Ride the Ripple with Actors' Theatre!

This April marks the launch of Ripple Effect, an exciting new Arts Festival in Santa Cruz! The arts community of Santa Cruz County is coming together for this 11-day celebration showcasing our county's rich artistic landscape. Performing Arts will be well represented, along with Dance, Visual Arts, Music, Literary Arts, and even Fashion.

Actors' Theatre is doing our part to add to the celebration by presenting two co-productions with Emmy-award winning performance company Jump Rhythm and a staged reading of a radio play, as well as a preview of a new work by Mir & A Company.

We start off on April 16, with a staged reading of a "radio" play by Curt Sorkin, directed by Denise Keplinger. The action takes place on October 31, 1938, at the same time as Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater is performing “The War of the Worlds.” But, just down the street, another radio play is about to send the entire U.S. into a panic that will reverberate across the headlines for weeks and make its creator notorious in entertainment history. “Please Stand By” is the untrue story of that night and the events that led up to it, when world-famous actor and bitter Welles rival Oswald Reeves and his National Broadcasting Network company made a shambles of their own historic “live as it happened” performance of the alien attack that DIDN’T come from Mars.

Showtime is 7 pm. Tickets available by donation at the door.

Robert Bailey as Reverend Brand

Then, on April 17, 18 and 19, we're bringing back Robert Bailey's outstanding solo show "In Some Dark Valley: The Testimony of Reverend Brand," which played to full houses and rave reviews here in November 2024. On a moonlit night in Appalachia, a fiery preacher travels through time to confront his demons and find redemption, in a work both haunting and illuminating in its relevance to today.

Directed by Jump Rhythm founder Billy Siegenfeld, "In Some Dark Valley" has been touring theaters across the country and across the Atlantic, and returns to Santa Cruz for this one weekend only. Shows are at 7 pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 2 pm on Sunday. Tickets ($35/32) available HERE.

As part of Ripple Effect, Actors' Theatre is also making our venue available to other performers, and is pleased to be sponsoring a preview of a new theater piece by Miranda Janeschild's Mir & A Company on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, April 21, 22 and 23. "Stranger with the Truth" is an interdisciplinary theater piece based on a true story about the difficult questions families face—and often struggle to discuss—when psychosis first emerges, then takes over, someone’s life. When a father tries to help a homeless man who reminds him of his missing son, it sparks long-avoided conversations in the family, and, as events, memories, and ghosts collide, the truth gradually emerges. In this show, Janeschild aims to humanize those who experience psychosis and schizophrenia through a blend of theater, movement, singing, and original music. Shows are at 7 pm. Tickets available by donation at the door.

Note: This is a preview performance/technical rehearsal in preparation for the show's full production at Satori Arts in May. There will be brief pauses and breaks to finalize lighting, sound, and other production elements. For more information go to: mirandacompany.com/productions.

Jordan Batta and Billy Siegenfeld

Our final production as part of Ripple Effect will be another show from Jump Rhythm on April 24, 25 and 26. In "Fortitude and Gentleness," a rehearsal between two actors turns into explosions of angst, politics, literature, motherhood, forgiveness, and love—with snatches of song, a handful of dances, and impassioned appeals to both the moon and Jane Austen. This play by Billy Siegenfeld, featuring Siegenfeld and Jordan Batta, explores deep themes through movement, song, and dance, embodying the energetic, rhythm-driven style of Jump Rhythm, a form of jazz dance focusing on raw physical and emotional energy and syncopation.  Shows are at 7 pm on Friday and Saturday, and at 2 pm on Sunday. Tickets ($35/32) available HERE.

Billy Siegenfeld will also be teaching two workshops on Wednesday, April 21 at 2 pm and 3:30 pm, focused on his Standing Down Straight® method of releasing unnecessary tension and allowing movement to happen with less effort and more ease.

Special Deal: See both Jump Rhythm shows for a $10 discount.