Sammy Gerraty

February 19, 2016

SBDT’s 40th Anniversary

By Sammy Gerraty

UCSB’s resident dance company, Santa Barbara Dance Theater, celebrated its 40th anniversary in January at the Hatlen Theater with a full-length performance that attracted audience members across four generations. SBDT ...

November 12, 2015

The Venus Hottentot on Parade in the PAT

By Sammy Gerraty

The chorus of “Venus” lined up in the back of the Performing Arts Theatre Friday evening, dressed casually yet aristocratically while flaunting magnificent white judge’s wigs. “HOLD MY WIG” they seemed to say a...

October 21, 2015

ETC Presents Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

By Sammy Gerraty

A dingy, dark and overall dreary set has been constructed in the New Vic theatre for the Ensemble Theatre Company’s (E.T.C.) performances of “Sweeney Todd.” This creepy musical of the demon barber has been immortal...

October 14, 2015

Twyla Tharp’s 50th Anniversary Tour was Incredible Friday Night Fun

By Sammy Gerraty

It could have been the I.V. vibe, or maybe the Twyla Tharp dance company just can’t help having a party onstage to celebrate their 50th Anniversary. Performed at the Granada Theatre Friday night (Oct. 9), each act open...

October 9, 2015

‘Spirit of India’ Brings Santa Barbara Closer to Indian Culture

By Sammy Gerraty

The startling yet welcome sound of children’s laughter mixed with the chuckles of the adult audience members in Campbell Hall at “Spirit of India,” performed by the Bollywood Masala Orchestra and Dancers of India. ...

October 2, 2015

Eddie Pez – Oedipus – Rex in the Park

By Sammy Gerraty

An excited and chattery crowd collected in Anisq’Oyo’ Park Saturday night for the opening show of Shakespeare in the Park’s version of Oedipus — Commedia dell’Arte style. Junior BFA actress, Maddie Martin, perf...

June 5, 2015

Music in Memory | UCSB Remembers Isla Vista 2014 in Concert

By Sammy Gerraty

Two musicians performed silhouetted against the blank cyclorama at the back of Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. Projected upon them as the music started were two halves of a rectangle, one side white and one side black. Follo...

June 5, 2015

Senior Dancers Close Out 2015

By Sammy Gerraty

Thursday night was the last time UCSB’s senior dance majors performed as students of the Theater and Dance Department. Sophomore B.F.A. dance major Rachel Epling arrived fully prepared for the momentous day, with arms ...

June 2, 2015

The Talented Ones

By Sammy Gerraty

Yussef El Guindi’s “The Talented Ones” premiered Thursday night. This show was brought to the Hatlen stage by LAUNCH PAD, a program through which playwrights come to UCSB to create new works. This year was LAUNCH P...

May 21, 2015

Robert T. Johnson Senior Recital

By Sammy Gerraty

Thursday night, I walked into Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall to see Robert T. Johnson’s senior composition recital. When I was handed bubble wrap and a program with “RECESS” instead of “intermission” written in cha...

May 16, 2015

Azeem Ward Dazzles UCSB and International Fanbase

By Sammy Gerraty

This afternoon, outside of Karl Geiringer Hall, a line of Azeem Ward fans snaked through the music building for the esteemed flautist’s senior recital. The hall overflowed, despite attendance being only a fraction of t...

May 13, 2015

UCSB’s Undergraduate Directors Present Dark and Comedic One Acts

By Sammy Gerraty

After seeing the undergraduate-directed One Acts of this spring quarter, you will never be able to un-hear the woeful tuba rendition of “Hot Cross Buns” played by Madison Scarbrough, a junior in the Bachelor of Fine ...

May 13, 2015

Edgar Zendejas’s Common Ground Premieres at the Granada

By Sammy Gerraty

  Last Saturday, the combined efforts of State Street Ballet, Santa Barbara Dance Theater and Eisenhower Dance culminated at the Granada Theatre to create beautiful performance, Common Ground. Each company first per...

March 16, 2015

Joffrey Ballet Continues to Amaze in Santa Barbara

By Sammy Gerraty

After an agonizing separation of three years, the Joffrey Ballet returned to Santa Barbara on Tuesday, March 10 to perform three pieces of recent repertoire. Founded 1956 by Robert Joffrey in New York, the company commen...

March 7, 2015

Shirley Jo Finney and UCSB students bring In the Red and Brown Water to Life

By Sammy Gerraty

“In the Red and Brown Water,” directed by Shirley Jo Finney, opened this past weekend in the Hatlen Theater. The play is chronologically the first of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s ”Brother/Sister Plays,” though it fo...

March 3, 2015

The Vaginas are Coming: Vagina Monologues and HerStories to Hit Campus

By Sammy Gerraty

From an impressive number of synonyms to a Bermuda Triangle analogy, UCSB’s “The Vagina Monologues and Herstories 2015” covers the vagina in no uncertain terms. Whether you’ve wondered what The Talk was like for ...