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Local Legends
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Layman Leaves a Lasting Legacy After 24 Years at SBHS Theater Helm “Spirituality Matters” highlights two or three Santa Barbara area spiritual gatherings. Unusual themes and events with that something extra, especially newer ones looking for a boost in attendance, receive special attention. For consideration for inclusion in this column, email slibowitz@yahoo.com.
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MONTECITO JOURNAL16 “He who laughs last didn’t get the joke.” – Charles de Gaulle
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If things were different, if the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 hadn’t turned into a global pandemic shutting down almost everything across the world, this would have been a weekend of wonder for Otto Layman. The theater director had planned a big blowout of a show to serve as his crowning achievement in a career that spanned just shy of a quarter-century at Santa Barbara High School. Bells would be ringing, and not just to herald the final production of Layman’s distinguished decades, but also because that show that would have opened on campus on Friday night was the musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, complete with a set, as with nearly all of Layman’s shows, that would rival most anything this side of Broadway, including a working bell tower for Quasimodo to operate.
As it is, of course, there will be no final show. The school is shuttered, the students all practicing remote learning via Zoom while sheltering in place, unable to gather in person because of social distancing. There are no long days and evenings of rehearsals, no jitters about opening night, and no moments anticipating the final curtain on the last night, when Layman and his remarkable staff would have bid farewell to this year’s graduating seniors with certificates and smiles, and lowered the curtain on his career.
But even if the light will never go up for Notre Dame, the sun is still setting on Layman’s SBHS career. Which makes it a poignant moment to pause and reflect on such accomplishments as rescuing a program in shambles and turning it into the most respected public high school theater in the area, one that has produced exclusively musicals in the past decadeOtto Layman celebrates closing night, Big Fish 2014
plus. It’s a legacy that boasts serving as the first high school in the country to mount student productions of Spamalot, Bullets Over Broadway, and Head over Heels, and one of the few to produce Chicago without any cuts. It includes shaping the pre-professional careers of three musical theater kids from Montecito – Evan Hughes, Jana McIntyre, and Geoff Hahn – who have gone on to rewarding careers in opera, and so many more too numerous to list.
But as much as Layman is leaving behind mentorships and magnificent musicals, he’s also taking with him moments of connection and ongoing relationships with his students, their families, and the communities that have no end date.
Layman looked back at his years at SBHS – which began after he earned a masters in education at UCSB following years as an actor and writer with the Ensemble Theatre of Santa Barbara in its early days – over the phone during a break from cleaning out his office at the Anapamu Street campus.
“I’ve been going through twenty-five years of ghosts,” he said, staring at the now-bare walls that once displayed posters from his 50-plus productions. “I’m still waking up at three in the
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