The Hot Seat

Art

Nancy Good

Winchester Cultural Center

Artist Nancy Good is a devoted Burning Man participant, and this year she’s turned the experience into art: large-format pieces based on her photos of the festival and its denizens, but digitally manipulated into semi-abstract, mandala-like images meant to “capture the social, cultural, and artistic experience.” Title: See, Touch, and Go Dream: The Burning Man Tapestries. Dec. 1-Jan. 1, opening reception at 5p, Dec. 12, and artist’s workshop at 11a, Dec. 16, 702-455-7340

 

Literature

Paul Beatty and Viet Thanh Nguyen

UNLV’s Doc Rando Recital Hall

If you had to choose, which is the more prestigious recognition, the Man Booker Prize or the Pulitzer Prize? Trick question! You don’t have to decide. This event pairs Man Booker winner Beatty (for his novel The Sellout) with Pulitzer winner Nguyen (for his novel The Sympathizer). They’ll talk about literature as satire, politics, and “what it means to be the other.” Presented by Black Mountain Institute and The Believer magazine. Dec. 4, 7p, free (but RSVP requested), blackmountaininstitute.org

Image coutesy Black Mountain Institute

 

Theater

One Man Christmas Carol

Whitney Library

From Scrooge to the spirits to Tiny Tim to sad old Jacob Marley and his damn chains, there are many indelible characters in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Actor Mike Randall will play all of them in his one-man version of the sentimental holiday classic — just as Dickens himself did in a legendary visit to Randall’s hometown of Buffalo, New York, in 1868. Dec. 9, 4p, free

Image courtesy Whitney Library

 

Opera

Christmas at the Opera

Charleston Heights Arts Center

Beyond the pa-rum-pum-pum-pum: Ninety minutes of holiday scenes from La Boheme, Werther, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. A nice alternative to clichéd carols sung by street urchins and David Bowie/Bing Crosby. Dec. 16, 7:30p, $20 adults, $10 youths, artslasvegas.org

 

Music + Art

Composition

Barrick Museum

Here’s a little cross-genre gift you can give yourself: UNLV music students compose new works that respond to pieces of art hanging in the Barrick Museum. And before you think, Aw, they’re just students, check that bah-humbug, Scrooge. This is the season of generosity, so check this out. Dec. 6, 7:30p, free, , unlv.edu/barrickmuseum

Harpist Emily Montoya. Photography by UNLV Creative Services/John Hawkins