Theater company tells stately tales

Friday, Feb. 9, 2001 | 9:51 a.m.

Fast Facts

What: Rainbow Company Youth Theatre presents "All Aboard! Rails West to Nevada."

When: 7 p.m. today and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday (Additional performances are Thursday through Feb. 18).

Where: Reed Whipple Cultural Center, 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

Tickets: $5; $3 for teens and seniors; $2 for children ages 12 and under.

Information: 229-6553.

With transportation being what it is today -- easily accessible no matter the mode -- not everyone thinks about the ol' railroad, particularly the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad.

But for the past six weeks the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre has been dwelling on nothing else.

Its latest effort, "All Aboard! Rails West to Nevada," a musical production retelling the story of the the railroad coming to Nevada in the 1860s, opens tonight at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

With catchy, energizing lyrics, the performance captures the spirit of the country as it embarked on a new era. The play begins at Promontory Summit (also referred to as Promontory Point), in Utah, where the Union Pacific Railroad met the Central Pacific Railroad in 1869. The story then turns back in time to portray the competition between the two railroads and events leading to the ceremonial driving in of the stakes in Promontory Summit.

"Suddenly, when the railroad went through, everything changed," Karen McKenney, producer and director, said.

"In their time it was the greatest accomplishment ever," she said, citing writer and historian Stephen Ambrose, who explained that Andrew Jackson traveled in the same manner as Alexander the Great.

"(The railroad) was the first step that took the leap from carts and legs to mechanical transportation," she said.

McKenney wrote the songs and storyline for the production with the help of J Neal, who performs in the play, serves as company tour manager and provides his guitar as the sole musical accompaniment.

"We just wrote this part," she said last week as the cast of six tirelessly perfected harmonizing and timing for a song in the production.

Such last-minute modifications aren't unusual for the theater company that begins its rehearsals based on a loose script, then improvises as it goes along.

As with the other scripts, McKenney didn't just form the storyline willy-nilly.

"I've been researching since last summer," she said. "Libraries, museums, bookstores, everywhere. I went to the Smithsonian and spent a day in the railroad room. I have become a Nevada history fanatic."

This is the company's eighth annual "Nevada Series" production.

"It's a totally different show every year," McKenney said.

Past productions have included such topics as wagon trains heading west, the Pony Express and the making of silent movies in the Valley of Fire in the 1920s.

The productions are designed to be upbeat, Neal said. Each year the company takes the Nevada-themed production to local elementary schools. Following its run at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, "All Aboard! Rails West to Nevada" will be performed at schools Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the remainder of the school year.

The cast of six perform 20 characters, not including crowd members, she said. Performers are Neal, Tara Speck, Renee Brna, Tim Burris, Tim Clark and Peter James.

McKenney said the idea for Nevada-themed productions came from when she worked at a theater company in California that used California themes. Because of its racy history and the use of guns, finding G-rated stories in the history of Nevada, however, hasn't been easy, she said.

Kristen Peterson

is an Accent feature writer. Reach her at 259-2317 or kristen@lasvegassun.com.