In 1994, the only city in the United States with a 10-minute play festival was Louisville, Ky, home of the innovative Actors Theatre of Louisville. In 1995, Santa Cruz became the second.
Articles by Traci Hukill
A Revisionist History of 2009
It was one for the record books, this 2009. Oh, sure, there were bright points: the inauguration, some entertaining scandals, the inauguration, Giants slugger Pablo “Kung-Fu Panda” Sandoval, the inauguration. But for the most part, when we look back at 2009 we prefer to contemplate what might have happened rather than what actually did.
Cabrillo Stage’s ‘Scrooge’ A Nostalgic Treat
From the first bars of the Christmas medley that opens Scrooge, the audience understands that it’s in for one plum pudding of a theatrical experience. The chorus members, swathed in bonnets and frock coats straight out of a Dickens storybook, set about the cheerful business of caroling, converging in picturesque groups on the generous stage of the plush new Crocker Theater. Leslie Bricusse’s score hews closely to the traditional melodies, at least here, and director Andrew Ceglio, a master of the witty grace note, trains his comic impulses toward wholesomeness in the opening pantomimes. This adaptation of A Christmas Carol, we are given to understand, will not be sly or ironic but warm-hearted and nostalgic.
The Minor Miracle of ‘An Altared Christmas’
They won’t believe it in Peoria, but Rhan Wilson isn’t making fun of Christmas. True, his show An Altared Christmas, now in its fifth year, puts carols in a minor key to comic effect—a dolorous “O Christmas Tree,” an ominous “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” a distraught-bordering-on-unhinged “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”—but the producer of the highly entertaining musical variety show says he is not, in fact, mocking the holiday. He’s making fun of what people have done to it.
The Piano Mover
Ricky Maurice Howard, owner of Howard’s Piano Moving, moves pianos with a surprising amount of elegance.
Madam Mayor
I never met Mardi Wormhoudt. In the late 1990s, when I was getting my start in journalism and relegated to the sandbox of features writing, I would hear her name uttered in the newsroom and wonder at the hallowed tone employed by my usually cynical hero-colleagues. In the same way children take cues from their parents, espousing essentially baseless opinions about frivolous aunts or shiftless uncles, I came to understand that Mardi Wormhoudt was one of the good politicians. I didn’t know why. I just accepted it.
Too Much Junk
LAST Saturday, on 350 Day, the International Day of Climate Action, which forward-thinking people everywhere celebrated with carbon-neutral acts of faith in a sunshine-powered future, I was awash in a sea of smelly detritus from the past, flailing around in musty tides of old shoes, T-shirts, plastic Christmas decorations, screws, Tupperware, plastic soap caddies, collectible figurines.
Santa Cruz Parties Like It’s 1989
Post-quake Santa Cruz wasted no time coming up with irreverent slogans about the disaster it had endured—bumper stickers like “Shift Happens” and “It’s All Our Fault” popped up all over town in the months after Loma Prieta. In the same spirit, the town commemorates the 20th anniversary of the 7.1 monster this weekend by both thumbing our noses at the San Andreas Fault and engaging in some healthy introspection about what exactly happened at 5:04pm on Oct. 17, 1989 and how far we’ve come since.
Cabrillo’s Creative Complex
To the approximately 1600 people who snapped up free tickets to this weekend’s gala opening of Cabrillo’s new Visual and Performing Arts Complex in a freakish 56-minute display of enthusiasm for the arts on the first day tickets became available: Congratulations. Your efforts were not in vain. The three “sold”-out performances, a mélange of music, theater and dance, will be staged in a shiny new showpiece of a venue, the Crocker Theater, the crown jewel in a glitteringly modern complex 11 years in the making.
Chefs Aim High During Santa Cruz Restaurant Week
It was just a matter of time before Santa Cruz joined the ranks of cities across the country celebrating local culinary talent with Restaurant Week. In New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Diego, chefs were joining together for a week each year to entice diners out of their routines and into cosmopolitan restaurants where they might discover exotic new flavors and textures. And those cities are not the cradle of sustainable produce or home to unique viticultural appellations.
