Local theater companies gear up for a season of stage magic

Melissa Schorr

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 9:25 a.m.

A woman will waltz with a king, discover she is pregnant, lose her mind, hire a fiancee, reform a sinner, and murder her children.

And that's just in the first act.

Las Vegas local community theaters are swinging into this year's season with something to suit everyone's tastes.

Some will stage beloved book musicals, sure crowd-pleasers that always sell out.

Others take a risk with something brand new, rarely seen, or somewhat "avant-garde."

Some have lured productions recently on Broadway, while others will resurrect long-forgotten classics.

Meanwhile, backstage, theater groups are growing their subscriber lists, working toward regional status, adding additional nights to their performance schedule or additional shows to their season.

Some are babes barely out of the woods, others are celebrating a second decade in the business.

But all still worry how to keep afloat, apply for grant money, ensure ticket sales, and attract a younger audience without isolating their more mature counterparts.

Here is a roundup of what the local theaters have in store for their upcoming season:

Actors Repertory Theater

As the only current Equity theater in town, Actor's Repertory, in its 11th season, is known for putting on one of the most professional productions in town, using paid union actors. The group has even been able to add a person devoted to the all-important task of pursuing grants this year.

For this season, the group has added Wednesday night performances at its home base since '94, the 284-seat theater in the Summerlin Library, to satisfy its hefty mailing list of 4,500 locals and almost 1,000 season subscribers.

By offering musicals like "Oliver," "The King and I" and a Gershwin revue, the theater is able to present riskier material, such as last season's "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and this season's "Angels in America," Tony Kushner's Tony-award winning play about a privately gay, publicly homophobic lawyer infected with AIDS.

They will also produce "Sylvia," Sarah Jessica Parker's off-Broadway play where she portrays a dog, and "Zelda," a one-woman show on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott, and her struggle with insanity.

"Doing the crowd-pleasers is what allows us to do the more risky shows," says board member Rich Kimmel. "We don't look at success show by show, we look at the whole season. The more the community grows, the more we'll be able to do cutting-edge work," he says.

However, plans to add a "second stage" season, to run in addition to the mainstage season -- where they could experiment with such works -- have been delayed.

In the long term, Actors Rep dreams of transforming its ensemble up a level into regional theater status, like the La Jolla Playhouse or the Globe Theater, where they could employ resident actors.

Las Vegas Little Theater

Celebrating its 20th season this year, the Las Vegas Little Theater has seen its season subscribers jump from 400 to 500.

"We try to do true community theater," says board president Cassie McGuire. "Our niche is not only providing entertainment, but access to learning the craft. We look at it not only from the audience's viewpoint but from the people's involved. It is their recreation."

As for funding, "we rely entirely on what comes through the doors," she says. "So if we're not doing what people want to see, we can't open [them]."

That means must-sees, like the Las Vegas debut of Wendy Wasserman's "The Sisters Rosensweig" and "Hay Fever" by Noel Coward, and their season opener, "Murder on the Rerun" which will be followed by a "wine soiree" after each performance to celebrate their second decade.

This year's musical, "Jecques Brel is Alive & Well & Living in Paris," is described as "almost a cult musical, very introspective."

"We're not in a position to do shows that need elaborate costumes and sets, things which colleges can do," explains McGuire. "We're not able to mount it at a respectable level. There is no way we could do justice to a large musical -- we can't put more than 12 on the stage."

However, the Little Theater does have one edge -- it is one of the few groups in town who have their own full-time space. "It's best to operate on your own stage," she says. "It's best to be on stage with your set as early as possible."

Signature Productions

Signature Productions takes this approach to community theater: quality over quantity.

"A lot of theater companies do a lot of shows," says board member Leslie Fotherington. "We try to focus on two and make them really good."

That means over three months of rehearsals for two show-stopping classic musicals per season. This year, they will produce "Guys and Dolls" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

The group also makes a point of dubbing their work "quality family entertainment," refraining from any material that might be offensive or not appropriate for children. "We want to keep families in mind," she said, "and do something uplifting for the community."

Off-Broadway Theater

Carl Butto, of the Off-Broadway Theater, also chooses his plays with a "G" rating in mind.

"We don't do controversial plays," says Butto, who runs the theater with his wife, Margie. "We believe in giving a message that is wholesome."

Especially with the small, intimate size of the cozy 99-seat theater, a play with nudity or cursing would be too in-your-face. "It's too close," he jokes. "My god, I'd have to get another license."

The Off-Broadway Theater spent its summer dealing with growing pains. The 5-year-old off-shoot of the Creative Talent agency recently almost tripled its theater size, adding 1,100 square feet and 20 more of those scrumptious green cushiony chairs from the Desert Inn's storage closet.

