Santa Monica College's new film instructor Simone Bartesaghi is leading a class that will help produce a major show for The Broad Stage. The production, titled "Venice Beach," will premiere in November 2014. "Venice Beach" will tell a Romeo-and-Juliet-style tale of forbidden love between a rebel surfer and an upper-class valley girl in modern-day Venice. The musical will feature a...

When Santa Monica College student Krystyna Rodriguez dressed as a clown and burst onto stage singing William Shakespeare's classic words, "for the rain it raineth every day," you knew the performance was going to be something special. With a singing clown and ocean breezes, the SMC theatre arts department opened the premiere of its new rendition of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night,"...

For decades, the Santa Monica College dance department, currently led by department chair Judith Douglas, has helped dancers achieve their terpsichorean dreams. Its mission is to prepare students for future careers as dancers, choreographers, dance critics, and teachers by offering a comprehensive array of classes designed to cultivate technique, an appreciation for world dances, creativity, and performance skills. Dance instructor...

Multitalented Amy "Catfox" Campion, B-girl, capoeirista, and dance filmmaker, led as many as 50 students in a vigorous and intense breakdancing workshop last Wednesday at Santa Monica College. Campion is the founder and artistic director of Antics Performance, a Los Angeles-based dance company that creates multimedia urban dance performances that incorporate various art forms, and offers residencies, workshops and dance...

New York Times bestselling author Victoria Patterson visited Santa Monica College last Tuesday to discuss her craft and new novel, "The Peerless Four." The packed event, which was sponsored by the Associated Students and the English department, treated students and instructors to a 90-minute discussion about sports, writing, winning and losing. The event featured Patterson reading an excerpt from her...

The Library Foundation of Los Angeles brought a centuries-old literary masterpiece to life when Herman Melville's "My Moby Dick" conquered the Broad Stage on Saturday night. The show, which was mainly a dramatic reading enhanced with theater props, instrumental and vocal music, and multimedia, celebrated the words of Melville while imagining scenes and characters that planted the story of Moby...

Following this semester's film series theme of "Peace and Security: Managing Conflict and Violence in a Turbulent World," the screening of the 1951 film "The Day The Earth Stood Still" was hosted by Santa Monica College political science professor Alan Buckley and film professor Josh Kanin on Friday, Sept. 27. The room had an intimate setting, particularly because it was...

From Sept. 28 through Oct. 25, the "4th Bi-Annual Alumni Exhibition" showcases the works of past Santa Monica College photography students, bringing together alumni from different generations. In 2005, Ford Lowcock, SMC's department chair of photography and fashion, started the now traditional “Bi-Annual Alumni Exhibition," displayed at Drescher Hall. His motivation to start the tradition is to keep in touch...

William Shakespeare's “Henry VIII,” interpreted from a Spanish perspective by Spain's Rakata theater company, made its U. S. debut at Santa Monica College's Broad Stage on Thursday. The play was a smash hit at the Globe Theater in London that gave the audience a glimpse of the life of Shakespearean Henry VIII of his rivalry for power with intriguers and...

James Underdown is dedicated to prove that UFOs, psychic powers and paranormal abilities are all impossible. Underdown is a professional skeptic and investigator, and director of the nonprofit Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the organization Independent Investigator Group, which investigates fringe science, paranormal and extraordinary claims from a rational, scientific viewpoint. Santa Monica...