Bakersfield Community Theatre will be singing “Bless Our Show” this weekend when it opens “Sister Act.” The lively musical is the first in some time for the South Chester Avenue theater.

High school artists will have the chance to present their work at a place of higher learning this month with the 2023 Panorama Invitational.

Some might say it takes an artist to find the beauty in a Bakersfield summer, so it's a good thing the Bakersfield Museum of Art had one with a fantastic idea on how to use nature to transform the gallery space.

As many opt to get back to the basics this month, so too does the Gaslight Melodrama. For "Rustlers of the Rio Bravo," the first show of its new season opening Friday, it returns to essential melodrama.

Porterville artist Cesar Martinez, who took part in the first artists' reception at Bird Dog Arts last spring, returns with a solo show this week.

Wilkomen, bienvenue, welcome again to "Cabaret.” Ovation Theatre brings the beloved musical to the stage this weekend.

It’s a fairy-tale start to the year at Stars Theatre Restaurant with its production of "Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella."

For the local creative community, 2023 is starting off strong. On Friday, the KDA Creative Corps will announce guidelines for its grants program, which has $4.2 million in state funds up for grabs.

When Natalia Mallory decided this was the year to bring her vision for "The Nutcracker" for the community to the stage, her guiding force was inclusion.

Last weekend, Civic Dance Center presented a weekend of performances of "The Nutcracker."

Prepare to enter a world of pure imagination this week with the Whitchard Choral & Theatre Arts Academy's production of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

It takes a village when it comes to "The Nutcracker." Although Civic Dance Center is the driving force behind the show coming this weekend to Mechanics Bank Theater, the annual production gets a boost from other dance organizations as well as local musicians for the live orchestra.

This year, Bakersfield Community Theatre went a less-conventional route for its holiday offering opening Friday. "The Lion in Winter" is set in the holiday season and may have audiences breathing a sigh of relief that their families aren't as dysfunctional as this royal family.

While most people enjoy the holiday season, some people love it. That's the case for Jennifer Resolme, director of "Miracle on 34th Street," which opens Thursday at Ovation Theatre.

Great things often start as something small. In the case of "The Gifts of the Magi," opening this weekend at Stars Playhouse, it was a meeting of minds over an entirely different show.

Much like snow, into every life a little showbiz must fall. At least when it comes to a former showman who thinks he can settle into life in the Connecticut countryside in "Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn." The musical, based on the popular movie, opens this week at Stars Theatre Restaurant.

If nautical nonsense be something you wish, then drop at the Space and flop like a fish. Well not really, but The Empty Space is embracing the animated fun with “The SpongeBob Musical,” which opens Friday.

December is a busy time when holiday shopping and social commitments dominate schedules. Take a break before the real hustle and bustle begins by enjoying some art and other entertainment this First Friday in downtown Bakersfield.

A night at the opera in Bakersfield? Cal State Bakersfield will bring opera fans the next best thing on Thursday with "An Evening of Opera Scenes." 

A lot is expected of Santa and his elves at Christmas and that’s certainly the case in this year's Gaslight Holiday Extravaganza, which opens Friday.

While many shows distance audiences from the actors, "Flowers for Algernon," opening this weekend at Stars Playhouse, invites them into the action. The immersive experience allows viewers to feel the struggles of the protagonist Charlie, who undergoes an experimental procedure to improve his…

Along with entertaining, good theater can provoke audiences, putting them in someone else's shoes and challenging their world view.

For this First Friday, the Bakersfield Museum of Art will be abuzz with not only galleries of exceptional art but a one-of-a-kind film festival.

Eighty years after the Frank family went into hiding in Amsterdam and 75 years after Anne's remarkable diary was published, the story comes to life on the Harvey Auditorium stage at Bakersfield High School.

Much like the show's title character, the team behind the Stars' production of "Billy Elliot," which opens this weekend, is driven by their passions.

Greaser or Soc, pick a side and get ready to rumble this week with the Centennial High School production of "The Outsiders."

The Empty Space will present a double feature of shows, different in tone but both centered on the struggles women face in this world.

After modifying Via Arte the past two years, the Bakersfield Museum of Art is ready to return its Italian street painting festival to the style of past years.

Feed me, Seymour! Students feed the need of the plant from another planet in “Little Shop of Horrors,” which opens this week at Cal State Bakersfield.

Along with providing a place for worship, Mill Creek Christian Church is offering a place to appreciate art.

Ovation Theatre has brushed up its Shakespeare this year. First in the spring with "Something Rotten," about rivals of the Bard, and now it's "Shakespeare in Love," which opens this weekend.

If you're wondering where the love is this week, look no further than Bakersfield College, which is hosting the 38th annual Kern Shakespeare Festival.

Art lovers have plenty of stops again for First Friday downtown. 

Platform Theatre Co. is shining a light on mental health with a special performance this weekend.

For "Of Rope And Chain Her Bones Are Made," part of its incoming Fall Exhibitions, the Bakersfield Museum of Art transformed its main galleries.

Sometimes life imitates art and that's certainly the case with "Follies," opening this weekend at Stars Theatre Restaurant.

When it comes to living by "one man's trash is another man's treasure," Ryan Rickard walks the walk.

When the Kern Dance Alliance started planning for this year's National Dance Day, it was ready to go big.

It's good we've had some cooler weather because Michael Prince is ready to declare the end of summer.

Stars Theatre Restaurant is ready to celebrate 53 years of providing community theater at its "Startacular" event on Saturday.

One might think a play involving seances, exorcisms and ghosts this time of year would be a drama but "Blithe Spirit" couldn't be more different in tone. 

It's a day worthy of pirouettes for Kern Dance Alliance, which announced today it was awarded more than $4.2 million by the California Arts Council for the nascent California Creative Corps program.

Art lovers can find a garden of delights fraught with danger in a new show at Bakersfield College.

Many theater lovers have a special place in their heart for "Hello, Dolly!" but before that matchmaker took center stage, the focus was on two grocery assistants up to no good.

The heat is certainly on this First Friday and it’s not just the selection of art to view. Keep cool inside these venues downtown.

"Heathers: The Musical" is opening at The Empty Space this weekend. How very.

Would you want to live forever? That's the question at the heart of "Tuck Everlasting," opening Friday at Ovation Theatre.

If you're looking for an exciting night of theater, look no further than "Shrek The Musical."

After 12 years of performances, it's not surprising that young actors from Tonicism Productions are headed to college (or already there), including Josephine Dethlefson, daughter of the children's theater group founder, Guinevere PH Dethlefson.

Kneeling on asphalt to create chalk art would be a fool's errand now but cooler temperatures will return and with them the Via Arté Italian Street Painting Festival.