‘Santa Barbara Independent’s’ 2026 Indy Awards for Theater

Santa Barbara Independent’s
2026 Indy Awards for Theater

Shining a Spotlight on Santa Barbara’s
Dramatic Dynamos and Behind-the-Scenes Superstars

By Leslie Dinaberg | May 28, 2026
Photos by Ingrid Bostrom & Elaine Sanders

“Theater, at its best, is community. A free community,” as playwright Herb Gardner put it. “We get together without projectors, screens, and gimmicks — live people telling other live people a story. Whatever story we please. American theater at its best, at its most alive, is a place of infinite variety. Home of the subversive and the sublime, the maverick and the madman, the inspired and the inspiring, the sage and the clown, and most important, the brave. And the free.”

Santa Barbara’s vibrant and resilient theater community came together last week to honor those ideals at the 2026 Indy Awards. 

Held on Monday, May 18 (a traditionally dark night for theater), at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club, the festive crowd was once again excited to cheer on their fellow artists and theater aficionados in a beloved tradition that began 35 years ago in 1991 when, as Santa Barbara Independent Editor-in-Chief Marianne Partridge explained,former Arts Editor Michael Smith wanted to come up with a way to show our support for the theater community of Santa Barbara. 

This year’s celebration of the Independent’s 40th anniversary “would not have been possible without the support of every single person in the theater community,” said Partridge, the paper’s cofounder. “You gave us so many wonderful stories. It was one of the Independent’s early mandates that we intended that we would do everything we could to support the theater community, and this moment for us to be able to thank you means a lot. … Who doesn’t want to give awards to the people that do the most dangerous, horrible, terrible work in the world, being in the theater? I mean, it’s the worst, and you guys nevertheless have turned out such incredible work. So, we’re all grateful, and that’s why we’re here today.”

Working on the Indy Awards this year — which honored work between April 2025 and April 2026 (with some May high school musical performances) — was yours truly (Leslie Dinaberg, Arts & Culture Editor) and Indy Marketing, Event & Promotions pro Richelle Boyd, with a crackerjack team that included Callie Fausey, Tiana Molony, Terry Ortega, Xavier Pereyra, Sarah Sinclair, and Maggie Yates, with support from EJI Events.

Indy Award–winning artist and two-time Santa Barbara Independent Local Hero Rod Lathim proved himself a hero once again, and served as our dashing emcee for the evening, accompanied by a life-sized shark (embodied by Independent queen of awesomeness Erin Lynch), to make sure that award winners didn’t go over their allotted time for acceptance speeches.

The history of the theater community played a prominent role, with special Curtain Call Awards going to several soon-to-be retired luminaries, including Mark Booher, who is retiring as Artistic Director/Dean of PCPA (Pacific Conservatory Theatre). “It does feel a little odd to get a gift for having received a gift for 27 years of work at PCPA,” said Booher, who will retire in December. “I just want to say, as your creative partners all the way up in North County, we feel great fidelity with you and a bond with the total theater community, and let’s keep doing what we’re doing,” he added. “It’s very hard a lot of the time, and occasionally we get these shiny moments that are delightful, but it’s vital to ourselves, to our communities, and to this civilization. And you all know more than ever, it’s critical right now for us to keep doing the work of artists here locally, but also across our nation.”

Additional Curtain Call Awards went to Rubicon Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns, UCSB Theater & Dance Professor Sean O’Shea, and Pat Frank, who is retiring after 41 years as set designer for the Theatre Group at SBCC. Frank laughed as she acknowledged that she’s been doing Santa Barbara theater one year longer than the Independent. “I want to thank everyone that supports theater. It’s very important in this world that we’re living in right now.”

Also new to the Indy Awards in 2026 were two honors named for former Independent team members. The inaugural Michael Smith Theater Hero Award was given to the Eve Family for their longtime support of Out of the Box Theatre Company. Salli and Irwin Eve have been an integral part of the Out of the Box process since their daughter Samantha founded it in 2009, helping with costuming, props, consulting, and everything in between. You’ve probably spotted them at intermission during shows, selling Sam’s home-baked treats — all for the love of theater. 

Former Independent Arts Editor Michelle Drown, a passionate advocate and cheerleader for high school theater, sadly passed away this year. The inaugural Michelle Drown Student Performance Award, presented by Michelle’s dear friend and theatergoing buddy Terry Ortega, went to Malachi Cottrell of Dos Pueblos, for what she called, “his hilarious performance of the eccentric director in Curtains,” adding, “his command of the director’s scarf was amazing.”

For the first time ever, we gave an award to the hardworking but seldom heralded stage manager Sam Dei Rossi, who has been behind the scenes for many years, making sure things run smoothly at multiple companies. “My running joke is that if I’m on stage, something’s wrong,” she joked during her acceptance. “The other running joke being that you know if the stage manager is good at their job, you don’t really pay any attention to them, so thank you,” she added.

Along with performances from students of Santa Barbara, Dos Pueblos, and San Marcos high schools, almost two dozen people gave entertaining, gracious, charming and heartfelt acceptance speeches full of gratitude to be able to create work they love and have it be recognized and appreciated by our community. 

Lathim capped off the program by saying, “Please keep making theater that enlightens, entertains, sheds light on both the beauty and the brokenness of this chaotic world that we live in. Bertolt Brecht said, ‘Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.’ So, speak up, be heard. The arts will preserve our sanity. We will get through this.”

And on that joyful note — drumroll, please — here is a roll call of this year’s Indy Award Winners. 

Not pictured:

Karyl Lynn Burns, Curtain Call Award, Retiring Artistic Director of Rubicon Theatre Company

Matthew Herman and Mike Billings, Stage Artistry Award, Rubicon Theatre Company’s Bonnie and Clyde

Bethany Thomas, Performance Award,  PCPA’s Songs for Nobodies

Watch the 2026 Indy Awards below: