Food, festivals & Family | Music | Theater & Dance | Literature and Ideas | Visual Arts
{09|09-10
Take me to your DREAMers
In Más Americanos, aliens make contact with the U.S., offering to trade life-saving technologies for 11 million people, and the U.S.-born daughter of undocumented immigrants gets caught in the middle. This bilingual play is written and directed by Arlene Rivera and Eric Franklin, and based on the short story The Space Traders by Derrick Bell. (HK) Winchester Cultural Center, $15, 702-455-7340
{09|09-25
GIANT disappointment
A dime store in a small West Texas town is the setting for Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, a play by Ed Graczyk that probes idol-worship’s delusional quality. (HK) Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff Drive, $21-$24, lvlt.org, 702-362-7996
{09|13
What’s multidisciplinary chamber opera?
In Both Eyes Open, Max Giteck Duykers and Philip Kan Gotands take on the tough subject of America’s World War II Japanese internment camps through a complex presentation of music, chanting, interactive audio and video, modern dance, physical theater and spoken word. (HK) Winchester Cultural Center, $10-$12, 702-455-7340
{09|16-17
Get out your onesy!
As part of its Family and Children’s Performance Series, the Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater does a participatory performance of Pajama Party with select excerpts from Alice Down the Rabbit Hole. (HK) West Las Vegas Library, free, 702-507-3989
{10|06-31
Feeeeeed meeee!
Join Seymour, Audrey II and various disposable characters at the Little Shop of Horrors — you know it, you love it. (SD) Times and location TBA, $25-$28, majesticrepertory.com
{10|06
Geopolitics and Raisinettes
Cockroach Theatre opens its fall-winter season with The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Kristoffer Diaz’s Obie Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning satire about a professional wrestler. (HK) Art Square Theatre, 1025 S. First St. #110, $16-$20, cockroachtheatre.com, 702-818-3422
{10|14—30
To kill for
Darren Weller (see Ones to Watch, p. 68) directs William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Macbeth in a contemporary style for this Nevada Conservatory Theatre production. (HK) Black Box Theatre at UNLV, $14.75-$16.50, unlv.edu/nct, 702-895-2787
{10|22—23
Spell-raiser
Nevada Ballet Theatre dances Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s classic interpretation of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, complete with wicked stepmother, Prince Charming and hex-busting kiss. (HK) Reynolds Hall, The Smith Center, $29-$139, nevadaballet.org
{10|27-11|13
Something fishy
A Public Fit’s Ann Marie Pereth and Joseph Kucan co-direct Australian award-winning drama When the Rain Stops Falling in a found space that fits the philosophical subject matter: an 8,000-square-foot empty warehouse in the developing East Fremont district. The play delves into the prophecy and aftermath of a fish falling from the sky during a days-long deluge, with a story that spans four generations and two continents. (HK) 100 S. Maryland Parkway, $25, apublicfit.org
{11/03-11/06
Making it real
The Asylum Theatre, working with The Telling Project and local veterans, produces Telling Las Vegas. The nonprofit, which has staged dozens of plays around the country, gives veterans a platform to share their experiences with non-veterans and reconnect with the community. (HK) Art Square Theatre, 1025 S. First St. #110, NEED PRICE, asylumtheatre.org,
702-604-3417
{11|04-20
Cultivating romance
What happens when two farmers and next-door neighbors in Ireland’s Midlands region come to life-changing turning points at the same time? John Patrick Shanley’s comedy Outside Mullingar answers. (HK) Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff Drive, $14-$15, lvlt.org, 702-362-7996
{11|12-21
I wonder if this can be described as existentialist, like the plays of Beckett?
