Santa Monica’s Broad Stage begins is 12th season this month with several performances that are homecomings of sorts for the artists and audiences involved.
Carolyn Elliott Sr. director of programming, for the facility, said the organization has seen its performance slate grow exponentially in the past decade and those years of experience are now bearing fruit with a performance slate that is adapting to the needs of locals.
She described the stage as an island in Los Angeles bordered by the 405 and 10 freeways. She said the audience pool within their catchment radius is educated, curious and open to political themes in their entertainment but isn’t necessarily large enough to warrant long-term performances of the same production. Instead, the Broad Stage offers a wide diversity of programming that allows locals to find something they will like no matter what their personal taste.
“We try to tap into that unique Santa Monica intellectual curiosity,” she said. “We try to be as inclusive and representational as possible of who is in the community by putting that community on the stage.”
She said the shows differ in content, theme and price point with some tickets selling for as little as $5.
“We strive to make sure that there is something for everyone at every price point in the community,” she said. “I would love people to know that we want to be the most welcoming space in the city. We strive to make people feel at home when they come to the Broad Stage and that it’s a really great place to try something you don’t know.”
The theater will host a theatrical performance of “Home” by former Santa Monican Geoff Sobelle. The performance “explores the everyday drama of what makes a house a home in this breathtaking and tender spectacle of illusion, choreography and storytelling.”
Elliott said the piece is a great example of their theme for the season.
“It is an exploration of what home means, is it a house, is it the people that live in it?” she said.
Invertigo Dance Theatre will have a homecoming of sorts with their world premiere of Formulae & Fairy Tales (September 13-14) which mixes mathematics, artificial intelligence, and cryptography into a vivid, twisted fairy tale palette of romanticized beauty and lyrical dancing.
The Santa Monica based company’s show centers around Alan Turing, mathematical genius and World War II codebreaker, with Technicolor, mythologized ideas of his favorite film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – a blending of historical events, sexuality, gender identity and our essential humanity.
Elliott said she is particularly excited to see the Australian act Gravity and Other Myths as they bring a contemporary circus act to the Broad Stage.
“It’s probably the most stunning moving show I’ve ever seen,” she said.
There will be three family friendly shows with low ticket prices this season.
Hālau Hula Keali`i o Nālani & The Daniel Ho Trio will bring an island style collaboration of music and dance to the stage. Celebrating Samba is Viver Brasil’s signature family program that takes audiences on a cultural journey to Salvador, Bahia with electrifying Afro Brazilian dance and music. Wicked Tinkers use rousing bagpipes, tribal drums, and the bronze-age Irish horn to bring a re-imagined vitality to Scottish and Irish music.
“Daniel Ho is a Grammy award winning ukulele player and to see him performing for a $5 ticket is so awesome,” saidElliott.
For more information about the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage (located at 1310 11th St.) or for ticket and subscription information, visit www.thebroadstage.org or call (310) 434-3200.
editor@smdp.com
