There’ll be church pews and stacking chairs but no standing room for guests of an intimate concert, set to bring a handful of rock, roots, and country acts to Stone Pine Hall in late December.
With a capacity limit under 100, the historic building—previously a First Church of Christ Scientist Reading Room—is hosting the show to support the ongoing efforts to restore the Lompoc Theatre.
Plans to transform the 1927-established landmark into a new arts and education center have been in the works since 2012, when the Lompoc Theatre Project (LTP) was formed.
“The auditorium won’t be done until 2027, but … our New Year’s resolution is by the end of 2025 to have regular live performances on the Lompoc Theatre stage for the first time in 60 years,” LTP Executive Director Mark Herrier told the Sun.
Between the early ’70s and early ’90s, the venue was primarily used as a movie theater. Herrier, a filmmaker and actor best known for his role as Billy in Porky’s, has fond memories of seeing Saturday matinees there during his childhood.
The Lompoc native said his desire to become an actor stemmed from both his screen and stage outings at the Lompoc Theatre, which he hopes will inspire kids and teens to embrace the arts once it reopens.
“It’s going to provide jobs, and a lot of those jobs are going to be for teenagers and youngsters interested in the arts,” said Herrier, who added that the LTP’s vision for the venue includes mentorship and internship opportunities for youth.
One of the upcoming LTP fundraiser’s featured acts spoke to the Sun about how her childhood experiences were essential as a foundation for her now prolific music career.
“The thing that drew me to music was a recording mic,” rockabilly and roots artist Rosie Flores said. “My dad started recording me and my brother on the kitchen table with a two-track machine starting when I was 6 years old. … I loved singing.”
Known for her solo career and collaborative efforts, Flores got her first experience fronting a live band not long after her brother formed a rock group of his own with some high school buddies.
“His band used to practice in the garage, which was a wall away from my bedroom. … I would just sing along with their band while I was inside my bedroom,” Flores recalled. “They finally said, ‘You want to come out front and sing with us.’ … That was the first time I ever sang in front of a band, and I got hooked.”
On Dec. 28, Flores will ring in the New Year with opening act Grey DeLisle—a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter also widely known for her career in voice acting—at Stone Pine Hall during the LTP fundraiser. Flores will be joined by singer and multi-instrumentalist Eleanor Whitmore and engineer and bassist Dusty Wakeman during her set, while DeLisle will be backed by rock trio Eddie Clendening and the Blue Ribbon Boys.
Although the Lompoc Theatre’s fully realized auditorium space is still a few years away from fruition, LTP’s goal for 2025 to complete the venue’s stage will allow for intimate concerts where the audience will sit onstage with the featured acts as they perform.
“We’re sort of patterning it after the Continental Club … a famous venue in Austin,” Herrier said, and not coincidentally, a favorite of Rosie Flores’, he added.
“The goal is to have a space for really talented artists to do their sets in a very intimate setting,” Herrier said. “We hope to do them quarterly going forward. Whether we’re able to do that or not, we’ll see, but that’s the goal.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood won’t cast the first stone. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 19-29, 2024.