VISION

 OLD VENUE, NEW VISION

Save Starlight is an initiative working to restore, revive and revitalize Starlight Bowl—an open-air amphitheater in the heart of San Diego’s Balboa Park. The Bowl has been closed since 2012, and has fallen into disrepair.

We envision a venue for open-air performances, concerts, cinema, festivals, plays, community events, and musical theater. 

We imagine a new generation of diverse performances, a stage for the San Diego community hosting magical entertainment experiences. Our goal is to preserve the Bowl’s heritage, ensure accessibility, and use creative technology to address opportunities and challenges for its location and architecture.

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The Bowl is located in the Palisades area of San Diego’s beloved Balboa Park. It is directly under the flight path for San Diego’s airport, the busiest single runway airport in the US, Lindbergh Field.

For decades, theatrical performances would “freeze” mid-scene or song as the planes passed overhead. As air traffic increased dramatically so did the noise and interruptions, creating problems for the venue’s traditional programming.

Step 1: Campaign

Stop the decline of the Bowl through maintenance and care.

Build a coalition of volunteers, leaders, advisors, supporters and participants.

Develop a sustainable operating plan.

Test sound and lighting technology.

Step 2: Renovation

Plan coming soon.

Step 3: Operation

Plan coming soon.

VISIONARIES IN ACTION

Save Starlight—a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization—is a grassroots initiative led by a team with experience in theatre technology, urban culture, community production, urban revitalization, historic preservation, and sustainable business. Our growing team has a deep commitment to the heritage of the Bowl and surrounding park. Our DIT (do it together) spirit is generating collective momentum across San Diego for this vision.

Steve Stopper is the former audio technician for Starlight. He currently runs the largest audio, video design service, in San Diego, with customers ranging from the NFL to the Navy. Stopper is also the founder of The School for Creative Careers, a nonprofit focused on giving students experiences in real world performance art environments.

Welton Jones has been involved with San Diego arts and entertainment since 1966, as a theatre and music critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune; as a playwright, director and producer at many venues; and as an activist for innumerable cultural projects.

Diana Cantu is an international business development executive with extensive experience in the intersection of technology and the arts/humanities. Currently she’s a consultant specializing telecommunications, broadcast, and multimedia distribution infrastructure. She also has served/currently serves in leadership capacity on boards for nonprofit arts organizations.

Stephanie Sherman is an art director, public curator, and social designer who creates collaborative systems by transforming underutilized spaces and surplus resources. She co-founded Elsewhere--a living museum and artist residency set in a former thrift store that helped to revitalize Greensboro, NC, and is currently the co-director of Common Field, a new national arts organizing network. She has worked as a collaborator and cultural consultant with Materials & Applications (LA), Sensible Recovery (NY), DesignLab (San Diego), Provisions Library (DC) Rebuild Foundation (Chicago), Kulturpark (Berlin), Save Starlight (San Diego), Merz Barn (UK), Forecast Public Art (MN), RadioEE (Miami) and Port-to-Port (international). Her projects have been supported by the Warhol Foundation, Kresge Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and ArtPlace America. She holds a BA from University of Pennsylvania in 20th C. Literature, an MA from Duke in Critical Theory+Visual Culture, and is currently working on a Phd in Art+Design at UCSD. She believes there is an art to everything. http://stephaniesherman.net

Dan Woodard is an alumnus of UC San Diego and received his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1986. He’s been an attorney in private practice since then. In addition to nearly 30 years in estate planning and litigation practice, he’s mediated nearly 1000 disputes. He was honored by the Los Angeles Superior Court as the Probate mediator of the year in 2010, 2011, and 2012. He has been a member of numerous Boards of Directors and been counsel to multiple non-profit organizations over the past 25 years.

Stan Canaris recently retired after 36 years of service within the Sweetwater Union High School District as a teacher, football coach and dean of activities at various schools. He oversaw the opening of Eastlake High School in 1992 and served as vice principal before assuming the role of principal in 1995. It was under his leadership that the school, then the newest in the district, earned recognition as a California Distinguished School as well as numerous athletic banners. Upon retirement, to honor him and his contributions to the District and the community, Eastlake High named its athletic stadium Stan Canaris Stadium. He also taught and was head football coach at Hilltop High, taught at Sweetwater High School, and served as dean of activities at Mar Vista High School. Stan is a life-time member and Vice President of Eastlake Education Foundation.  He has received numerous awards over the years. Highlights of these are: Administrator of the Year at Sweetwater Union High District, San Diego Proclamation, Coach of the Year, Certificate of Congressional Recognition, Recognition from President George W. Bush.

Sierra Poppleton graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho with her B.A. in Photography (www.sierrapoppleton.com). She is the founder of BYU-Idaho’s Last Voice Standing and has served as the director of their dance and sports program. She has a passion for theatre, dance, sports, business and plans to return to school to get her M.B.A. in the future. 

Jamie McGuffee is a creative spirit connected with The School For Creative Careers and many other performance art entities. McGuffee has been involved with School for Creative Careers since 2014. As an instructor she has helped to create and teach seminars for students about music and live production. She has worked for over 60 music festivals and events across the country. She is able to combine her passion and skills for preforming arts, by creating events  and  through these skills she aims to develop a Save Starlight community. McGuffee is currently part of the outreach team for the campaign.

Glenna Trone has experience in both photography and videography with a background in theatre. She first became involved with Americas Finest Sound as technical support in 2014. Soon, she expanded her skills in media through the School For Creative Careers. Her enthusiasm for media production continues to grow through her involvement with Save Starlight.  

Diana Benavidez  holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from UC San Diego. She has previously been involved as Production Assistant for Parkeology and Design Forward. Her work as a Visual Artist adopts the Mexican craft of piñata making as a medium to create sculptures that involve the absurd-like exaggeration of mass-produced objects, which plays off on both the viewers intimate knowledge of, and their shared relationship to taken-for-granted objects. Her sculptures are also a reflection of the artist’s own hybrid identity as a Mexican-American growing up near the San Diego/Tijuana border where the language of commodification and the culture of conspicuous consumption transcends both sides of the border. Works have been exhibited in a variety of spaces that include UC San Diego’s Adam D. Kamil Gallery and The Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. http://www.dbenavidez.com/

Reverse Gardening Party- August 13, 2016