brown tortoise-shell horn-rim glasses says Riley Berris, who is currently came closest to capturing the blend of fresh directing Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a enthusiasm with seriousness of purpose. comedy by Steve Martin about painter “I read lots over the summer in preparaPablo Picasso, as well as a young scientist by tion,” she told me, “and I noticed that most of the name of Al Einstein. It’s a debut for Berris, the plays I had done in college were not going who now commands the theater program to work here because the casts were at San Marcos High, a school too small. A play with fewer that has been home to some than 10 roles was not going to of the area’s most influential be as good a show for a high GETS A NEW performing arts educators, school, so what I began including David Holmes and looking for was something Marjorie Luke. with closer to 15 real parts. Berris has clearly done her And that’s when I found this homework before stepping into her own show, which has 11 — just enough.” historic role. She assistant taught with Holmes Steve Martin’s clever script combines the last year (as Holmes did before her with Luke), comedian’s well-known gifts for surreal slapand she has blue-chip academic credentials stick and snappy absurdist comebacks with a in acting from Loyola Marymount University thoughtful take on what two young geniuses and in education from UCSB. might have talked and thought about if they But Berris also has something else going for had met in a rowdy French café in October her that’s only obtainable once: the ambition of 1904. At the time, Picasso was looking at and energy of someone in his or her first real a lot of African masks and beginning work teaching job. Watching as she rehearsed the on his cubist masterpiece “Les Demoiselles Picasso cast last week, it seemed that the cond’Avignon.” Einstein was busy coming up
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ART OF MUSIC with his “special theory of relativity,” which he would publish in 1905. Needless to say, in Martin’s imagination, and with the help of a little wine and an audience of admiring women, the two men find they have a lot to talk about. The play’s portrayal of Picasso’s womanizing and simulated alcohol consumption both raised concerns among high school administrators and parents in La Grande, Oregon, back in 2009, but Martin quickly came to the defense of the students’ and his own artistic freedom, saying his play about “people drinking in bars and treating women as sex objects” is similar to saying that Hamlet is “about a castle.” In any event, there’s no indication that anyone will be bothered by this delightful and intellectually stimulating show when this production goes up at San Marcos High School (4750 Hollister Ave.), Thursday-Saturday, November 13-15. Curtain is at 7 p.m., and tickets are available at the door. Call 967-4581 x5568 or visit shopsmroyals.org to reserve — Charles Donelan tickets.
MARIANNE FAITHFULL GIVE MY LOVE TO LONDON The grande dame of pop, rock, show tunes, and blues has released her 20th studio album to celebrate her 50th anniversary as a recording artist. From her start in 1964 as the bosomy, angel-voiced ingénue for whom Mick Jagger and Keith Richards composed “As Tears Go By,” it has been a long and winding road for Marianne Faithfull. After becoming Jagger’s girlfriend during the Stones’ most fertile period (Faithfull cowrote “Sister Morphine,” and “Wild Horses” was supposedly written as a paean to her), she fell from grace and into drug addiction during the 1970s. Her eventual rehabilitation and Phoenix-like resurrection began with 1979’s acclaimed Broken English,
on which a whisky-voiced Faithfull sang songs of experience rather than innocence. She subsequently released a dozen uncompromising albums, from 1981’s Dangerous Acquaintances to 2011’s Horses and High Heels. Give My Love to London is a worthy addition to the collections of Faithfull fans. Among the highlights is the Roger Waters–penned “Sparrows Will Sing,” with its “Jabberwocky”-referencing lyrics. The title track (cowritten with Steve Earle) alludes to The Threepenny Opera: “The river’s running bloody, the tower’s tumbling down / I’m singing ‘Pirate Jenny’ while the Black Ship’s bearing down.” Nick Cave shows up for “Late Victorian Holocaust,” a song about the
Hale Milgrim
heroin euphoria uphoria of a couple of lost London Londdon soul souls. ls A cover of “Venus in Furs” should have been added, and it’s a pity The Glimmer Twins didn’t contribute anything to mark the occasion. But as tears — and years — have gone by, Faithfull has proved to be both an accomplished artist and a sagacious survivor. — Sean Mageean
If you’re a music collector, you already know — great albums really are about the whole package. Thanks to the ongoing vinyl resurgence, much fuss has been made of album art in the last decade. But the love affair between the music industry and the art world goes back much further — even the Grammys have been commemorating achievements in the field since 1959. This week, the folks at AIGA Santa Barbara are looking to delve a little deeper into the audio-tovisual process with an event they’re calling The Art of Music: Translating Sound to Sight. For the unacquainted, AIGA TALKS S.B. is the ’s hometown SIGHTS AND chapter of the American proSOUNDS fessional organization for design, which lays claim to more than 26,000 members nationwide. Small but mighty, it acts as a hub for area graphic artists and designers by hosting events and networking opportunities for members and nonmembers alike. For The Art of Music discussion, they’re inviting some of the music industry’s most knowledgeable players to sit down and talk album covers, gig posters, and illustrations, with the hope of opening up a dialogue about how artists convert songs into something we can see. “I’m a designer and a web developer, and if I could, I would design album covers until the day I die,” laughs AIGA S.B. communications director Keir DuBois, who is helping spearhead the event. On board for the occasion is, as DuBois puts it, “a great cross-generational mix” of talents, including former Capitol Records president Hale Milgrim, former Apple Records art director John Kosh, former CBS Records art director Andy Engel, and current Oniracom CEO Jacob Tell, who will share stories and discuss the process of designing and overseeing music-based artwork. “I still get starry-eyed thinking about what it was like to work somewhere like Capitol Records,” said DuBois, “so we like to draw a balance between inspirational stories for creative professionals and discussing the practicality aspects of the job.” AIGA Santa Barbara presents The Art of Music: Translating Sound to Sight on Thursday, November 6, at the Balboa Building ( State St.) - p.m. Live music, wine, and food are provided with admission. Visit santabarbara.aiga.org for info. — Aly Comingore
AIGA S.B.
M O R E A R T S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T > > > november 6, 2014
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