Shining a Light on Santa Barbara’s Nonprofit Theater Over the Past Four Decades

The Santa Barbara Independent is celebrating its 40th year of publication. The paper has become known over these past four decades as both a news source and a champion of the arts. Indeed, it has served the arts community in Santa Barbara well — particularly during the tenure of Arts Editor Leslie Dinaberg.

I was honored to be asked to host the Indy Awards again this year. Having spent 47 years working in the nonprofit theater world, I felt it was important, during this landmark moment for the paper, to look back and acknowledge some of the nonprofit theater organizations that have made significant cultural contributions to Santa Barbara’s theater scene. I’ve chosen to focus specifically on nonprofit theater organizations for a number of reasons. The first being, that‘s where my own experience lies.

There are many institutional and educationally based theaters in our community that contribute generously to the landscape of local stage work. Their productions are often rich, grand, and expansive. Santa Barbara City College has a strong track record of producing large-scale summer musicals that often sell out three-week runs, and I’ve had the joy of performing in several of those productions. But without the institutional foundation and support of the college — its facility, staff, and physical and technical resources — those productions would be nearly impossible in today’s economy.

Nonprofit theaters, on the other hand, must start from the ground up — with a concept, an idea, and a vision — they begin with little more than passion and determination. They have no theater building, rehearsal space, paid staff, physical resources, costume shop, scene shop, or built-in box office.

Building a theater company from the ground up takes an inordinate amount of blood, sweat, and tears. Yet Santa Barbara has been blessed with countless artists and companies who have invested their time, passion, and talents to create successful operations that have impacted not only local audiences, but in some cases even national and international audiences.

For a town the size of Santa Barbara, that is quite an achievement.

Over the past four decades, the sheer volume of production work in Santa Barbara — both established works and innovative original productions — has been staggering. Many of these efforts have gone unnoticed by the broader public and, at times, by the Indy Awards. Of course, there are only so many awards to be given, and certainly the people creating theater in nonprofit settings are not doing it to win recognition.

They do it because they believe in the art form.

They believe in the power of theater to inspire social change, to comment on our world, and to enrich the lives of both the artists creating the work and the audiences experiencing it. Santa Barbara is richer for these efforts.

From a purely economic perspective, nonprofit theater companies have also had a significant positive impact on our local economy. While many companies survive on volunteer labor, a considerable number of artists and professionals have been hired and supported through these productions. These include playwrights, composers, lyricists, choreographers, set designers, costume designers, technical directors, crew members, technicians, publicists, development professionals, actors, and musicians.

Over the decades, I have had the privilege of watching many nonprofit theater companies rise, struggle, innovate, and leave lasting marks on our community. What follows is not a complete accounting, but a sampling of companies whose contributions deserve recognition in this moment of reflection.

As I highlight seven companies in this editorial (in alphabetical order), it will become evident just how many people have been touched by performances created in our small slice of paradise — and beyond.

Access Theatre — the nation’s first fully accessible theater, integrating the talents of artists living with and without disabilities — was founded here in Santa Barbara in 1979.

During its 18-year history, it evolved from a volunteer company into a professional theatre producing primarily original plays and musicals. In addition to mainstage productions at the Lobero and Center Stage Theater, Access offered youth productions, acting classes, and the Young Playwrights Festival.

I founded Access Theatre after departing the University of Kansas in 1979, and it was one of the great honors of my life to collaborate with more than 400 artists and tour our productions across the United States — from the Doolittle and Tiffany Theaters in Los Angeles to The Kennedy Center.

The headquarters of the National Association of Theatre and Accessibility was housed at Access. Our best-known original production, Storm Reading, toured internationally for six years and was filmed for television at the Lobero in 1996.

The company received the Princess Grace Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award in 1985, presented by HSH Prince Albert and Frank Sinatra. Cynthia Wisehart’s book Storms and Illuminations: 18 Years of Access Theatre documents its legacy.

Access Theatre’s productions were ultimately seen by literally millions of people on stages and screens worldwide.

Boxtales Theatre Company, founded by Joseph Velasco, Michael Katz, and Michael Andrews in 1994, has now been in operation for more than three decades and continues to produce innovative works and student workshops.

Their mission is to bring myths and folktales from around the world to young audiences through masks, movement, music, and a highly physical style of storytelling. To date, 35 artists have been involved in their productions, which have reached audiences totaling approximately 600,000.

The company is especially known for its unique theatrical vocabulary and highly physical storytelling style. Highlights include their production of The Odyssey, which used cloth, acoustic instruments, and intricate headgear to portray Homer’s epic journey. Another memorable production was Om, an Indian tale of good and evil based on the Hindu epic Ramayana.

DramaDogs, founded by Ken Gilbert and E. Bonnie Lewis (co-artistic directors), Erica Connell (co-founder), and Michelle Osborne (founding member), began operations in 1993 and continues to this day.

The company originally operated as a.k.a. Theater Productions before evolving into Slightly Askew Players in its earlier years, ultimately becoming DramaDogs.

Their mission is to create innovative, body-centered theater that explores the depths of human relationships and illuminates the extraordinary situations that define our shared human experience. Productions often feature multimedia and live musical accompaniment.

Between five and 20 artists are involved in each production, and across their 30 productions to date, they have reached audiences numbering more than 5,500.

