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Underground theater productions get new home in Santa Barbara

When The Lights Go Out is being staged at the new Shimmy Shimmy Productions theater in Santa Barbara.
KCLU
When The Lights Go Out is being staged at the new Shimmy Shimmy Productions theater in Santa Barbara.

New space in community provides home for cutting edge, alternative productions. It's hosting a major show called When The Lights Go Out this weekend.

In an almost pitch black theater space in Santa Barbara, lights shine on a dance floor in the middle of the room. Chanel Pepper is twirling from a cable suspended by the ceiling. As she does elaborate dance moves while spinning through the air, you realize that she’s doing all of this while suspended by a cable connected to her hair.

It’s part of a show by a theater company using a new underground theater space in the city.

"Right now, my first born baby is a show called 'When The Lights Go Out,' and I created it in 2013, when I was on the road with my husband in Europe," said Kerrilee Gore. "I was so lost. It was the first time I stopped dancing."

It's the story of a man who suffers the loss of a child, and tries to cope with it. It takes him to a broken dreams motel, where in his mind he becomes different characters.

"It's loosely based on all the ways the lights can go out in someone's life," said Gore.

It's an immersive theatrical experience, with the performers all around the audience.

Cast members say they enjoy the multi media show which allows them to bring different talents to the production.

"Off and on for ten years, I've been a character in this show," said Leo Gallo. "I basically play a part of myself that didn't grow up, that has more pain than love, and more loss than reward."

He admits it’s a hard show to describe.

"It's a beautiful dark theater piece that will make you feel, first and foremost," said Gallo.

Valerie Young is one of the dancers in the production, and she and her husband Jason did the choreography.

"It will cause you to feel things you haven't felt in a long time...good things and bad things, happy things and sad things," said Young,

This is one of the first major productions in this Olive Street location for Gore’s Shimmy Shimmy Productions. In what looks like a small Santa Barbara office complex, she’s created a 90 seat theater she hopes will be home to more underground style, edgy works. 

You can find out more about the show, When The Lights Go Out, and the new underground theater in Santa Barbara here.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.