I’ve
been writing about performing arts in this town for more than a decade, and I’ve gotten to know the local theaters and the people running them pretty well. So when I was putting together February’s spring theater guide (“Playing Around,” Arts & Culture, Feb. 5), I found it remarkable how often my sources at the usual venues told me they were hosting productions by new companies. Merry War Theatre Company, Vaude Villain, Potentialist Workshop and Homeslice Productions are just a few of the company names recently added to Reno’s increasingly vibrant performing arts scene.
The local comedy troupe The Utility Players can be scary funny. Shane Tolomeo and Amanda Alvey are pictured.
You slice it “There’s a burgeoning happening in all of Reno arts right now,” said Jessica Levity, a local radio personality who founded Homeslice Productions (www.HomesliceProductions.com) in 2009, calling it the umbrella company under which she plays with her imagination. Under it are The Utility Players comedy and improv troupe; spirituality and inspirationbased Alchemist Theatre; and the adult storytelling project she co-produces with Steve Emmerich titled Cincinnati, NV. “The Renossance you’ve heard about is very real,” she said. “There’s a can-do energy that extends to the arts. Everybody wants to start their own something.” But could the increasing number of new companies create an oversaturated marketplace for Reno’s tiny theater-going audience? Perhaps, but Levity is optimistic. “I once heard a statistic that it’s the same 3,000 people going to local theater, so every show you go to, it’s the same people,” Levity says. “But for me, it’s all about the quality of the product. If the quality blows you away, you’ll come back. A lot of new things are cropping up and people are being blown away, so as long as the quality stays high, it will grow.”
Live up to it
Photo/Eric Marks
New performing arts theaters and production companies are popping up all over town
16 | RN&R |
by Jessica Santina
APRIL 9, 2015
There’s certainly no fear of failure where artists Pan Pantoja and Aric Shapiro are concerned. When they cofounded their performing arts company (“We are not a theater!” they both insist), Potentialist Workshop (https://www.facebook.com/PPPWS), they did so with the intention of bringing brand-new works—no matter the genre or how nuts the ideas may seem—to the stage. This philosophy is an extension of Pantoja’s artistic style, which he calls Potentialism. “We Potentialists refuse to pick a genre or even a form,” Pantoja said. “It’s being able to flow in and out of art forms seamlessly.” Since the Workshop space first opened last year— its current space is on Dickerson Road—they’ve produced some outrageous things. “We’ve produced stuff that’s been brought to me on napkins,” he said. “I think Reno is brilliant. There’s so much talent here.” To illustrate, he cites one show that was essentially a one-hour gripe about artists, performed by “workers” hanging paintings on a wall. Productions have included live music, live painting and sculpting, and a comedy called Dementia: The Musical.
