Westmont talk explores Santa Barbara’s silent film history

By MARILYN MCMAHON

Westmont’s John Blondell discusses the world premiere play that will bring Santa Barbara’s silent film history to the stage in a Westmont Downtown Lecture at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden St.

“The Film Within a Play: Celebrating Santa Barbara’s Flying A Studios on Stage” is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Ample free parking is available. For more information, call 805565-6051.

Mr. Blondell, director of “Diamond to Dust: a Flying A Fantasy,” will be joined by select cast members, who will perform a scene from “Diamond to Dust.”

“The talk promises to be a wide-ranging discussion about an important story in Santa Barbara’s history, the ins and outs of theatrical performance, sneak peeks into the theatrical process, and how all these impact our students in the show, and ultimately our audience,” Mr. Blondell said. Santa Barbara was one of the centers of American film from 1912 to 1921 with the American Film Manufacturing Co,, known as the Flying A, which made more than 1,000 silent films.

Mr. Blondell and Michael Bernard, who wrote the play, collaborated to produce a revealing, live theater event that centers around the mishaps and innovation of the Flying A and how it helped shape more than a century of storytelling.

“Diamond to Dust” will be performed in Westmont’s Porter

Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24-25 and March 2-4; and at 2 p.m. March 4. As co-founder and director of the Lit Moon Theatre Company, Mr. Blondell will direct Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” later this spring. In the fall, Mr. Blondell will enter his third year as Westmont’s global ambassador in the performing arts. In the meantime, he will direct “Richard III” for Prague Shakespeare in Prague; “Prometheus Bound” in the ancient Roman theater of

Heraclea in Bitola, Macedonia; and “Peer Gynt” in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. He also helped curate the Verona Shakespeare Festival, which will run Aug. 24 to 31 in Verona. “Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter” is a free lecture series sponsored by the Westmont Foundation. The foundation also sponsors the 18th annual Westmont President’s Breakfast