They tend to produce relatively lesser-known comedies, such as the season opener, "Never Too Late," a charmingly staged '50s comedy that spawned TV's "All in the Family."

They will also bring Neil Simon's recent play, "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" straight from Broadway to Las Vegas for the first time, and "Beau Jest," a show about a Jewish woman who hires a gentile actor to portray a Jewish fiancee she can present to her parents.

"Our theory of theater is to give an individual a message through entertainment, not by force feeding them," says Butto. "We call it a season of happiness and laughter."

Theater in the Valley

Henderson's Theater in the Valley also has found that comedy is a sure draw.

"We have found by polling our patrons that people want to go out and laugh," says company Treasurer Ken Feldman. "They don't want to see serious theater, they see enough of that on the news."

The five-year-old group has seen its subscriber list grow to about 200, and this season has added a fourth show, the musical revue "Stepping Out," a medley of lively dance numbers and singers trying their hand at the standards.

Otherwise, the group will also stick to straight plays this year, not financially ready to pay the hefty royalty fees to do a book musical. In return, they offer the cheapest seats in town, a steal at $6 a ticket.

This season they will offer "Murder at Howard Johnson's," "Squabbles" and "Deadly Games," all of which, despite their titles, are not mysteries, Feldman insists, but comedic thrillers.

Community College of Southern Nevada

On the other side of town, at the Community College, there will be little to laugh at.

The school-run program will open with Eric Bogosian's "Drinking in America," a series of monologues performed by students from the school's acting class, then proceed for the first time in recent years to a weighty classic, Euripedes' "Medea."

"We are trying to branch out and give exposure to the classics," said theater Professor Chuck Rounds. "We're trying to work toward a greater academic theater."

The second half of the school's season has been held up due to royalty negotiations. "We have ideas but no word yet," said Rounds.

Nevada Shakespeare in the Park

The only other classical work on the scheule for this season will be Nevada Shakespeare in the Park's 11th season offering of "The Tempest."

"Nevada Shakespeare in the Park was started by a group that wanted to accentuate that area of town as culturally sensitive," says Lloyd Cutler, president of the Henderson/Green Valley Arts Council.

This year, the group has hired a new production company, the Excalibur Theater Company of Los Angeles, which will perform a free staging at the Foxridge Park in Green Valley, which is expected to draw 10,000 people nightly.

Rainbow Company

The Rainbow Company, Las Vegas's only children's theater, is, ironically the oldest theater group in town -- celebrating its 21st season this year, or, as they put it, "the Rainbow Company is coming of age."

This year, the theater training program for children will cast five shows from the public and its ensemble of 45.

"We don't do floppy bunny shows," says Chris Shepherd, technical director, "but shows geared toward teaching children about theater. We also try to find things off the beaten path. You could do 'Annie,' but it's been done to death."

Instead, they will produce a medley of shows, from "The Noodle Doodle Box" -- as he puts it, "sort of like 'Waiting for Godot,' but more accessible" -- to "No One Will Marry a Princess With a Tree Growing out of her Head"

They will include a classic Christmas production of "Little Women" and will take the adult cast musical featuring the "Best Stories of the Silver State" on tour to city schools.

Completely city-sponsored, the Rainbow Company has the luxury of five city- paid full time employees entrusted with the charge of giving their ensemble a well-rounded taste of theater.

The Rainbow Company sees itself as one of the Great White Way's last great hopes for tomorrow's theater-goers.

"A large number don't go into the arts at all." explains Shephard. "In my opinion, our main job is to build good theater patrons."

Misfits Ensemble

The Misfits Ensemble is not really a theater group per se. "Our goal is not to produce theater for locals," says producing director Gale Baker.

It's not that she's stingy with her shows. It's just that the California-based group, which expanded to Nevada in 1993, mainly concerns itself with developing and raising interest in the production of new American plays.

"People do the chestnuts, because there's a sure draw," says Baker. "That means there are plays that most people don't have the opportunity to see."

To raise interest in them, the Misfits hold open workshops the last Tuesday and Wednesday of each month for developing scripts such as "The Canteen," a musical co-written by Baker and Pat Caddick, Danny Gans' musical director.

However, for the first time this year, the group has relented: it will stage a full production of "The Waterin' Hole," an intimate musical that played in the Cameron Theater in Los Angeles and won three Dramalogue Awards.

The group will hold open auditions for roles in the workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday, and is already on the lookout for play submissions for next year.

The Asylum

The Asylum is Las Vegas' most recent group hoping to focus on new American plays.

Formed this year by Artistic Director Maggie Winn-Jones and her husband, Davey Marlin-Jones, head of UNLV's playwriting program, the group will offer weekend acting classes, hold five staged readings this fall, and perform three main stage productions of new works dealing with Las Vegas.

A profile of the new group will appear in the SUN's Monday Accent section.

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