Summer time is the season for silliness. It’s a time for operating by way of sprinklers, portray your fingernails 10 totally different colours, staying out too late, consuming junk meals … and being entertained by reveals which can be pleasant, humorous and unlikely to make you to suppose too onerous.
At the very least that’s how I plan to spend my summer time.
Native performing-arts corporations seem to have gotten that memo. Lots of their lineups are crammed with lighthearted fare—with comedies, feel-good dramas, upbeat dance numbers, killer tunes … or a mixture of all of those.
In fact, the problem in placing collectively a information like that is that I’m forecasting months prematurely, and as I write this, a number of corporations both hadn’t finalized particulars or just aren’t sharing them. Make sure you double verify corporations’ web sites or social-media pages for schedule and ticketing particulars.
Reno
Ageless Repertory Theatre
ART is a readers’ theater troupe: Actors carry out roles with scripts in hand, utilizing solely the only of units and costumes to assist in telling their tales. ART’s performances are at 1 p.m., one Tuesday and one Friday every month. Better of all, they’re free! (Donations are welcome.)
On June 13 and 16, search for Tuesdays With Morrie, the stage adaptation of Mitch Albom’s well-known autobiographical work about his life-changing reunion with, and weekly pilgrimage to go to, his outdated, dying faculty professor.
ART’s Artown providing is Social Safety, operating July 11 and 14, with a particular Artown efficiency added on Wednesday, July 12, at 7 p.m. On this comedy, married artwork sellers have their lives turned the wrong way up when household unexpectedly arrives at their doorstep. (That is one in all two performances of this present occurring this summer time; the second is in Carson Valley.)
A.V.A. Ballet Theatre
Ballet and rock music might make unusual bedfellows, however right here in Reno, they’re a profitable combo. A.V.A. Ballet’s Vortex, the Ballet That Rocks at all times packs the home with its distinctive mix of well-liked rock, dance and different music; modern ballet; and spectacular units and costumes.
It’s additionally free, so make plans to get to Bartley Ranch Regional Park’s Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater early on Friday or Saturday, July 14 and 15.
Brüka Theatre
Brüka’s thirtieth season attracts to an in depth on the finish of summer time, however not earlier than the corporate kicks up its heels with Kinky Boots, operating an entire month, June 23-July 22. It’s well-timed; main as much as Northern Nevada Satisfaction, this musical is about Charlie Value, who takes over his household’s shoemaking manufacturing unit and turns to an unlikely hero, Lola, a drag performer. An ensemble of twenty-two individuals performs manufacturing unit staff on this present by Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper; the rights for small theaters have been solely lately launched.
Whereas that is Brüka’s final mainstage present of the season, the corporate might be busy all summer time. Its two-week youth theater camp will run July 10-23, culminating in a student-created present primarily based on the theme “The Thriller of the Mysterious Play,” devised in solely two weeks, with public performances on the final weekend.
Brüka can even participate as soon as once more within the Sierra Nevada Lavender and Honey Competition, occurring Sunday, July 9, at Idlewild Park. Performances all day embrace theater work by Brüka’s youth actors in addition to jazz tunes by Cami Thompson and CeCe Gable.
In September, as faculty begins, Brüka’s Theatre for Youngsters will current The Paramount and Wildly Ridiculous Historical past of Nevada, touring libraries and faculties with this 45-minute present that makes an attempt to current the complete historical past of Nevada. Catch a public efficiency Saturday, July 8, on the Brüka stage.
Goodluck Macbeth
GLM has made a powerful dedication to presenting authentic, regionally created work, and its summer time reveals mirror it, beginning with The ten 10-Minute Play Competition. Drawing upon the barest of writing prompts—this yr’s being “field”—10 native playwrights, together with some native excessive schoolers, created their very own 10-minute performs, that are produced utilizing actual actors and minimal units. They run on Friday and Saturday, June 9 and 10—5 every evening, so you can also make a weekend of it.
One other authentic creation takes the stage for Artown, July 7-29: Shark! A GLM Unique Parody. Parodies have change into one thing of a specialty for GLM, which has confirmed particularly gifted at eliciting guffaws from savvy audiences. A spoof of the unique summer time blockbuster, Jaws, this present will embrace loads of Easter eggs for the movie’s diehard followers, in addition to references to Reno that locals are certain to like. The GLM crew additionally will take part within the Satisfaction parade.
As GLM turns its sights towards elevating funds for each its many productions and a capital marketing campaign, its repertoire will embrace reveals produced by outdoors corporations renting the house, in addition to fundraising occasions. Try the award-winning Puppeteers for Fears, from Ashland, Ore., which brings its magical combo of horror, comedy and puppets (for mature audiences solely) to the stage on Wednesday, July 19, with Cthulhu: The Musical!
