Westmont’s John Blondell will discusses the world premiere play that will bring Santa Barbara’s silent film history to the stage in a Westmont Downtown Lecture, 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16 in the Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden St.

The Film Within a Play: Celebrating Santa Barbara’s Flying A Studios on Stage is free to attend; no tickets or reservations are required. Free parking is available. For more, call 805-565-6051.

Blondell, director of “Diamond to Dust: a Flying A Fantasy,” will be joined by select cast members, who will perform a scene from “Diamond to Dust.”

“The talk promises to be a wide-ranging discussion about an important story in Santa Barbara’s history, the ins and outs of theatrical performance, sneak peeks into theatrical process, and how all these impact our students in the show, and ultimately our audience,” Blondell said.

Santa Barbara was one of the centers of American film from 1912-21 with the American Film Manufacturing Company, known as the Flying A, which made more than 1,000 films.

Blondell and Michael Bernard, who wrote the play, collaborated to produce a revealing, live theater event that focuses on the mishaps and innovation of the Flying A and how it helped shape more than a century of storytelling.

“Diamond to Dust” will be performed in Westmont’s Porter Theatre Feb. 24-25, March 2-4 at 7:30 p.m.; and March 4 at 2 p.m.

As co-founder and director of the Lit Moon Theatre Company, Blondell will direct Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” later this spring.

In the fall, Blondell will enter his third year as Westmont’s global ambassador in the performing arts. In the meantime, he will direct “Richard III” for Prague Shakespeare in Prague, “Prometheus Bound” in the ancient Roman theater of Heraclea in Bitola, Macedonia and “Peer Gynt” in Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

He also helped curate the Verona Shakespeare Festival, which will run Aug. 24-31 in Verona.

Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter is a free lecture series sponsored by the Westmont Foundation. The foundation also sponsors the 18^th annual Westmont President’s Breakfast with keynote speaker Doris Kearns Goodwin, March 10.

The next Westmont Downtown Lecture will feature Rebecca McNamara, Westmont assistant professor of English, speaking about Care in Times of Crisis: Suicide and Emotions in Medieval England on April 13.