solvang nativity pageant | Santa Ynez Valley Star

Community invited to Solvang Nativity Pageant

Raiza Giorgi — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 03:57:17 +0000

Staff ReportS

The 35th Solvang Nativity Pageant has been a tradition during the holiday season for several decades and is part of the annual Solvang Julefest Celebration. This year’s production will be presented on Sat., Dec. 15 in Solvang’s beautiful Festival Theater located at 420 Second Street. There will be two performances, 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The pageant, under the direction of Janette Swanson, is an elaborately staged presentation of the Nativity story featuring live animals, wonderful music and narration presented by an all-volunteer cast. The special guest musical artists this year are Maurice Sklar, violinist and Julie Meyer, Dove Award nominated Singer/Songwriter, both central coast residents. The Inner Light Gospel Choir of Santa Barbara will also be joining the event.

Admission is free. Gates open at 4 p.m. for pre-show activities. There will be a food court serving hot food and drinks. Bring the whole family and remember to dress warmly. Blankets will be available.

For more information and to register for free tickets, please go to www.SolvangNativityPageant.com.

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Letters to the Editor

Raiza Giorgi — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 08:01:21 +0000

Tribal agreement is bad deal for county

Last week there was an article stating the County of Santa Barbara is facing 10 major fiscal issues in the next two years. If that is the case, why did the county enter into an agreement with the Chumash tribe where the tribe is only obligated to pay an annual amount of $178,000 in lieu of property taxes on Camp 4, a 1,400-acre parcel in the Santa Ynez Valley that they purchased for $44,000,000? An agreement that ceases in 2040.

The tribe claims they will only build 140 single-family homes along with a tribal center. If the homes were valued at $500,000 each, the property taxes alone would be over $770,000 per year. That figure doesn’t take into account the taxes that would be paid on the remaining acreage and tribal center. There is no guarantee they will not construct commercial buildings on the property.

The paltry sum of $178,000 doesn’t come close to covering the fiscal impact on the remaining citizens in the county for the services that will be provided. It is not even adjusted for inflation. Supervisor Adam was right at the board meeting when he said agreement with the tribe is “ambiguous as to the commitments the county is agreeing to and it’s ambiguous as to the cost that we are agreeing to, and therefore it is a blank check and it is a bad deal for the county.”

Can someone explain to me how Supervisor Williams got on the negotiating team, especially since he has taken over $172,400 in campaign contributions from California tribes, including $46,000 from the Chumash, of which $18,000 was given to him after he was elected Santa Barbara County supervisor?

The agreement with the tribe is an embarrassment that will cost the county and its residents for years to come.

Mike Hadley

Santa Ynez

Community effort saves Nativity Pageant

Once in a while, unexpected emergencies can threaten any theater performance.

Such an emergency arose on Dec. 8. Late that afternoon when a water valve broke, it resulted in no water coming into the Solvang Festival Theater property. No water meant the beloved annual Nativity Pageant was in jeopardy of being canceled.

Fortunately, a team of staff and community members rushed to the rescue and devised a temporary fix that would allow the show to go on. Working into Friday night and through Saturday morning, water was restored.

Solvang Theaterfest thanks those who jumped in to rescue the pageant. They were city of Solvang Water Supervisor Mike Mathews; general contractor Jean-Paul Demeure; plumber Dan McCollum; the theater’s handyman, Andrew Goettler; Solvang Theaterfest board member John Mathews; and Solvang Theaterfest Executive Director Mary Ann Norbom.

Because of this team effort, nearly 1,200 people were able to experience the magic of the Nativity Pageant in the Solvang Festival Theater. The willingness to assist our community’s theater demonstrated once again how working together makes Solvang such a wonderful city in which to live.

Ann Foxworthy Lewellen

Board Member,

Solvang Theaterfest

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The Solvang Nativity Pageant prepares for upcoming performance

Raiza Giorgi — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 23:11:23 +0000

Star Report

Preparations are underway for the 33rd Annual Solvang Nativity Pageant which has been a tradition during the holiday season for several decades and is part of the annual Solvang Julefest celebration. The Pageant is an elaborately staged presentation of the Nativity story featuring live animals, musical accompaniment, and narration presented by an all- volunteer cast.

This year’s production will be presented on Saturday, December 10, in Solvang Festival Theater at 420 Second Street. There will be two performances, the first at 5 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m.. Admission is free and the gates will open at 4 p.m. for pre-show activities, including the live SNAP Jazz Band, Petting Zoo, Prayer Tent, and Food Court serving hot food and drinks. Bring the whole family and remember to dress warmly and blankets will be available.

The first year of the Nativity Pageant was 1984 and local resident, the late Earl Petersen, was in the middle of constructing the Petersen Inn.

The story Petersen told was that he got the idea for the event when a traveling animal show came through Solvang that same year. So with the help of friends Bob and Donnie Rohrbough, he decided to bring the great story of the very “First Christmas” to Solvang for people who had never heard it. Petersen decided to hire some of the animals from that show, and the Rohrboughs engaged the local churches, pastors and congregations to participate.

The team then put a narrative together from the gospel accounts, used biblical-based carols, transformed a llama into a camel, and along with sheep and a donkey they were on their way. The performers were of all ages, a local pastor narrated the story, and the costumes were a mix of PCPA donations, drapes and second hand clothes. That’s how the first annual Community Nativity Pageant was conceived.

The small company of players started out in Peterson Square with folding chairs and local soloists. After a few years they outgrew that location and it moved to Frederick’s Court.

The Rohrboughs produced the play from 1984 till 1991 at which time it was handed over to Everett and Dorothy Parker who in the mid 90’s passed it on to Ralph and Marjorie Tayloe. To accommodate the growing audience, the Tayloes relocated the event to the open air venue of the Solvang Theaterfest (now called Solvang Festival Theatre), its present location. Marjorie and Ralph left for Dubuque, Iowa and handed over the production to Steven Battaglia and Janette Swanson in 2007. Janette has produced the program since 2014. For most of those years the sound and lighting technology was faithfully provided by Jim Richard and his crews.

For years, local actor, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. brought warmth and charm to the telling of the story as the Narrator. He faithfully performed the role from 1995 and continued until his passing in 2013. Local resident, Pastor Jack Hayford took over the role as story teller in 2014. We are pleased this year to have Stephanie Zimbalist, star of stage and screen, to carry on in her “Pops” shoes as Narrator.

This year we are also pleased to announce that we have many special world-class musical guest artists: Maurice Sklar, Concert Violinist; Eduardo Villa, Tenor; Hallie Neill, Soprano; Theodore Labrinos, Baritone and Julie Meyer, Dove Award nominated Singer/Songwriter. We are reaching for a new level of musical achievement under the direction of Lawrence Gerard Skahill, Music Director.

After over three decades, the Nativity Pageant is still true to its original roots of the telling of the biblical account of the first Christmas with local residents and now complemented by local world-class artists and their friends.

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