Then on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11 and 12, catch TSTMRKT (pronounced “take a look at market”), a Las Vegas-based sketch-comedy firm of 1 (Ernest Hemmings) that makes use of movie loops, cut-and-paste theater and a recorded rating to stage its one-man performances; there’s no tech crew, only a begin button. The manufacturing is Everybody Loves Dick: The Life and Occasions of Dick Ripper.
Native dressmaker Kate Caufield, a Nevada Arts Council grant recipient, will current her work in a trend present at GLM on Saturday, Aug. 26. Across the Stage Dance Firm will current its newest work right here in a fundraiser on Saturday, Sept. 9.
Additionally, each Sunday in August, watch for traditional movie screenings by arthouse cinema firm Theater 42, which opened for about 5 minutes in a constructing on Moana Lane earlier than allow points pressured its closure.
For those who’d prefer to contribute to GLM’s mission and productions, cease by Chapel Tavern on Saturday, June 17, for a day fundraiser; get pleasure from food and drinks; attempt to win a raffle prize; and perhaps even see your favourite performer.
Latino Arte and Tradition
Reno is residence to this Latinx-based performing arts and tradition group, helmed by Mario DelaRosa and Annamaria Cavallone. The corporate has offered quite a lot of bilingual (Spanish/English) theatrical and cultural occasions at areas round Reno/Sparks since 2010.
From Thursday, June 8, by way of Saturday, June 10, it presents LGBTQIA+ Latinx at Reno Little Theater. DelaRosa describes it as “a revealing and sophisticated play that reveals communities which have traditionally been marginalized by an oppressive-hetero-patriarch-conservative-white society.” This dramedy will function an all Latinx solid, most of whom are a part of the LGBTQIA+ group.
On Saturday, June 24, head over to Teglia’s Paradise Park for the Mariachi and Folklore of the Nations Competition, a free occasion that can embrace video games, arts and crafts distributors, meals vehicles, dwell music and extra.
Reno Jazz Orchestra
This 17-piece modern band has been round for 26 years, touring with, internet hosting and paying homage to legendary performers within the jazz, swing and big-band world. This summer time’s lineup begins Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4, when college students within the RJO Jazz Workshop—a nine-week course for teenagers to develop improvisation, ear coaching, jazz idea and efficiency expertise —and the Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra carry out on the Goodluck Macbeth stage, performing works by Rely Basie, Benny Carter, Sammy Nestico and others.
Search for the RJO on phases round Reno and Lake Tahoe, together with Sizzling Home: One Night time on the Savoy Ballroom, a Nineteen Thirties-themed stage present with huge band/swing music and dance. This Artown efficiency is free to the general public on the new J Resort in Reno on Saturday, July 29. The present then travels to Sand Harbor’s stage as a part of the (ticketed) Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Competition on Monday, July 31.
The corporate can even open the Jazz and Past Competition in Carson Metropolis on Friday, Aug. 11, on the Governor’s Mansion. Then the band will be a part of Grammy-winning saxophonist Tom Scott, on Sunday, Aug. 20, at UNR’s Nightingale Live performance Corridor, and Monday, Aug. 21, on the Shakespeare Competition.
Reno Little Theater
Like Brüka, RLT is presenting a Broadway musical for the month of Artown: Seussical the Musical runs June 30-July 30. Oh, the locations you’ll go on this story of an elephant, a hen and a boy, together with among the most beloved characters from the world of Dr. Seuss. Shea King, a theater teacher at Truckee Meadows Group School who’s at present heading up its performing arts troupe, will direct this one. UNR dance college Nate Hodges choreographs it, and Abby Rosen, contemporary off directing GLM’s Males on Boats, gives vocal course.
Friday, Aug. 18, by way of Sunday, Aug. 20, director Stacey Spain will lead RLT’s Teenagers Converse Out education-program present. TSO productions are impressed by a theme and are comprised of prewritten works, motion and devised work, which is developed as the teenager actors rehearse. This yr’s present, Now I Lay Me Down 2 Sleep, addresses the subject of unhoused youth. Every efficiency might be adopted by a talkback, and the group is working with Eddy Home for consciousness and fundraising.
RLT additionally hosts a month-to-month jazz efficiency by For the Love of Jazz on the third Sunday of every month. And its one-week Act Out Theater Camp applications, with every week having a unique theme, can be found to youngsters in kindergarten by way of sixth grade the weeks of June 19, June 26, July 17, July 24, July 31 and Aug. 7.