DramaDogs has also been recognized for its commitment to accessibility, receiving the Brick-by-Brick Award for incorporating ASL interpretation, audio description, and LED subtitles into their productions. They were recently acknowledged by Monique Limón for their 30-year contribution to the theater community.

Their collaborations have included Women’s History Month, S.B. Reads at the Santa Barbara Public Library, and Climate Change Theatre Action — demonstrating how theater can remain deeply engaged with contemporary civic and social conversations.

Dramatic Women, founded by Bob Potter and Ellen Anderson, operated from 1993 to 2017 as an all-volunteer company. It was created to explore and promote the participation of women in all areas of theater, while also producing original scripts by locally based writers.

Over the course of its history, Dramatic Women produced new works by 30 playwrights, 21 of whom were women. The company also featured 31 directors, 22 of whom were women. They produced plays Off-Off-Broadway with New York’s Flying Fig Theatre Company, most notably at the New York City Tenement Museum.

Standout productions included One Night Stands, featuring works by seven women playwrights; Last Days of the Empire by Bob Potter; and Bedtime in Detroit by Ellen Anderson. Their productions involved dozens of local actors and reached more than 4,500 audience members.

It is worth noting that today, approximately 31 percent of plays produced in regional theaters are written by women. Forty years ago, that number was closer to 5 percent. Dramatic Women played an important role in helping shift that landscape and in championing women artists in theater.

I was fortunate to have Dramatic Women produce the first staging of my autobiographical play Unfinished Business, which later continued with two fully staged and expanded productions at the Lobero Theatre.

Ensemble Theatre Company is a local nonprofit theater company founded by Joseph Hanreddy in 1978 as Ensemble Project with performances at Trinity Episcopal Church, moving to the Alhecama Theater in 1981. In 2013, it relocated to The New Vic and now has a substantial budget and a generous, well-resourced board that has helped sustain its operations over the years. It is regularly recognized by the Indy Awards for outstanding work.

I have fond memories of Ensemble’s earlier years — when they boasted a resident acting company of familiar local actors (whom audiences loved returning to see again and again) alongside professional guest artists in the intimate Alhecama Theatre.

Kudos to the leadership of Joseph Hanreddy and Robert Grande Weiss for their passionate support of local theater and artists. I do miss those earlier days.

Lit Moon Theatre Company was founded 35 years ago and is still going strong. Founders John Blondell, Matt Tavianini, David Clements, and Colleen Hennen created a professional, independent laboratory theater company that integrates aesthetic experimentation with cross-cultural interaction and understanding.

Its mission is to offer theatrical experiences that broaden and deepen understanding of world theater and cultural traditions. More than 100 artists have been involved in its original and established productions, and audiences have numbered over 15,000.

Lit Moon is best known for its innovative and alternative approaches to the classics, its use of live original music, and its choreographic, image-based visual performance style.

Truly an international company, Lit Moon has appeared in 42 international festivals and produced the Lit Moon World Theatre Festival from 1998 to 2010. Highlight productions include Alice in Wonderland, The Master and Margarita, Peer Gynt, Richard II, Hamlet, and King Lear.

Lit Moon continues to create new work and tour in Europe, and will have a work in residence in Armenia in the summer of 2027.

The Santa Barbara Shakespeare Festival was founded by Sean O’Shea, Ivan Pelly, Nick Beeson, Jimmy Young, and Kathy Biesinger. The company was established in 1992 and operated for six years, with the goal of producing the works of William Shakespeare.

And while the Bard may not suit everyone’s tastes, this company celebrated Shakespeare’s masterpieces with gusto, reaching audiences of more than 4,000. They produced 26 productions, including touring shows, demonstrations, and lectures at local elementary schools. More than 300 artists were involved over the company’s six-year run.

O’Shea once commented, “I think it is notable that we survived for as long as we did, and that the company ran in the black right up until the end.”

Then there are the local artists who, over the years, have independently written, produced, and performed their own distinctive theatrical works — artists such as Nancy Nufer, Scott DeVine, Elaine Gale, Wendy Kout, and Kieron Barry, to name just a few.

And now a new generation is emerging.

Up-and-coming artists like Dillon Yuhasz, who received this year’s “Ones to Watch” Indy Award for his fresh, innovative, and hilarious solo play The Story of War, remind us that the future of local theater remains full of possibility. His show will return to the Community Arts Workshop (CAW) this August.

This is by no means a comprehensive accounting of the theater artists and companies — past and present — whose work has enriched Santa Barbara. There are many more deserving of acknowledgment.

Though economic times remain challenging for nonprofit theater, I remain hopeful that the artists emerging from our high schools, colleges, and local stages will continue to keep us entertained, challenged, and inspired.

Theater must continue to play its critically important role in sustaining our sanity and emotional balance, while shining light on both the beauty and the brokenness of the chaotic world in which we live.

I encourage everyone to support local theater generously and help it thrive.

Rod Lathim is a fourth generation Santa Barbaran who has written, directed, and produced theater since 1979. In addition to helming Access Theatre, he has served on the boards of The Lobero, Center Stage, and Boxtales theatres. Rod oversaw the development and restoration of The Marjorie Luke Theatre as the Founding Board President. His newest book chronicling his spiritual and artistic paths Finding The Divine Child – A Journey of Spirit, Light and Art was published this past February. He continues to direct and produce original theater works and concerts.