C ALENDAR OF Note to readers: This entertainment calendar is a subjective sampling of arts and other events taking place in the Santa Barbara area for the next week. It is by no means comprehensive. Be sure to read feature stories in each issue that complement the calendar. In order to be considered for inclusion in this calendar, information must be submitted no later than noon on the Wednesday eight days prior to publication date. Please send all news releases and digital artwork to slibowitz@yahoo.com)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Sliding Toward Eradicating Polio – New Orleans native Trombone Shorty began his career as a bandleader at just six years old, was touring internationally by age 12, and spent his teens playing with various brass bands throughout New Orleans, as well as on worldwide concert tours with Lenny Kravitz. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that it’s been just six years since Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue released their debut album, followed by two more in just three years, all of which quickly propelled the funk/rock/jazz/hip-hop band to star status across the land and spots on Leno, Kimmel, and the Grammys. Now the group, which has played memorable performance at both Campbell Hall and Granada Theatre under the auspices of UCSB Arts & Lectures, returns to town for a benefit concert at the area’s largest indoor venue for which all net proceeds are earmarked for Rotary’s End Polio Now program, a global eradication effort. Also performing are The Stone Foxes, the San Francisco “swampy foot-stomping” rock band founded by brothers Shannon (vocals/drums/ harp) and Spence Koehler (guitar/ vocals), who left the Sierra Nevada foothills to attend San Francisco State and never left, organically adding new members as guests who wound up as members. WHEN: 8 pm WHERE: Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St. COST: $38 to $58 INFO: 963-4408/ www.thearlingtontheatre.com or 800745-3000/www.ticketmaster.com
Verdi’s “Mass”-ive Opera – It was the deaths of two men whom the composer Giuseppe Verdi revered – Gioacchino Rossini, sometimes called “The Italian Mozart,” and the nationalist poet and author Alessandro Manzoni – that inspired him to compose a mass for the dead. The Messa da Requiem has been frequently referred to as the “best opera” from one of the preeminent opera composers in history, who create the music for Aida, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Otello, and Falstaff among others. Now 142 years since its premiere in Milan, the Santa Barbara Master Chorale will perform Verdi’s Messa da Requiem this weekend at the sonically blessed First United Methodist Church in Santa Barbara. Soprano Christine Hollinger, alto Danielle Marcelle-Bond, tenor Eduardo Villa, and bass Emil Cristescu serve as featured soloists, conducted by Steven R. Hodson, the Chorale’s artistic director who is past president of the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and a professor of music at Westmont College. WHEN: 7:30 tonight, 3 pm tomorrow WHERE: First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu Street (at Garden St.) COST: $22 general admission, $20 seniors and disabled, $12 college students, children in K-12 free INFO: 455-3276 or www. sbmasterchorale.org
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10 Peek at Bard Week – Westmont College theater arts professors John Blondell and Mitchell Thomas reflect on the lasting legacy of William Shakespeare while previewing Shakespeare@400, a citywide celebration of the author on the 400th anniversary of his death. Santa Barbara will host a series of performances next Thursday through Sunday, November 17-20, by an international coalition of theaters and arts organizations, all celebrating the remarkable life and work of Shakespeare on the milestone anniversary. During the lecture, Blondell and Thomas will share insights into the creative programming of the celebration, which will include works by Shakespeare’s Globe, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Bitola National Theatre of Macedonia, the Lit Moon Theatre Company, and Westmont’s student actors. The festival includes Pop-Up performances and fully-staged works including Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Anthony and Cleopatra and “The Complete Walk”, featuring short films shot where Shakespeare imagined the plays and starring England’s finest actors. Get more details and the complete schedule events online. WHEN: 5:30 pm WHERE: University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street COST: free INFO: 565-6051 or http:// litmoontheatre.com/shakespeare400-santa-barbara-2016
