With the possible exception of the Salvation Army, every organization in town goes through some kind of holiday-season identity crisis. “What can we do,” directors everywhere must ask themselves, “that only we can do?” The pressure becomes particularly acute for the artistic directors of theaters, who often feel that the range of potential answers is further restricted, until it can seem that the question is really more like “What can we do with The Nutcracker or A Christmas Carol that only we can do?”
Fortunately for Santa Barbara, no such narrowing of the range of choices takes place at Ensemble Theatre Company, where the answer to the holiday programming riddle has traditionally been one of my favorites. It goes something like this: As the city’s only Equity theater, Ensemble can bring in a hilarious comedy, cast it with great actors, and guarantee everyone who comes that at least one of the shows they see between now and New Year’s Eve will be side-splittingly funny. That’s how they handled it last year, with Daniel MacIvor’s The Best Brothers, and that’s what they’ve got planned again, this time with a female-skewing (and skewering) cast and a new comedy by Wendy MacLeod called Women in Jeopardy!
Clearly, word has gotten out among the region’s top performers that the New Vic is a special place to play, and the talent that Jonathan Fox has lined up for Women in Jeopardy! confirms that. Bart DeLorenzo is one of the most honored and busiest stage directors in Los Angeles, with recent credits at virtually every major company in that city, including Odyssey, Rogue Machine, South Coast Rep, Geffen Playhouse, and the company he founded, Evidence Room. He’s also known as a favorite among top Hollywood stars. If you’ve ever wondered who directs Megan Mullally when she’s doing theater, you can stop now, because that would be Bart DeLorenzo.