Theatre Performance Archive

These Shining Lives

by Melanie Marnich

Nathan Cole, Director

Anais Libunao, Costume/Makeup Design

Jamie Birkett, Scenic Design

Melissa Lay, Lighting Designer

Pam Myers-Morgan, Sound Design

Five Performances:

Wednesday, April 26, 7:30 PM (Preview)
Thursday, April 27, 7:30 PM
Friday, April 28, 7:30 PM
Saturday, April 29, 7:30 PM
Sunday, April 30, 2:30 PM

Performing Arts Center

Studio Theatre (PAC 119)

4700 Loma Vista Rd. Ventura CA 93003

It's the roaring 20s and gender norms have started to shift. Four young women celebrate their new-found freedoms as employees of the Radium Dial Company, decorating watches and clockfaces with a new invention, glow-in-the-dark paint. As decades pass and a toxic truth begins to emerge, the women struggle to hold the company accountable for stealing their health by valuing profit over safety. Based on the true story of the Radium Girls, Melanie Marnich's "These Shining Lives" illuminates the spirits of these ordinary women whose courageous battle for social justice continues to resonate in the laws that protect today's worker.

Lighting the Way

Nathan Cole, director

Four Performances:

Wednesday, Nov. 30 – 7:30 PM *Free Preview
Thursday, Dec. 1 – 7:30 PM
Friday, Dec. 2 – 7:30 PM
Saturday, Dec. 3 – 5:00 PM

Performing Arts Center

Studio Theatre

4700 Loma Vista Rd. Ventura CA 93003

In collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, Climate Change Theatre Action brings together playwrights from around the world to tackle one of the most polarizing issues our world faces, climate change.  Through a variety of narrative styles and characters, the artists approach today’s crisis with comedy, satire, and a call to action. In an effort to enact change, the short play series strives to answer what it all means and who we understand ourselves to be as we try to save the planet.

 "Almost, Maine"

Featuring: VC Theatre Arts Department

Three Performances:

Wed. May 4 / 7:30PM (Free Preview)
Thursday, May 5 / 7:30PM
Friday, May 6 / 7:30pm

Studio Theatre

VC Performing Arts Center

4700 Loma Vista Road

This May, Ventura College presents ALMOST, MAINE, a “witty, romantic, unsentimental, beautifully structured play with nifty surprise endings – most but not all of them happy” (New York Times). John Cariani’s delightful comedy, set in the mythical New England town of Almost explores love, loss and a little bit of magic through nine interconnected short plays. The play’s 2004 premiere in Portland, Maine broke box office records and garnered critical acclaim. The New York Post says the show “offers a sweetness and decency that’s become rare at the theater. At this point, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air.”

 2021 VC Fright Fest:
A Spooktacular Evening of Laughs

Directed by Nathan Cole

SYNOPSIS:

Enjoy an evening of wacky one-act comedies based on famous fearsome tropes of Halloween. Guaranteed to turn the horror genre on its head, these twisted and hysterical stories will leave the audience in stitches and add a smile with lots of laughter to your holiday plans.

PERFORMANCES:

Wednesday, October 27 at 7:30 PM (Free Preview)
Thursday, October 28 at 7:30 PM
Friday October 29 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, October 30 at 7:30 PM

LOCATION:

Ventura College Outdoor Theatre (near the Campus Student Center).
 

FEATURED SCRIPTS:

Scripts for these performances include SCARED SILLY (by Don Zolidis, Ian McWethy, Jonathan Dorf, Ed Monk, Patrick Greene, Alan Haehnel, Christa Crewdson, Becca Schlossberg, Hillary DePiano, Peter Bloedel); CANDY LAWYERS, DOES IT HAVE TO BE A RAVEN, SANGUINE, LADY KILLER and BLOODY MARY (from "The Wack Horror Cyber Show" by Finn Kobler); THE TRUE MEANING OF HALLOWEEN (by Don Zolidis); IN THE WAITING ROOM OF THE GHOST PLACEMENT AGENCY, LIFE COMES AT YOU FAST (by Patrick Green); and FOREVER FRIENDS (by Becca Schlosinger).

ADA AND THE ENGINE

by Lauren Gunderson

TWO VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES
Friday, April 30 & Saturday, May 1

SYNOPSIS:

In this pre-tech historical romance signaling the computer age,  audiences will delight in the relationship between Ada Byron Lovelace, the daughter of the infamous and scandalous Lord Byron, and Charles Babbage, inventor of the first mechanical computer.   As the beginning of the British Industrial Revolution sparks,  Ada finds unlimited possibilities for her soul mate's creation the "analytic engines" and envisions a world she may not live to celebrate . . . one where art and information coincide.

Ada & the Engine was presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

DEVIL BOYS FROM BEYOND

by Buddy Thomas, Kenneth Elliot, and Drew Fornarola

TWO VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES
Friday, April 16 & Saturday, April 17

SYNOPSIS:

A hilarious, “high gay camp” comedy filled with southern-fried laughs, DEVIL BOYS FROM BEYOND pays tribute to the low-grade sci-fi films and satires the rampant homophobia and sexual repression of American society in the 50’s.  Fast-talking New York reporter Mattie Van Buren is hell-bent on solving the mystery of UFO sightings in small-town Lizard Lick, Florida. Rumors fly about the old, fat, and ugly men of the town being replaced by smoking hot hunks and how the elderly women have all become pregnant. Alien dreamboats from outer space run amuck as our star reporter tries to crack the case before Red-baiting columnist Lucinda Marsh attempts to scoop the story (and Mattie’s ex-husband) out from under her very eyes.

DISCLAIMER:

This production contains strong language, mild violence, and mature themes.  It is not appropriate for children under the age of 13.

Devil Boys from Beyond is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

SHEL-SHOCKED

An Evening of Plays by Shel Silverstein
Friday/Saturday, April 9 & 10

SYNOPSIS:

SHEL-SHOCKED is an evening of plays by Shel Silverstein, best known for The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Directed, acted and designed by VC Theatre Arts students, these vignette’s display the farcical, and at times, the absurd side of the human condition while keeping the wit and charm we recognize from our favorite children’s literary author. Exposing a new truth, twist, or turn, each scene leaves the audience sitting “shel-shocked”, realizing our silly similarities as we struggle with society’s standards for everyday life.

THE AMISH PROJECT

by Jessica Dickey

Friday, March 12 & Saturday, March 13

& Encore Performance Friday, April 16

SYNOPSIS:

This powerful and poetic work recounts the 2006 shooting at the West Nickel Mines schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of rural Pennsylvania. Conjuring a variety of fictitious characters based off the victims and citizens in the town, The Amish Project explores how the tragedy tore apart a community filled with prejudice and misunderstanding.  Though the compassionate and humbling reactions of an often misunderstood and ostracized religion,  the members of the township forge a path to forgiveness and acceptance in the devastation left behind.

DISCLAIMER: 

This production contains some strong language, the use of gun sound effects, and descriptions of violence.

The Amish Project is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com