ON Culture | An Artful Abundance of Entertainment Options

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on August 13, 2024. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

ON the Stage

I’ve seen some really great theater lately — PCPA’s two summer musicals, Little Shop of Horrors and Cabaret were exceptionally good — which makes me even more excited than usual for what we’ve got coming our way. Once, the musical based on the excellent 2007 film written and directed by John Carney, and which was done very well by Out of the Box Theatre Company last year, opens this week at the Rubicon Theatre and I can’t wait to see their interpretation of this lovely show. Following Once, the Rubicon’s 26th season looks very promising, kicking off in December with A Cowboy Lullaby, followed by August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, and Constellations, directed by Jonathan Fox, who was the Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre Company for close to two decades.

Maggie Yates wrote a nice preview about ETC’s upcoming season (click here), which kicks off, quite fittingly, in October with Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. Next up is the musical Million Dollar Quartet, featuring an impromptu jam session with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records. Oh to be a fly on the wall for that one! Then we’ve got Hamlet, Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, and the Southern California premiere of a new work about the relationships between Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, called Justice: A New Musical. Individual tickets for these shows, as well as 2024/25 season tickets, are available for purchase at etcsb.org.

Get a taste of what the Santa Barbara Symphony has in store for us in 2024/25 at the free season preview event on Thursday, September 26, from 5 – 6:15 p.m. at the Lobero. Kicking off with a welcome reception on the promenade at 4:30 p.m., the festivities then move inside at 5 p.m., where Music & Artistic Director Nir Kabaretti will share his inspirations for The Symphony’s 72nd season lineup. The program also features guest artist interviews and live musical performances by Amy Tatum, Principal Flute, and Natasha Kislenko, Principal Keyboard. Single tickets are now on sale (see thesymphony.org) for what Kabaretti describes as “a season filled with rich and culturally expansive experiences.” Highlights include guest appearances by Spanish guitar virtuoso Pablo Sáinz-Villegas and famed American violinist Gil Shaham, as well as an homage to the late Emma Lou Diemer.

Speaking of the Santa Barbara Symphony, they’ve got a busy month ahead. These musicians are also part of the incredibly talented lineup for the benefit One805LIVE! show on Friday, September 20 at Kevin Costner’s oceanside estate in Summerland. Opening the show will be Costner himself, with his band Modern West, as well as headliners Pink and Dallas Green (You + Me), Kenny Loggins, Alan Parsons, Joe Bonamassa, Richard Marx, Jordan Asher Huffman, Al Stewart, Alyssa Bonagura, and Plastic Harpoons. It promises to be quite the soirée — all in support of the first responders of Santa Barbara County. A few tickets are still available, see one805.org for details. Also in the fundraising mix this year is very swanky online auction featuring a third-phase prototype Ferrari LaFerrari (I don’t know much about cars, but this looks very dreamy), a dinner party at Lucky’s with Troy Aikman, a day at the Masters Golf Tournament, and much more. Click here to view the auction, which is going on now.

Later this month I’ll be heading to Dana Point for the Ohana Festival, with Pearl Jam, Sting, Alanis Morrisette, Devo, and the Turnpike Troubadours among the amazing list of headliners. Read my preview here. We’ve had some pretty great music in our own backyard recently too. Check out our reviews of Trombone Shorty, Lauren Daigle, John Fogerty, Gary Clark Jr., Toad the Wet Sprocket, Kings of Leon, Rebelution, Jon Batiste, and Jackson Browne from recent weeks.

ON the Walls

Artist Keith Puccinelli was truly one-of-a-kind, and the new, lovingly curated by Meg Linton, exhibition at UCSB’s Art Design & Architecture (AD&A) Museum, POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli is a wonderful testament to Keith’s talent and quirky worldview. I got to know Keith and his wonderfully warm wife Fran a bit when I was the editor of Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine, and we did a few stories together, as well as some fun YouTube videos (note, one of those way-back-when stories was written by Josef Woodard, who also contributed the music for the aforementioned video and this one). Read Woodard’s cover story here and see Ingrid Bostrom’s great photos of the opening here. And don’t miss this exhibition, which is free to the public and will remain on view through December 15.

I’m looking forward to this weekend’s pop-up art event, “The Pink of the Moment,” created and curated by veteran Ojai artist Cassandra C. Jones, whose clean and colorful digital art will be featured along with 13 other artists. Get the details here.

Explore Ecology’s excellent environmental education programs are the beneficiaries of this weekend’s annual showcase of the work of SCAPE (Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment). Taking place at Music Academy of the West, Central Coast Reflections opens on Friday, September 13 at 2:30 p.m., with a catered reception from 5-6:30 p.m. Attendees can look forward to a special painting demonstration by renowned artist Kevin Gleason on Saturday, September 14 at noon. The exhibition will also be open on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The juror for this year’s exhibit is Tom Henderson, a well-known artist and a member of the Oak Group. Some of his work will also be on display. “Working with SCAPE is a perfect fit for our aligned missions. Every piece of art sold at the show will not only bring beauty to your life, it will also positively impact children in schools throughout the County who benefit from our programming, including environmental and watershed education, school gardens, art from scrap, and the EE Makerspace,” said Lindsay Johnson, Executive Director at Explore Ecology. See scape.wildapricot.org for more information.

Inspired by the beauty and ecological importance of the coral reefs, husband-wife artists David Gallup and Nansi Bielanski Gallup have a stunning new exhibition at California Nature Art Museum. A Deeper Love: New Paintings Inspired by Coral Reefs opens on Saturday, September 14, and is an artistic examination into some of the ocean’s most vibrant, ecologically productive, and fragile landscapes throughout the world. See calnatureartmuseum.org for more info. On view through February 24, 2025, the Museum will also have Fig Mountain Brewing Co. in Buellton host a special Coral Reef Trivia Night on September 24, in honor of the exhibit.

Marcia Burtt Gallery at 517 Laguna St. in Downtown Santa Barbara has consistently lovely work by gallery artists. The current show, Flora — celebrating the color of petals and leaves, intricate lines of branches, and the warmth of sunlight as it illuminates the flower beds, lush retreats, and wild spaces that sustain us — is on view through October 13.

ON the Calendar

Music, poetry, and visual arts converge in an evening of artistic fusion at the Community Arts Workshop on September 21, when Esteban Ramirez unveils his second poetry collection, Welcome Home — The Poetry Book. He’ll bring his poetry to life through live readings from his book and piano/cello performances of the very music that inspired his words, all while showcasing the book’s illustrations. This free event will begin with a mixer at 4 p.m.; the concert starts at 5 p.m. and concludes at 6 p.m. Click here for more information.  

For a complete calendar of events this week and beyond, visit independent.com/events/.