ON Culture | Santa’s Good List for Arts & Entertainment

The Indigo Girls, Emily Saliers (left) and Amy Ray | Photo: Courtesy

ON the Stage

Announcements are slowly rolling out for the next season at the Santa Barbara Bowl, and it looks like another doozy. So far we’ve got Social Distortion and Bad Religion (Apr. 10), Willie Nelson & Family (Apr. 25), Jody Jinks (May 18), Brothers Osborne (May 31), and the most recent announcement of the Indigo Girls and Amos Lee (Sep. 21). I was fortunate to be able to interview Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls in advance of her other project (The Amy Ray Band), which will appear alongside Dar Williams at the Marjorie Luke Theatre on Jan. 15. Ray’s most recent solo album, If It All Goes South, is an equally tender and turbulent triumph. Keep an eye out for the interview in January, get more info about the Luke show here.

ON the Good List

Senator Monique Limón presents a check to the Lompoc Theatre Project | Photo: Courtesy

The State of California recently granted the Lompoc Theatre Project $2,285,000. The theater also has a $150,000 match grant from the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians which Board President Barbara Satterfield reports means “the next $22,000 in individual donations will be doubled.” For more information about the campaign to renovate the 1927 theater, see lompoctheatre.org.

Another worthy group, The Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, received $1.5 million from the state this month at the opening night performance of The World Goes ‘Round, which also marked the beginning of the theater’s 25th anniversary season. That show closes tomorrow (Dec. 23). Up next (Feb. 21-Mar. 10) is a new American play by Richard Hellesen titled Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground. It stars Tony Award–winning actor John Rubinstein (Pippin/Children of a Lesser God), fresh from his acclaimed off-Broadway run of the show. See rubicontheatre.org.

Orgōne is at SOhO on Dec. 30 | Photo: Courtesy

While this is the time of the year that the music calendar slows down a bit, there are a couple shows worth noting at SOhO, the first of which is two nights with Chris Shiflett (hometown boy who’s now a Foo Fighter) Dec. 22-23 (see Josef Woodard’s story for the scoop). Then next week there’s Orgōne, an L.A.-based band that shows off a myriad of groove-oriented styles, including but not limited to deep funk, ’60s Memphis soul/blues, Fela-inspired Afro-beat, hip-hop, Latin jazz, and electronic dance and house hits the stage on Dec. 30; then on Sunday, Dec. 31, it’s New Year’s Eve party time with Area 51 and DJ Darla Bea putting on a funky dance party. For tickets and more info about both of these shows, see sohosb.com.