Dana Caldwell has been a proud Owl since 2014, serving as the Gr. 5-12 Theater Teacher, Director, and Performing Arts Chair at Laguna Blanca School. A Santa Barbara native, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has been actively engaged as an actor, costume designer, director, and educator throughout her career. When she is not in the theater she can be found enjoying the great outdoors with her husband, Charles, and son, Jack (a young Swoop in training!).
On Theater at Laguna: “There is no greater practice of empathy than the work we do in theater as actors and as storytellers. We actively walk in others' shoes, we imagine a world other than our own—lessons we learn within our walls but take with us well beyond the theater. We engage in critical and creative thinking to solve problems as we dive into the unknown. We learn that our own unique gifts are vitally important. We learn that our voice matters and that we can’t do it alone. That it takes a village, showing up for your team, commitment, and follow through. And that humor and friendship get us a long way when the going gets tough. We learn that it’s okay to make mistakes and that perfection is a fool's errand, but sometimes, in that darkly lit theater, in those moments of profound human connection, we get pretty close to it.”
Brianne was raised in Southern Oregon and first moved to California to attend UCSD, where she studied Vocal Performance and History. She earned a master’s degree in History from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary and then began her teaching career as a Teach For America corps member, teaching choir in rural Louisiana. After teaching in Los Angeles for several years, she embarked on a two-year-long surf trip that ended abruptly along with everything else in 2020. She is thrilled to be settling in Santa Barbara as part of the Laguna Blanca faculty and can't wait to make music with her students!
Mr. Uyesaka's quizzical outlook on life and love of the arts germinated while growing up in the 1950s and 60s in the fertile San Joaquin Valley. Living out in the boondocks provided many, many hours to roam the country side and appreciate the slow side of life and fueled his passion to draw and make “stuff” from his imagination. Dug pursued painting and silk screen while at UCSB and went on to study graphic design and multimedia at SBCC. He also worked at a local film production company providing graphic design and media management. Dug has been a working artist and involved in the community arts scene since the 1970s. In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious LBS Faculty Excellence Award and a William T. Colville Foundation grant for the arts. In 2010, he was the recipient of The Arts Fund 2010 Individual Artist Award for Assemblage and Collage. “Being able to nurture and help facilitate our students' imaginations and artistic talents here at Laguna and in the community is a gift. It fuels my spirit and hopefully enriches their lives forever. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
