Theatre company goes from dream to reality

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 9:12 a.m.

The curtain will rise on a play and a dream tonight at UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre.

The play is "The Beauty Queen of Leenane," by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh.

The dream that is coming to life is the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, which begins its inaugural season with the 1998 Tony Award-winning play.

"I arrived here in 1989 with the hope of starting a professional theater," Robert Brewer, NCT's managing director, said.

Twelve years later his dream to found such a theater has been realized.

"There were several (community) theaters (groups) in the city back then, but we were hoping they could move from the community theater level up to professional," Brewer said.

Before looking at Las Vegas as a potential cultural orchard as opposed to the cultural desert that it was, Brewer spent many years as a professor of drama and a director at regional theaters across the country.

UNLV officials asked him to join their faculty in 1989 as head of the graduate program in drama.

"It seemed like the right time," he said. "I headed the program for 11 years. I resigned when the opportunity to run the (NCT) came along, but I'm still on the faculty at UNLV."

The university was instrumental in the creation of the NCT last year. "UNLV is providing us with an incubation period," Brewer said, noting that the university is providing the performance space for free.

The goal during the incubation period is for the NCT to become a member of the League of Regional Theaters (LORT).

To belong to LORT, Brewer said, a theater company must have a contract with Actor's Equity, a nationwide theatrical union for professional actors.

"This is part of a three-year plan," Brewer said. "If we had the money right now we could join LORT, but it will take about three years to raise the money we will need."

Brewer said he believes there are enough people in the city to fill seats at NCT's performances.

"Most cities with a population of more than a million have a professional theater of some sort," Brewer said. "We were one of the few that didn't. It's time for (professional theater) in Las Vegas.

"But it boils down to corporate support. I think people ... will support it. But without corporate support, which in Las Vegas means gaming, I think it will not happen. But we have to prove ourselves to get that support."

Brewer -- who is directing the drama -- is banking on "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" to inspire that support.

"I saw it in New York and fell in love with it," he said. "It won four major Tony Awards (three for acting, one for directing) ... and besides being a great play, conceptually it is the kind of work we want to produce."

McDonagh, who wrote the play in the early '90s, has been compared to film director Quentin Tarantino ("Reservoir Dogs") in terms of his gritty portrayal of life.

The play has been described as a "study of psychological terror, manipulation and co-dependency."

The plot follows the relationship between a mother and daughter in an isolated part of Ireland. With a cast of only four characters, it is a relatively simple and inexpensive play to stage, Brewer said.

The NCT's second play (scheduled for February) will be John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." It is a joint effort of the conservatory and University Theatre, which is part of the UNLV Theater Department.

Next year, Brewer said, the Judy Bayley Theatre will be used primarily by the NCT. Performances by the University Theatre will be held at UNLV's Black Box Theatre. Its first stand-alone production of the season will be Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors," scheduled for a November run.

As a season finale in May, the NCT and University Theatre will co-produce the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

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