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Every actor has a role he or she is dying to play: the career-defining character who would mark the pinnacle of dramatic success. Likewise, every theater has one play it hopes to someday produce: the one that seems impossibly out of reach but worth dreaming about anyway. Ask around, and that play is almost […]
Allan Hancock College’s welding shop boasts cold metal tables, concrete floors, intimidating equipment, and scraps of steel. Even a brief visit is enough to reveal: Welding is a dirty job. It’s not a getting-paint-on-your-fingers or getting-clay-on-your-hands kind of dirty, but a blue-collar, middle-class America dirty found in a Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen song. Hancock’s […]
During the Vietnam era, cities across America gave their sons to the war effort. Guadalupe, a small town of only 2,500 citizens in 1970, gave an extraordinary amount for a city of its size. The significance of that contribution changed the town and its residents forever. For decades, Guadalupe’s veterans kept their pain inside, suffering […]
Judy Chapel is experiencing a bit of déja vu. It started when she became an artist. All the joy she found in painting and drawing as a kid came flooding back to her. Art was what she did to have fun with her friends and family. It was what she took classes in when she […]
Some people believe they should’ve been born in a different time or place. Some people simply wish that, but others actually make it happen—at least for a weekend. For those whose heart belongs to the late 1500s or early 1600s, Justin LeCavalier of the Living Knights has brought the English Renaissance to Lompoc. The Lompoc […]
Get wild: Volunteer The Wildling Art Museum has a new, bigger facility and is offering new volunteer opportunities. The new facility at 2928 San Marcos Ave. in Los Olivos has a large gallery, gift shop, education center, and library, and the museum anticipates doubling its attendance within two years. To show off its new facilities […]
They say those who can’t, teach. But Allan Hancock College instructors are turning that cliché on its head and proving they can, by featuring their work in the annual faculty art exhibit at the Ann Foxworthy Gallery. Curated by Gallery Director Marti Fast, the show will feature drawings, paintings, digital media, ceramics, photography, and conceptual […]
Apparently, muses don’t wear watches. At least that’s the case for artist Rocky Stroup, whose muse is a bit of a night owl. The painter, sculptor, and photographer said his inspiration comes to him in the twilight state between dreaming and waking. In that way, his art becomes his tangible dreams, which have given birth […]
Beauty and the Beast. Othello. Les Miserables. They aren’t just world-class productions in London or New York City—they’re productions delighting audiences in the Santa Maria Valley, courtesy of PCPA. Like many other theaters in the country, however, PCPA may not be able to produce such shows for much longer. In fact, the recession has trickled […]
There are fights, and then there are fights. During World War II, Filipino soldiers fought alongside their U.S. counterparts, sharing the same fears, fights, and fates as part of the guerrilla resistance. They were on the front lines of the battle of Corregidor, they fought at Bataan, and they walked in that infamous journey that […]
PCPA Theaterfest will offer two productions in a stage-less play-reading format. InterPlay: The Stage Between gives audiences a chance to hear a play read aloud without the adornments of a full-fledged production. Evie’s Waltz features education and outreach director Leo Cortez as Clay, resident artist Kitty Balay Genge as Gloria, and second-year acting student Michelle […]
Until recently, the outer walls of the Allan Hancock College Atkinson Lifelong Learning Center were bare—a stark contrast to the colorful environment of learning, community, and creativity fostered by the program. Some of the center’s excitement began to spill outside those walls, however, drawing together a group of people and resources that would make it […]
