Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Prone to theatrics: Area productions offer volume, variety

Following are contact numbers for performing-arts companies in the Las Vegas Valley:

Whoever said Las Vegas lacks culture hasn't taken a close look at the city's long-standing performing arts institutions.

The Las Vegas area performing arts calendar of community concerts, theater productions and dance is overflowing with something for everyone during the 2002-2003 season.

Continuing a long-standing cultural tradition are venerable organizations such as the Southern Nevada Community Concerts, celebrating its 66th year; Las Vegas Little Theatre, launching its 25th season; and the Nevada Chamber Symphony, tuning up for its 18th year.

When you add to that a diverse schedule of dance, jazz and theater including an original musical and a politically topical play at Community College of Southern Nevada and the inaugural season at the Henderson Pavilion at Liberty Pointe even the laziest couch potato should be motivated to explore the live performance scene.

Southern Nevada Community Concerts is known for staging family oriented entertainment at very reasonable prices and sensible hours. SNCC's two evening performances begin at 7:30, and the other three are 2 p.m. matinees.

SNCC's goals are reflected in its motto: "To have every child of Southern Nevada experience the sounds and feeling that only live music and performance can offer; to keep alive this feeling for our seniors who cannot afford a season subscription; to bring in ethnically diverse groups."

A contemporary dance company, Solstice Dance Theater, opens the season on Sept. 22 with a program fusing myriad dance styles and disciplines. Jim Post presents "Mark Twain & the Laughing River" on Oct. 23. A father-son piano duo, Peter and Saling Simon, entertain on Nov. 26. The Pu'u Kapu Band and Kalawa Family introduce Polynesian rhythms and dances on Feb. 23.

The Wood's Tea Company concludes the season with bluegrass, Celtic tunes, sea shanties and folk songs played on familiar banjos, guitars and tin whistles. Also used are exotic bezoukis and bodhrans.

Las Vegas Little Theatre, adjacent to Chinatown near the intersection of Valley View Boulevard and Spring Mountain Road, is an intimate house seating 184.

In honor of its 25th season, the company has assembled a retrospective of "Remastered Classics," featuring some of the group's best productions since 1977. Each of the six plays run for multiple performances.

Tennessee Williams' sizzling "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" kicks off the season on Friday. "I Hate Hamlet" from 1995 is reprised, beginning Nov. 1. "Las Vegas Little Theatre: The Musical," an original compilation of tunes from LVLT hits, opens Jan. 17.

"Stalag 17" takes the stage beginning Feb. 21. The curtain goes up on multiple-Tony Award winner "The Lion in Winter" on March 28. The LVLT's season ends in May with a yet-to-be-chosen comedy.

LVLT introduced a unique theater experience in 2001 with its "Insomniac Project" theater at midnight. LVLT Board Vice President Walter Niejadlik launched the effort as an opportunity for actors, directors and playwrights to present subject matter too edgy or not appropriate for general audiences. Several very short plays and monologues are presented in one hour.

"It's short-attention-span theater," Niejadlik said. "If you don't like what you're seeing, wait a few minutes, and you'll be seeing something totally different."

The first "Insomniac" production begins Sept. 20 and runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for two weeks.

Innovation is also being offered by longtime favorite, the Nevada Chamber Symphony, in its 18th season, titled "Music with the Classic Touch."

The orchestra will concentrate on its new young artist development program, "Invitation to Play." Competitive auditions will determine six string players, ages 18 and younger, who will perform as guest concerto soloists.

All concerts will be held at 3 p.m. Sundays. Dates include Nov. 10, Dec. 1, Jan. 26, Feb. 9, March 24 and April 27. With the exception of the December concert, which will be presented at the Summerlin Library Theater, NCS will perform at Clark County Library Theater, 1301 E. Flamingo Road.

In addition, a special "Classics in the Afternoon" concert is scheduled for Oct. 19 at the County Government Center Amphitheater.

Highlights of the year are the Bach "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3," Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," Spirituals for Orchestra, and Purcell's "Chaconne in G Minor."

