UC Santa Barbara (Audio)

UCSB’s award-winning Opera Theatre program presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved opera buffa, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). Opera Santa Barbara’s General and Artistic Director, Kostis Protopapas,conducts the production, with Isabel Bayrakdarian (UCSB Assistant Professor of Voice) serving as Stage Director and Benjamin Brecher (UCSB Professor of Voice) serving as Music Director and Producer. The opera features many of the program’s top graduate students, including Tyler Reece as Count Almaviva, Julie Davies as Countess Almaviva, Naomi Merer as Susanna, Byron Mayes as Figaro, and Kelly Newberry as Cherubino. Series: "Soundscape" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33667]

Elizabeth Cholawsky is a seasoned executive leader in the technology industry with a strong focus on growing successful SaaS-based (software as service) businesses. Most recently, she was CEO of Support.com, where she transformed the business from being solely reliant on outsourced services revenue to selling a SaaS product that intelligently ran large contact centers. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 33674]

Dan Dudek is the Environmental Defense Fund Vice President for Asia. He is one of the world's leading experts on market-based policies to reduce pollution at the least cost. Series: "Bren School of Environmental Science & Management" [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 33592]

Orson Welles direction and his performance as Shakespeare’s legendary Falstaff are at the center of this conversation about Chimes at Midnight, Welles’ 1965 film masterpiece that was unavailable to the public for decades. Professors Jim Kearney (UC Santa Barbara) and Joseph McBride (San Francisco State University) discuss Welles’ lifelong admiration of the Bard and the film’s complicated production and distribution history. The two professors also explore Welles’ ambitious adaptation of story material from five different Shakespeare plays into this single film.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33498]

Karen McCullah and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith are one of the most prolific and successful female writing teams in Hollywood. Among their many credits is She’s the Man (2006) that resets William Shakespeare’s cross-dressing comedy Twelfth Night in a contemporary boarding school. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33504]

Director Shaw Leonard joins UCSB’s Courtney Thomas (Bren School of Environmental Science & Management) for a conversation about Leonard’s 2017 wildlife-documentary "Gaviota: The End of Southern California." Leonard describes his influences behind the film’s style, how he discovered the nature of Gaviota’s biodiverse coastal habitat and the threats it faces, his gratefulness for support from multiple sponsors and supporters, and the various challenges involved in the film’s seven-year production.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Science] [Show ID: 33559]

Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy-nominated composer, Robert Kraft, talks with David Novak (Music, UCSB) about the power and influence of film scores and the unique challenges with the process. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33501]

Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) was adapted and directed by its star. Mark Rose (English, UCSB) and Jim Kearney (English, UCSB) discuss this cinematic treatment of Hamlet and examples of Shakespeare on film. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33503]

Despite being retired for nearly a decade, until very recently, Annie was the world's winningest female poker player. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. The same year, she triumphed in the $2 million winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In Bets, which combines her academic studies with real-life decision making experiences at the poker table. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33474]

Populist rhetoric, the influence of religion in politics, and the role of the media in elections all arise in this conversation about Gregory La Cava’s 1933 film Gabriel Over the White House. Carsey-Wolf Center director Patrice Petro and renowned journalist Jeff Greenfield explore the influence of financier William Randolph Hearst on the film’s ideology, and the circuitous legacy of this once-popular, then largely-forgotten story of a driven politician who attempts to strong-arm his way through domestic and foreign entanglements.

Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33502]