Summer Stages: BWW's Top Summer Theatre Picks - California Central Coast!

I've been writing a weekly article for BroadwayWorld.com about all of the theatre happenings here on the heart of the California Central Coast for nearly 3 years now.  On any given week, there are somewhere between 15 and 20 live entertainment and theatre venues offering quality entertainment to the residents of the Central Coast and those who come to visit our little piece of Paradise!

It's hard, but if I HAD to choose the "5 Best" theatre groups or venues between Santa Maria to the south and Paso Robles to the north, they would be:

The Pacific Conservatory of the Perfoming Arts (PCPA) located on the Allan Hancock College campus in Santa Maria; www.pcpa.org.  Upcoming summer productions: The Rivals, Legally Blonde - the Musical, Daddy Long Legs, Three Sisters.

The Great American Melodrama in Oceano; www.americanmelodrama.com.  Upcoming summer productions: Gunsmokin' ... Or All Riots On The Western Front, and From Rags to Riches ... Or I Will Not Pay The Price You Ask.

Kelrik Productions in San Luis Obispo; www.kelrikproductions.com.  Upcoming summer productions:  Grease, and The Little Mermaid Jr.

San Luis Obispo Little Theatre; www.slolittletheatre.org.  Upcoming summer productions:  The House of Blue Leaves, My Way, Arcadia, and Anne of Avonlea. 

The Performing Arts Center on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo; www.pacslo.org.  Upcoming summer productions:  Dance Obispo Student Showcase, Leslie Jordan, and Confessions of a Love Junkie (among others).

PHOTO: A typical Central Coast susnset around Pismo Beach ... a dirty job - but somebody's gotta' live here!

Curt Miner for BroadwayWorld.com on the California Central Coast  

Curt Miner received his degree in theatre from Northern Arizona University and has been involved in theatre, educationally and professionally, for nearly 40 years now. He is currently Pastor of the United Church of Christ in San Luis Obispo, CA (www.sloucc.org), where he founded a theatre outreach ministry known as The God Is Still Speaking Players (check them out on Facebook). Their first production was the West Coast Premiere of a new play by Gordon Greene (one of Curt's former theatre professors from back at NAU) entitled "The Scopes Monkey Trial: What Really Happened" in October of 2008. Curt and his wife of 35 years, Linda, worked together as Director and Music Director on a production of "Godspell" June 2009. The group presented a readers' theatre production of Archibald MacLeish's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play "J.B." November 2009, participated in a collaborative effort with Bent Angel Productions in a staged reading of "12 Angry Men" in February 2010, presented "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" the first 2 weekends of September 2010, embarked upon another collaborative effort with Bent Angel Productions of a staged reading of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" in November 2010, presented a readers' theatre production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" the first weekend this past March, mounted a production of "Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree" the first 2 weekends of September, and presented "Celebration In Song" - a musical variety show to benefit the work of GALA and PFLAG in November. A readers' theatre presentation (possibly "Our Town") or another musical revue will be presented this coming March, with "Snoopy" (sequel to YAGMCB) on the schedule for the first 2 weekends in September. When people ask him "Why a theatre outreach ministry?" Curt tells them "I have found that theatre is sometimes able to touch a person's heart and soul more deeply than the best crafted worship experience ... that's why."

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