The Feb. 9 concert is called "For the Love of Music." Designed especially for children, it is an invitation to meet the orchestra. Rodolfo Fernandez is maestro of the NCS.

The Henderson Civic Symphony introduces a new music director and conductor this year, Peter Aaronson. Aaronson made his conducting debut in 1976 with the American Symphony Orchestra and has directed numerous orchestras, ensembles and opera productions in New York and Pennsylvania.

Aaronson also held senior-level production and administrative positions in the entertainment industry at Radio City Music Hall, Donald Trump's Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and in Las Vegas, at Bally's and The Venetian.

Aaronson is on the opera faculty of the Music and Fine Arts Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and was president of the Southern Nevada Opera Association. He now holds the same office with the successor group, Opera Las Vegas, which is in its formative stages.

The Henderson Civic Symphony is offering a five-concert season of works by well-known composers, among them Wagner, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mozart.

The Weber "Concerto No. 2, Op. 74, for Clarinet and Orchestra" on Oct. 29 will feature Bill Parker as clarinet soloist. Barbara Edwards will be soloist in a Telemann viola concerto on Feb. 9. The winner of a concerto competition will star on the Young Artists program on March 16.

The May 18 concert will showcase Faure's "Requiem for Soprano and Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra." "Sounds of the Season" is the holiday show on Dec. 3.

With the opening of the Henderson Pavilion at Liberty Pointe on Sept. 27, a dynamic new outdoor venue for performing arts expands the cultural experience of Clark County.

The Las Vegas Philharmonic, Nevada Ballet Theatre and Opera Las Vegas will perform at the grand opening.

Troubadour Lee Greenwood follows on Sept. 28. On both dates, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the "Made in America" festival will help launch the versatile facility. Henderson Shakespeare in the Park stages "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Oct. 11 through Oct. 13.

In the spring the Pavilion welcomes the return of good weather with "Drum Fest" on March 1. From then until July, a wide variety of performers will keep the Pavilion alive with the sound of music and laughter. Among them: Yellowjackets, Gaelic Storm (an Irish band), Samite (African music), the Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Company and Asleep at the Wheel.

Henderson is on a year-round, broad-brush entertainment roll.

Black Mountain Recreation Center hosts a Family Series of events and Coffee Shop Sunday groups. Whitney Ranch and Valley View Recreation Centers are also performance locations. The Cultural and Special Events Division of the Henderson Parks and Recreation Department offers a brochure of performing arts programs and maps with directions.

The City of Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services publishes a monthly bulletin of performance events; a Charleston Heights Jazz concert is set for Sept. 29.

Nevada Ballet Theatre dances "Double Exposure" at Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza in Lorenzi Park on Saturday. Aunty Genoa Keawe performs traditional Hawaiian music at the same location on Sept. 21. The Brass Roots Quintet sounds off at Reed Whipple Cultural Center on Sunday.

Other standout performing arts events include: Nevada Theatre Company's workshop performance of "Verboten Vegas," an original musical satire of all that is Las Vegas, which runs Oct. 25 through Oct. 27, plus "Midsummer Night's Dream" in May.

The company's wildly entertaining "Circus Freaks 3" takes over the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay at 2 a.m. Nov. 27. NTC will also be present in "Oklahoma" as part of the 2003 Super Summer Theatre at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park.

Also on the SST schedule are "Hello Dolly" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe."

Signature Productions is once again recreating Broadway blockbuster musicals. Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" opens with previews on Sept. 30 and runs through Oct. 26. "The Sound of Music" will ring out from March 31 through April 26. Performances are at Summerlin Library Performing Arts Center.

Although Opera Las Vegas is concentrating primarily on getting organized and holding fund-raising events this coming season, it has scheduled a Dec. 20 concert by The Tenors 3, a takeoff on the Three Tenors, featuring three local operatic tenors, Mark A. Thomsen, Alfonse Anderson, and Marco Varela. The city of Las Vegas is sponsoring the concert at the Las Vegas Municipal Court House in downtown Las Vegas.

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