42 MONTECITO JOURNAL
EVENTS by Steven Libowitz
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12 Pythons in Our Presence – As founding members of Monty Python, John Cleese and Eric Idle are unarguably among the godfathers of modern comedy, helping to pioneer an irreverent, absurdist sensibility that is still emulated by comics around the world to this day. Individually, they have written, performed, and produced some of the most beloved and critically acclaimed TV shows, movies, and Broadway musicals of all-time, including Spamalot, A Fish Called Wanda, Fawlty Towers, and The Rutles. Now the living legends of British comedy are out on tour together – billed as “John Cleese & Eric Idle: Together Again At Last… For The Very First Time” – during which they will blend scripted and improvised bits with storytelling, musical numbers, exclusive footage, “aquatic juggling,” and an extended audience Q&A to craft a unique comedic experience with every performance. Will there be any references to Montecito, Cleese’s longtime on-and-off-again home? It takes a village to find out. WHEN: 8 pm WHERE: Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St. COST: $59.50 to $99.50 INFO: 963-4408/www.thearlingtontheatre.com or 800-745-3000/www. ticketmaster.com
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13 Celebration of Life Exhibit & Benefit – Art at the JCC (Jewish Community Center) hosts an opening reception for its Celebration of Life Exhibit & Benefit, a poignant show celebrates the lives of local Holocaust survivors through their own art, and commemorates the important anniversary of Kristallnacht with a fresh approach focused on life and renewal rather than death and destruction. The exhibit features the “Seven Days of Creation” tapestry, a major piece from the studio of Laurie Gross, and includes artwork from local Holocaust survivors and those featured in the Jewish Federation’s Portraits of Survival/ Upstanders Exhibits and Programs: Life Journeys During the Holocaust and Beyond. Long-time Santa Barbara resident and prolific artist Evelyn Gerlach will make her Santa Barbara arts debut. Photographs from survivor Roman Vishniac will also be featured. As part of the exhibition/benefit, local Holocaust survivors Ralph Baxter, Freddy Caston, Erika Kahn, Edith Ostern, Bernie Penner, Maria Segal, and Margaret Singer, as well as other known artists, have been commissioned to create 8x8” canvasses that will be for sale at $54 each. Proceeds will benefit the Portraits of Survival/Upstanders Exhibits and Programs: Life Journeys During the Holocaust and Beyond, which has welcomed more than 7,000 visitors since its inception in November 2003. The number 54 is a multiple of 18, which is the Hebrew word for chai, meaning life. As a centerpiece of the show is the seven-panel tapestry titled Seven Days of Creation – an intricately woven and embroidered masterpiece
• The Voice of the Village •
that spans more than 10 feet tall and approximately 30 feet wide. WHEN: Reception 1 to 3 pm; Exhibit continues through December 1 WHERE: Jewish Federation’s Bronfman Family Jewish Community Center, 524 Chapala St COST: free INFO: 957-1115 or www. jewishsantabarbara.org WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Help Him Make it through the Night – Kris Kristofferson was raised in a military family in Texas, spent time as a Golden Gloves boxer who also studied creative writing at Pomona College, then earned a Rhodes scholarship to study literature at Oxford before serving in the Army as an Airborne Ranger helicopter pilot who achieved the rank of captain. But at an early crossroads in 1965, he turned down an assignment to teach at West Point and – inspired by such songwriters as Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, with whom he would later join in the outlaw country music supergroup The Highwaymen – moved to Nashville to pursue his music. It took awhile for Kristofferson to find success, but by the early 1970s he’d penned such chart-topping hit songs as “Me and Bobby McGee”, “Help Me Make It Through the Night”, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, and “For the Good Times”, all of which helped redefine country songwriting. By 1987, it was estimated that more than 450 artists had recorded Kristofferson’s compositions. Now 80, Kristofferson has spent most of the last two decades back to his solo roots, a singer-songwriter out on the road accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar and harmonica. Reports indicate that his raspy baritone struggles even more to hit the right notes, but 10 – 17 November 2016