In one-act opera Postcard from Morocco, a mysterious puppet master is trying to seduce passengers to serve as his marionettes as they wait for a train and guard their luggage. “Existentialist, like the plays of Beckett,” says one critic. (SD) 2p and 7p, Winchester Cultural Center, $15, sincityopera.com
{11/13-20
Dance, dance collaboration
Cirque du Soleil plus Nevada Ballet Theatre equals A Choreographers’ Showcase, the annual show that has become a must-see for lovers of uniquely local cutting-edge dance. (HK) Mystère Theatre, Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, $25/$45, nevadaballet.org
{11|18-19
Up all afternoon for good fun
Local choreographer and dancer Peter Chu brings his boundary-pushing performance style to fellow Las Vegans through Chuthis, a blend of contemporary, urban and theatrical dance with dramatic light and sound. (HK) West Las Vegas Library, free, 702-507-3989
{11|19
Hella belly
If you think there’s only one kind of belly dance, you need to get yourself to the Library District’s Night of Diverse Cultural Belly Dance. Artists from different disciplines will display the regional and stylistic specificity of their midriff craft. (HK) West Charleston Library, free, 702-507-3964
{11|20
From Bharata Natyam to Bollywood
Following a discussion of India’s classical and modern dance forms by director Purbasha Banerjee, performers take the stage to give live demonstrations in Rhythm of India, cosponsed by Nritya Academy of Indian Dances. (HK) Whitney Library, free, 702-507-4014
{11|22-27
It’s okay to dream
The holidays call for nostalgia, and the stage adaptation of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas delivers. A song-and-dance team and ravishing sister act stumble on each other in a Vermont Inn, providing the dusting of romantic magic. (HK) The Smith Center, $29-$139, the smithcenter.com
{11|25-12|17
But she’s so adorable! So murderously adorable!
Who among us, as a grade schooler, didn’t want to kill an annoying classmate who one-upped us? Hmm, no one? Well, maybe it’s just little Rhonda Penmark, the bad seed at the center of The Bad Seed. Her mother gets an uneasy feeling when a little boy — who won a penmanship medal adorable Rhonda felt she deserved — is drowned at a picnic. (SD) Times and location TBA, $25-$28, majesticrepertory.com
{12|02-11
Dr. who?
Looking for a family activity that’s truly magical? Rainbow Youth Company has something theatrical. The perfect date, a night most musical, starring a certain cat and elephant: Seussical! (HK) Charleston Heights Arts Center, $5, artslasvegas.org
{12|02-17
#GetSensible
Kate Hamill found Off-Broadway success with her contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. The Nevada Conservatory Theatre presents her version of the Dashwood sisters’ attempt to survive and save face amid misfortune. (HK) Judy Bayley Theater at UNLV, $29.75-$33, unlv.edu/nct, 702-895-2787
{12|02-18
With friends like these
Three couples, three kitchens, three successive Christmas Eves, an assortment of funny mishaps — and, through it all, the financial rise of one at the expense of the others. This is the formula for Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy Absurd Person Singular, taking the main stage at Las Vegas Little Theatre. (HK) 3920 Schiff Drive, $21-$24, lvlt.org, 702-362-7996
{12|10-24
Some toy
Nevada Ballet Theatre continues its holiday tradition of bringing the famous seedpod smasher to life with James Canfield’s artistic direction and Tchaikovsky’s music. It’s a Nutcracker not found outside Las Vegas. (HK) Reynolds Hall, the Smith Center, $29-$179, nevadaballet.org
{12|17
Bell rings and angel wings
Poor Richard’s Players present It’s a Wonderful Life — a Live Radio Play, the story from the classic holiday movie, but told in the style of a vintage radio drama, complete with sound and stage effects. (HK) Charleston Heights Arts Center, $10-$15, artslasvegas.org, 702-229-6383
{01|19
Some homecoming
In Taylor Mac’s Hir, a marine returns from the war to find his mother radicalized and his sibling making a gender transition. Christopher Brown directs the Cockroach Theatre’s production of this tragicomedy about letting go of tradition. (HK) Art Square Theatre, 1025 S. First St. #110, $16-$20, cockroachtheatre.com, 702-818-3422
I SENSE A THEME
The classics get a contemporary makeover as performers seek new ways to stage timeless stories
{09|02—10
Straight outta Avon
Hamilton is coming! Hamilton is coming! Next year. Meantime, please enjoy The Bomb-itty of Errors, a rap adaptation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, presented by Nevada Conservatory Theatre with a live DJ on stage. (HK) Judy Bayley Theater, UNLV, $29.75-$33, unlv.edu/nct, 702-895-2787
{09|30
Red lines
Members of theater company A Public Fit perform a staged reading of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer-nominated In the Blood. Based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the play focuses on a group of African-American characters forced into homelessness. (HK) Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, free, apublicfit.org, 702-507-3459