Waking up to a 'Dream'

It's still spring in Las Vegas, but already Donna Lowre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is coming to life.

The professional theatrical troupe she has spent months creating, and years dreaming about, finally comes together tonight as The Nevada Stage Company prepares to deliver its inaugural performance, a romantic rendition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," at the Hills Park in Summerlin.

"It's about lovers coming together," Lowre says of the troupe's adaptation of the Shakespeare classic. "Sometimes 'A Midsummer Night's" Dream' can be just fantasy ... but this one is really a story about love and relationships."

The creation of The Nevada Stage Company is also a story about love -- the love of theater -- and relationships between the dozens of local actors who helped get the company off the ground.

"It's been a big task and if it wasn't for some of the people involved, helping me through this and all working together it couldn't have been done," Lowre says. Besides founding the company, she also acts as its artistic director and is co-directing the Shakespeare production.

A professional stage actress, singer, drama coach and director, Lowre developed the idea for the troupe three years ago, after moving to Las Vegas from Los Angeles.

Her objective was to bring the American classics to local audiences -- "especially the kids who've never seen (them)," she says -- and to provide opportunities for the growing ranks of skilled, experienced actors living in Las Vegas.

"Los Angeles (directors) still don't see that there are a lot of professionals here who can work," she says. "Even though they come here to shoot, they'll use extras, but they don't use a lot of the people who are here. And there is really a lot of good talent in Las Vegas now."

Many of the members of The Nevada Stage Company boast extensive stage, film and television experience, with collective credits that include appearances on television shows such as "E.R.," "Melrose Place" and "Columbo," and in movies such as "Casino," "Executive Decision" and "Space Jam."

Like Lowre -- who, along with her husband and daughter, fled the earthquakes of Los Angeles -- many of these actors came to Las Vegas seeking a better quality of life.

"I was a little disillusioned in California," says Lee Rhodes, a professional stage and screen actor who plays Egeus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and has more than four decades of experience. "So I left California five years ago and came to Las Vegas. What I was looking to do primarily was to join a repertory company."

Las Vegas is home to a number of community and regional theater companies, with work ranging from amateur to highly professional. "I saw a couple of productions here that I thought were on par with anything that was on Broadway," Rhodes, who has performed in Broadway productions, says. "But they've got their little cliques. It's difficult to break in."

And even for the most professional of actors, it's difficult to maintain a steady flow of work.

"In Europe you can join a repertory company and make a living," Rhodes says, noting that at any given time, as many as 92 percent of American union actors remain unemployed. "But (in the U.S.) we don't have that sort of thing."

With the formation of The Nevada Stage Company, however, Lowre hopes to change that. "We're trying to create a professional company where people are paid," she says. (Still, the Nevada Stage Company will remain a non-profit entity.)

Lowre has discussed the dilemma of how to create full-time work for the members of her company with Bruce Steivel, the new artistic director of The Nevada Dance Theatre, who is pursuing the same goal for his dancers.

"(Steivel) keeps people on the roster for so many weeks a year, so hopefully we'll be able to do that," Lowre says, adding: "He told me it takes time."

Alexander Mervin, a noted stage actor who plays Theseus the Duke of Athens in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," knows this firsthand. He started his own Las Vegas theater company, The Ensemble of Rising Artists (or E.R.A. Productions), several years ago to provide a much-needed vehicle for minority actors.

"There aren't available roles for them," he says, noting that he plans to integrate actors of all races into his productions.

Mervin juggles a full-time, non-acting job with his theater company, as well as roles in various local productions and Hollywood films: He performed in Actors Repertory Theater's productions of "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Angels in America," and recently shot a part in the film "Top of the World," with Dennis Hopper and Tia Carrere. Despite his hectic schedule, he plans to continue working with The Nevada Stage Company.

"I really like the chemistry," he says of the working relationships among the company's actors. "And I really like the types of things (Lowre) is talking about doing in the future."

Among those are productions of works by noted American playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. This year, Lowre hopes to stage at least two more productions. "I Remember Mama" and "Our Town" are possibilities.

"And after that, we should create a season and do three or four productions a year," she says.

Lowre also intends to throw more Shakespeare into the mix -- this week's production of "A Midsummer Night Dream" came about by chance.

The Summerlin officials Lowre appealed to for funding were looking to do something similar to the immensely popular Nevada Shakespeare in the Park productions staged each summer by the Arts Council of Henderson-Green Valley. After looking at Lowre's credentials, which include training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, they asked her if she'd be interested in doing Shakespeare.

"We had this window of opportunity so we just took it," Lowre says. "We were going to do Shakespeare anyway... and if this works out in Summerlin, hopefully we'll be there every year."

The opportunity arose so suddenly, the troupe hasn't yet had time to establish a permanent office or venue. But Lowre says she has a possibility in mind, and expects to get the details ironed out soon. By then, she hopes to begin attracting sponsors.

"We're new, and people have to see what we can do," she says. "Hopefully, after they see the kind of production we're doing up here, then angels will come out of the woodwork and help us."

archive