Selene Kalra is an Environmental Studies exchange student from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who found her passion in the Jazz program in UCSB Music Department.
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Theater and Dance Department
The newly opened exhibit Creative Currents: Student Expression in the Arts at UC Santa Barbara’s Sara Miller McCune Arts Library showcases decades of student creativity, spanning from 1960 to 2017. Curated by graduate student Carlyle Constantino, the exhibit highlights emotionally resonant works while exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the evolving role of curation in amplifying historically overlooked voices.
UCSB English student and actor-turned-director Curran Seth made his directorial debut with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, collaborating with the UCSB Music Department and Shrunken Heads Production Company to bring the dark, character-driven story to life. Emphasizing emotional depth over technical precision, Seth guided his cast—many of whom were primarily singers—to tap into their characters' psychology, resulting in a raw and immersive production.
Five years after COVID-19’s initial outbreak across the U.S., Letty García, Nomi Morris and Nathan Roberts from the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts gathered to unpack its impacts on film, the performing arts, writing and academia for a UC Santa Barbara audience. While quarantine fostered artistic innovation and collective creativity, it also transformed university students in both positive and negative ways, according to the speakers.
UC Santa Barbara alumna Delaney Shanley has gone from an aspiring young dancer to a professional performer in an NFL arena as a rookie Raiderette. In a recent interview, Delaney reflected on her early dance inspirations and how her experiences majoring in Dance at UCSB helped her secure her spot on her dream team.
UCSB English, Dance and Black Studies Professor Stephanie Batiste lead a post-screening Q&A with world-renowned movement duo Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and Jon Boogz in UCSB's Pollock Theater about their careers and Netflix documentary “Move.” The duo seeks to give a voice to the voiceless and use movement to heal painful emotions, offering their audiences a story within their dance.
As part of his senior directing concentration, UCSB student Alex Guaydacan tackled his biggest project yet: solo directing “The Incident Report” for the Fall One Acts. In an interview, he reflects on the directing process, from navigating friendships with cast members to building confidence as a director. Guaydacan speaks about the process of bringing his vision to life for UCSB’s annual theater showcase.
UC Santa Barbara students recently took to the stage in an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing through the Naked Shakes theater program. They brought their own interpretations to Shakespeare’s work under the direction of UCSB Theater professor Irwin Appel. The actors explored the impact of spoken word, delighting several audiences over the course of an October weekend.
Spring One-Acts, an annual UCSB student director-led event, featured three one-act plays individually directed by senior Theater students, who each took several months to create and direct their plays, providing a night of provocative entertainment for the audience.
UCSB’s Department of Music hosted an Opera Gala last month, showcasing the talents of UCSB and Ventura College students in three separate performances: one at UCSB, one at Ventura College and an abridged version at the Casa Dorinda retirement community. The primary focus of the Gala was six opera singers, all graduate students in UCSB’s music department. The event also featured a chorus, orchestra, and dancers .
Stained Glass Productions, a new student-run theater collective at UC Santa Barbara, staged its first production, "Seasons of Broadway: A Cabaret," hoping to give students more opportunities to perform musical theater. The ensemble of 16 students performed from multiple renowned musicals, all songs falling into the theme of fall, winter, spring, or summer.
UCSB Theater and Dance professor Ninotchka Bennahum and Bruce Robertson, emeritus professor in History of Art and Architecture, conceived the exhibit Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900–1955. The exhibit examines how artists of color and indigenous artists had a deep impact on dance as an art form. It is running concurrently at UCSB’s Art and Architecture Museum and the New York Public Library.
UC Santa Barbara's Theater and Dance department recently put on a LAUNCHPAD Preview Production of Everybody's Favorite Mothers, a new play by James Still, directed by Risa Brainin, professor and chair of the department. The play explores LGBTQ activism in the early 70s through a mother and son relationship, based on real people Morty and Jeanne Manford, who made history when they walked together in what became the first Gay Pride Parade.
Students of Theatre and Dance and the UCSB Amplify Initiative presented the Amplify Drag Festival, the first undergraduate drag show UC Santa Barbara has seen in half a decade. The night of theatrical fantasy and radical self-expression sought to define how queer expression exists on this campus.
Musician and composer Gene Coleman spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience about his work in Neuro Music. With compositions inspired by the brain’s auditory pathways, Coleman studies music from a neuroaesthetic perspective for creative production.
Richard Croy, the new production and events manager for UCSB’s Music department, sat down for a Q&A to discuss his experience in theater and producing, as well as his plans to revitalize Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall.
UCSB Theater and Dance department welcomed students back with The Death of Kings, directed and adapted by Irwin Appel. The Death of Kings combines Shakespeare's history plays, creating a 400-year timeline. The play features stage combat, live music composition, and more. Over the summer, the cast closed the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival with this production.
UC Santa Barbara 2023 graduate Nina Lopez choreographed three numbers for the Spring Dance Recital “VITALITY.” She was one of five senior students who choreographed the showcase. She recently sat down for an interview to discuss her background in dance and what the future holds for her.
UCLA Classics professor Ella Haselswerdt said that the chorus from the Greek Tragedy Agamemnon gradually transforms from a distant bystander to an active participant in the play’s action, at an event sponsored by UCSB’s Classics and Theater and Dance departments. She said that this metamorphosis is “unparalleled” in surviving Greek Tragedy.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of students across the UCSB campus. The following story tied for second place in the prose category.