Summer Sessions Events

Free Summer Film Series: Those Fabulous Fifties!!

July 5th - August 23, 2019

UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture present the return of Santa Barbara’s FREE outdoor Summer Film Series with Those Fabulous Fifties!! The films screen under the stars on Friday evenings at 8:30 p.m. at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden. Bring blankets, low-to-the-ground chairs, a picnic and your friends!

Roman Holiday

Fri, July 5 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

A bored and sheltered princess (Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning American debut) escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman (Gregory Peck) in a storybook romance in Rome.

North by Northwest

Fri, Jul 12 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

A New York City advertising executive (Cary Grant) goes on the run with the beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies.

Rebel Without a Cause

Fri, Jul 19 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

Troubled teen Jim Stark (James Dean) comes to a new town, befriends the local gang leader’s girlfriend Judy (Natalie Wood), and is challenged to a drag race where the real trouble begins.

Some Like It Hot

Fri, Jul 26 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

Two male musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) masquerade as women to elude a mob hit, fleeing the state and befriending a beautiful singer (Marilyn Monroe), but further complications set in.

On the Waterfront

Fri, Aug 9 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

Ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) teams up with a murder victim’s sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint), and a streetwise priest (Karl Malden) to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.

High Noon

Fri, Aug 16 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

A town marshal (Gary Cooper) must face a gang of deadly killers alone at high noon, despite the protests of his newlywed bride Amy (Grace Kelly).

Sunset Boulevard

Fri., Aug 23 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden

A struggling young screenwriter (William Holden) develops a dangerous relationship with faded film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who is determined to make a triumphant return.

Archived Events

September 14, 2018
7:30pm
UCSB Studio Theater

Launch Pad: Brian Otano

The Ocean At Your Door

The Ocean At Your Door: 1977: Linda and Jack, both 16, seek help from Jack’s father after Linda wards off a vicious attack perpetrated by her mother’s boyfriend. When Jack fails to convince his father to intervene, he takes matters into his own hands, setting the stage for an encounter that will forever change the course of his and Linda’s lives. 2019: Sheepshead Bay has disintegrated into a lawless disaster area due to tidal encroachment. Oscar and Gertie Linares remain, clinging to an outdated idea of home and to the ghosts that watch over them. When their son JP and his wife Allison return to Sheepshead Bay, they discover a corpse buried under the family pool, opening a decades-old wound. Gertie and JP must face down the legacy of violence that they share with the ghosts next door and decide whether they will escape Sheepshead Bay and start a new life on higher ground or remain and face their fate. Directed by Julie Fishell.

Brian Otaño grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where he worked as a playwright and a scenic artist at the Metropolitan Opera for nine years before moving to LA. His plays include Tara (podcast recording, The Parsnip Ship), The Dooley Street Trilogy (Atlantic Theater Latino Mixfest, Amoralists' Amoralfest 2014) and Zero Feet Away (Roundabout Underground Series). His work has been performed, developed and workshopped with NYTW, Roundabout Theatre Company, Page 73, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, New Dramatists, INTAR, LAByrinth, LARK Play Development Center, The Amoralists, The Attic Theater Company, Judson Memorial Church and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Residencies/Fellowships: Disney/ABC TV Writing Fellowship (Alternate), NHMC TV Writers Fellowship, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group, New York Theater Workshop 2050 Fellowship, New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship, ArsNova’s Playgroup. Education: BFA, Dramatic Writing (SUNY Purchase).

September 8, 2018
12:30pm
UCSB Studio Theater

Launch Pad: Katie Bender

The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes

The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes is based on the historically documented group of women, children and slave people who survived the battle of the Alamo. It’s an epic historical drama told by a diverse ensemble of people who didn’t make it into the history books. It’s an intimately drawn look at the surprising alliances necessary to survive the shifting rule of Mexico’s fledgling democracy. Directed by Julie Fishell.

Katie Bender is a playwright and theater maker. Her plays include Still Now, The Fault, One Night Only as well as collaborative work with Underbelly. Her work has been developed or produced at The New Harmony Project, Kitchen Dog, The Orchard Project, Shrewd Productions, New Victory LabWorks, Icicle Creek Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, ZACH Theatre, Heart and Dagger and The Playwrights’ Center, where she was a 2016-2017 Jerome Fellow. On the 2015 Kilroys List, a finalist for the inaugural Shakespeare’s Sister Fellowship, and a 2017 Jerome travel grant recipient, she is currently playwright-in-residence at the Susanna Dickinson Museum. MFA: UT Austin.

