Westmont Theatre Arts Announces the 2004-2005 Season

Building on its reputation for innovative and adventurous theater, Westmont has planned a 2004-05 season that features boldly conceived productions of classic and contemporary plays, dance and visual theater.

Mitchell Thomas, Westmont’s new, full-time, tenure-track professor, opens the season with his production of Craig Lucas’s “Reckless” Oct. 28, playing weekends through Nov. 6 in Porter Theatre.

The Theatre Arts Department also will feature a residency of one of the world’s most visionary theater ensembles, DO-Theatre, St. Petersburg, directed by Evgeny Kozlov. Members of DO-Theatre will be in residence from Sept. 13 – Oct. 5. They will teach master classes, develop short theater works, and will show their acclaimed visual theater piece “Birds Eye View” at the 2004 Lit Moon World Theater Festival Sept. 25 – Oct. 3 at the Center Stage Theater in downtown Santa Barbara.

The Fall Dance Concert, Dec. 2–4, choreographed by faculty members Erlyne Whiteman and Victoria Finlayson and featuring the Westmont Windancers, showcases the uniqueness of Westmont’s dance program.

“Both Erlyne and Victoria create dances that blur the lines between dance, theater and performance art,” said Blondell. “Consequently, our program speaks to what is contemporary, vital and relevant about the art form, rather than what is encrusted by decades of tradition.”

The season continues in February with Blondell’s production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” weekends Feb. 25 – March 5, 2005. Last done at Westmont in 1990, the play affords great challenges for the entire artistic team and appeals to a wide variety of audiences.

“I’ve been casting far and wide for something new to do,” said Blondell. “But then I started to think about doing something old; something I’ve done before. When I last did this play it was one of the most memorable experiences of my career. Play-as-Dream has been a fascination of mine for quite some time.

The season concludes with the New Works Festival, April 22 – 23. The festival gives theater and dance students the opportunity to develop their own work using different theater art forms and multimedia.

 “This is an exciting year for us,” Blondell said. “We have a new faculty member, have programmed some exciting performances and have created a lively residency for a world-class company. We hope more and more people will venture into the hills of Montecito to see the kind of work we do.”

For more information, contact Blondell at (805) 565-6778. For tickets and performance information, call the Theatre Arts Department at (805) 565-6040. For directions to campus, visit the college Web site at www.westmont.edu.