On Entertainment by Steven Libowitz
Digital Arts Festival Takes Center Stage
Harout Aristakessian of Dance With Harout will be the Digital Arts Festival guest on May 14
Steven Libowitz has reported on the arts and entertainment for more than 30 years; he has contributed to the Montecito Journal for more than 10 years.
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Chilean dancer and choreographer Mauricio Vera is on the Digital Arts Festival schedule for May 15
ack in late March, the Center Stage Theater was still hopeful it would be able to present scattered live shows at its “black box” venue in Paseo Nuevo by May, so it was still soliciting true, first-person tales for its periodic performances of “Personal Stories.” But the arts venue eventually accepted our “new reality,” and adjusted the requested submissions to include anything creative, which they thought they might perhaps share with audiences online. Quickly, though, CST again shifted and by April 6 had launched the Digital Arts Festival, which has become perhaps the most pervasive opportunity to not only stay in touch with creatives associated in one way or another with the theater, but also see some of their work and listen to a freshly recorded interview with the principal artist. There’s no live streaming, so no interaction with the audience, but the content is substantial. Each morning, CST adds a post to its new blog (https://centerstag etheatersbdotblog.wordpress.com/ blog-2/) featuring an extensive bio and description of the artist of the
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day and sharing significant samples of their work via pictures and/or video clips. Then at 7 pm, Center Stage updates the post with a link to a Zoom interview with the artist conducted by long-time Santa Barbara theater professional and radio personality Jim Sirianni. The conversations explore the creative process, either in relationship to a specific work or to their overall approach, including what inspires them, what excites them, and how their creative process is being impacted by the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic. Now, CST has extended the festival through at least the end of May, and more likely beyond as they’re still soliciting artists to apply for coverage and seeking out other entertainers or performers to supplement the submissions. The schedule during the first week of May was illustrative of the variety of artists being presented, with a visual artist from choreographer/producer Yulia Maluta, British playwright Kieron Barry, Santa Barbara School of Performing Arts founder-choreographer Dauri Kennedy, UCSB Dance professor
Brandon Whited, UCSB theater/ Launch Pad founder Risa Brainin, and painter and resident artist for the Granada Theatre James Paul Brown. Last Monday featured Daniel French, a music teacher and audio engineer whose Chronosphere Fiction is a storytelling podcast where writers’ creations come to life with sound effects and music. Last week brought an adjustment: the schedule now calls for new postings only Mondays through Fridays rather than seven days a week. But posting only the pre-recorded interviews, albeit earlier in the day, as well as examples of the artists’ work continues to be the entry point rather than live streaming of just the interview, or perhaps a chance for the artist to chat in real time with viewers. “It’s actually better for the performers if it’s recorded,” said Center Stage’s Executive Director Teri Ball, who came up with the idea of the Digital Arts Festival and has worked with CST board members as well as Sirianni in selecting the artists for the series. “There’s a lot less pressure and they can focus on the conversation.” Ball said the interview format is fairly consistent, although Sirianni is free to take the conversations in different directions as the talk progresses. “The idea is to have them talk about their creative process to give audiences a view inside how the artist comes up with and develops their art or performances, something people probably don’t get to see in the final product,” she said. “We’ll ask about the creative process both in general and more specifically how it pertains
to the work we’re showing in the blog. And of course, we’re going to ask how the quarantine has impacted them, and if they are doing anything special in response, and what they think the long-term effect of the pandemic will be on what they produce.”
Win-Win-Win on the Worldwide Web
The series, which zoomed past 35 events this week, has been a big plus for everyone involved, Ball said. “It’s been quite a success for all of us. It’s really helped the theater expand our reach as well as our social media footprint, which will be great going forward. The artists absolutely love having the exposure. And from what we can tell, the audience seems to enjoy it.” Ball pointed to April 30’s entry with a staged reading featuring UCSB Initiative for New & Reimagined Work program as a highlight of the series. Late this winter, the program had staged a workshop production of Ice Breakers, by Nick Freedson, a theater graduate of UCSB who is now a member of Skypilot Theatre company. At Ball’s behest, playwright Freedson returned to the script to make revisions based on the lessons learned from seeing the script performed, and the updated version was performed as a Zoom reading for the Digital Arts Festival. The posting includes both a video of the February workshop production and the new reading where the same actors all performed from their homes. That experience was both exhilarating but also a bit frustrating, Ball said, because of the quirks and limitations of the Zoom platform. “We’re going to experiment with Skype and other software that might have more flexibility and interaction. But as we’re all learning, there’s a technique and well as limitations when you do things online.” As of press time, there were just a 14 – 21 May 2020