August 30, 2018
7:30pm
UCSB AD&A Museum

Launch Pad: Cheryl L. West

The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963

The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 is based on the novel by Christopher Paul Curtis. The play focuses on a buoyant, loving Michigan family of five who travel south to Alabama during the turbulent summer of 1963, a time of racially motivated upheaval and civil unrest. Ten year old Kenny is conflicted about this family vacation to grandmas, for Kenny tends to get a little anxious about most changes to his routine. Yet, he will soon learn - after a horrific event that will rock the town as well as the country - that he’s more courageous than he ever thought himself capable. Directed by Risa Brainin.

Cheryl L. West’s plays have been seen in England, off-Broadway, on Broadway (Play On!) and in numerous regional theaters around the country. Her plays include Shout Sister Shout, Akeelah and the Bee, Pullman Porter Blues, and Jar the Floor. She has written TV and film projects at Disney, Paramount, MTV Films, Showtime, TNT, HBO, CBS and is the Webby-nominated writer for the original web series Diary of a Single Mom. Ms. West is currently working on commissions for Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Children’s Theater, Minneapolis Children’s theater, and Seattle Children’s Theater.

August 17, 2018
8:30pm

Free Summer Film Series: Animated Nights

July 6th - August 22, 2018

UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture present the return of Santa Barbara’s FREE outdoor Summer Film Series with Animated Nights! The films screen indoors on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at UCSB Campbell Hall. Outdoor screenings take place under the stars on Friday evenings at 8:30 p.m. at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden.

19th Annual Animation Show of Shows
(Note: No screening at UCSB Campbell Hall due to July 4 holiday)
Fri, July 6 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
For nearly 20 years, the Animation Show of Shows has selected the best in animated short films from the world’s most renowned animation festivals and presented these new and innovative short films to audiences around the world. This year’s lineup offers a wealth of humor, insight and profundity with 16 exceptional and inspiring animated shorts.

The Triplets of Belleville
Wed, Jul 11 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
Fri, Jul 13 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
The Triplets of Belleville is a wildly inventive and highly original animated feature crowded with colorful characters and fantastic imagery. Kidnapped by mysterious, square-shouldered henchmen, a Tour de France cyclist named Champion is spirited across the ocean to the teeming metropolis of Belleville.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wed, Jul 18 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
Fri, Jul 20 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
In this Academy Award-winning clay-animated adventure, Wallace and Gromit set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, but with only days to go, the enterprising pair finds it hard to manage all the captive rabbits taking over West Wallaby Street. Can Wallace and Gromit save the day?

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wed, Jul 25 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
Fri, Jul 27 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
In this hilarious and heartwarming animated adventure from visionary director Wes Anderson, the urbane Mr. Fox cannot resist returning to his sneaky, farm-raiding old ways and plots the greatest chicken heist the animal world has ever seen.

Ratatouille
Wed, Aug 1 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
(Note: No Courthouse screening due to Old Spanish Days Fiesta)
In this break-through computer-animated comedy, Remy (Patton Oswalt) dreams of becoming a renowned French chef who can create and enjoy culinary masterpieces to his heart’s delight. The only problem is, Remy is a rat.

The Iron Giant
Wed, Aug 8 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
Fri, Aug 10 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
In this beloved and critically acclaimed animated feature, an inquisitive young boy named Hogarth Hughes forms a powerful friendship with a gentle robot visitor from outer space. An adaptation of Ted Hughes’ Cold War fable, the film follows the adventures of Hogarth and the Iron Giant as they try to save the misunderstood giant machine from destruction by a paranoid government agent.

Persepolis
Wed., Aug 15 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
Fri., Aug 17 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
Based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her life in pre and post-revolutionary Iran and then in Europe, the French-Iranian animated film Persepolis traces Satrapi’s growth from a precocious and outspoken 9-year-old to a rebellious, punk-loving teenager in Iran.

Loving Vincent
Wed, Aug 22 / 7:30 PM / UCSB Campbell Hall
Fri, Aug 24 / 8:30 PM / Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden
The world’s first fully oil painted feature film, this one-of-a-kind biopic examines the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, told by his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them.