Advanced stages Northern Nevada theater companies usher in a new era this spring Spring is the perfect time to shake off the dust of days gone by and try something new. Theater companies around Northern by Jessica Santina Nevada are taking that idea to heart, with performance schedules that include world premieres, cutting-edge new plays, Pulitzer Prize winners, innovative adaptations and even a few new players.
A Rep for taking chances: Nevada Repertory Company “After almost being eliminated last year, we really wanted to make a splash this season,” says Larry Walters, Nevada Rep’s managing director, explaining how the University of Nevada, Reno’s resident theater company is about to bring its second world premiere of the 2011-2012 season, Anne Garcia Romero’s Juanita’s Statue, to its stage this March. 16
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FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Ryan Kelly, left, and Adam Semas rehearse scenes from TMCC's production of Next to Normal.
Originally commissioned by the New York Shakespeare Festival, the play—a modernized, cross-dressing retelling of the Don Juan story—has until now only been read on stage a number of times; this full production by Nevada Rep will be its first. The playwright herself will work with the cast and do one postshow discussion with the audience. Following that is Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, a jazz musical set on a ship in 1934 that involves romance, mistaken identity, and a whole lot of schtick, with a number of highly recognizable songs, including the title song and “De-Lovely.” Adam Cates, a UNR graduate who hails from the Reno area, returns from a stint on Broadway to direct and choreograph this show. Walters will retire after the spring semester, leaving Nevada Rep in the hands of department chair Rob Gander. Tickets and information: UNR.edu/nevadarep.
around the country for nine years prior to moving to Reno, Sweet looks forward to helping push the Reno theater scene onto the national stage. GLM’s spring line-up includes A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, a Pulitzer Prize-winning, two-person show that tells the story of two old lovers, revealed through letters they’ve exchanged since childhood. Multiple casts provide for interesting shifts in couple dynamics from performance to performance, all in March. Following that, in mid-April, comes And the World Goes ’Round, a musical revue of the songs of Kander and Ebb, whose Broadway hits have included Chicago and Cabaret. That’s followed by a stage adaptation in June of Robert Redford’s film, Ordinary People, about a family struggling to cope with the loss of a beloved son. GLM’s Artown offering will be Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with set design by artist Lance Dehne. Tickets and information: GoodLuckMacbeth.org.
New blood: Good Luck Macbeth
Exploring fringes: TMCC Performing Arts
Another company losing a mainstay is Good Luck Macbeth. Founding president and artistic director Scott Reeves went to follow his dreams in New York, leaving the GLM producingartistic-director duties in the capable hands of Chad Sweet. Having worked in professional theater companies
TMCC’s talented performers are taking on some bold projects in 2012, starting with Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical Next to Normal, a show that’s been called brave, bold and even capable of taking theater into a new direction. This emotional story focuses
on a family coping with its matriarch’s mental illness. “Bold” would characterize TMCC’s next production, a doubleheader of The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, running simultaneously in the first two weeks of May. The plays document the immediate and decade-later reactions of Laramie, Wyo., residents to the murder of gay university student Matthew Shephard. Tickets and information: PerformingArts.TMCC.edu.
Spring of ambition: Brüka Theatre Nobody looking at its spring/ summer line-up would ever accuse Brüka Theatre of laziness. With one 2012 play already under its belt, in March Brüka launches into The Wild Party, a musical based upon Joseph Moncure March’s 1920s poem of the same name. Following that, in May, is Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, about two sets of parents coming together to iron out a dispute between their children, only to end up behaving more childishly themselves. In May comes another Pulitzerwinning play, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, about an unsettling relationship between a young woman and her uncle. With July and Artown comes Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus
PHOTOS/AMY BECK
In Rotation 18 | Art of the State 19 | Foodfinds 20 | Fi¬m 22