Sierra Nevada Ballet
I really like a free present, and July is stuffed with them. Right here’s one other one: Sierra Nevada Ballet will current Dancing at Bartley on Friday, July 7, on the Hawkins Amphitheater at Bartley Ranch. The present options items by 9 choreographers and SNB dancers, in addition to a efficiency famend faucet star Sam Weber, and jazz music by Cami Thompson and her trio.
The Final Unicorn is SNB’s full-length, authentic ballet, created over a three-year interval by inventive director Rosene Bena, primarily based on a novel by Peter S. Beagle, concerning the story of a unicorn and her journey to avoid wasting the remainder of her race, with music by Franz Liszt. It runs Saturday, July 22, on the Pioneer Middle; Monday, July 24, on the Shakespeare Competition; and Saturday, Aug. 5, on the Carson Metropolis Group Middle.
The Pioneer Middle for the Performing Arts
Earlier than SNB’s present, Reno’s premier efficiency venue will host a number of performers, beginning with Reno Dance Firm’s Full Physique Rock, an authentic musical revue that blends traditional and present rock hits with a mess of dance genres, on Sunday, June 4 (two showings).
The Shamrock Productions and Dancin! Performing Arts Middle current a showcase of Irish dance, ballet, faucet, jazz, hip hop and modern dance and musical theater on Monday, June 12. Then on Saturday, June 17, catch Core Connection Dance Firm’s recital, Step Up and Dance!
The Reno Philharmonic Orchestra presents Disney’s A Dream Is a Want for 2 showings on Saturday, June 24, that includes Broadway-caliber vocalists, clips from beloved Disney films and a few of Disney’s most acknowledged songs.
On Friday, June 30, get pleasure from speaker César Lozano’s Spanish-language speak about coping with tough individuals and circumstances.
Then summer time break brings among the world’s funniest teacher-comedians to Reno on Monday, July 10, for the Bored Academics Comedy Tour.
The Theatre
Tucked into the Save Mart purchasing heart on Keystone Avenue, this newly renovated theater house hosts commonly sold-out reveals, the likes of which you might as soon as solely discover in on line casino showrooms. Each Saturday evening, Kevin and Caruso’s Magique options dazzling shows of magic, spectacular dance numbers, acrobatics and extra.
Rogue Worx, the troupe of performers that introduced #Millennial and Hush to The Theatre, is deep in improvement on its subsequent manufacturing, The Sport, a choose-your-own-adventure, psychedelic recreation present that includes components of cabaret and cirque nouveau, which can run on Fridays beginning Sept. 22.
TheatreWorks of Northern Nevada
This educating theater centered on offering performing arts schooling to youth and the underserved is in its 18th season. TWNN might be offering its annual summer time theater camp for youths June 19-23.
That units the stage for its Artown manufacturing, The Neverending Story, primarily based on the beloved youngsters’s guide. A longtime TWNN scholar and solid member, James Escobedo, will make his directorial debut with this present earlier than heading to varsity in New York this fall. Catch a sneak peak of a number of scenes onstage on the Reno Public Market on Sunday, June 25. Full performances will happen July 7-30 on the firm’s house at 315 Spokane St., which is newly reworked. Due to Keller Williams’ RED Day, a day of group service for the realty firm, TWNN was the recipient of a makeover, full with new dressing rooms, storage, a tech sales space, paint and flooring.
Sparks
Stressed Artists Theatre
RAT’s intimate house in downtown Sparks is right for small productions. Its July 7-17 providing of Popcorn Falls is an ideal instance. Solely two actors play 20 roles on this farce a few small, bucolic hamlet with a waterfall that’s turned the wrong way up when an evil villain upstream from the city plans to divert the water and switch Popcorn Falls right into a sewage therapy plant. Can the residents can succeed of their plan to placed on a theatrical manufacturing and save the city?
In August (dates TBD), RAT will current a present from one in all its favourite playwrights, Lauren Gunderson. By and By is a sci-fi thriller a few nerdy father, his daughter, the spouse he misplaced years in the past and the lengths he goes to so as to re-create the love he shared together with her. The story explores the specter of “edgy science.”
Sierra College of Performing Arts
One spotlight of summer time is at all times SSPA’s annual manufacturing below the celebs at Bartley Ranch. This yr is not any totally different as the corporate presents The Addams Household, the musical primarily based on the beloved TV sequence and movies about all people’s favourite not-quite-normal household. Operating Aug. 11-26, the present will embrace a dwell band. As a result of late summer time is now Smoke Season, the corporate has established a contingency plan: The present will transfer to Damonte Ranch Excessive College within the occasion of air high quality changing into too poor to carry out outdoors.
Carson Metropolis/Carson Valley
Carson Valley Group Theatre
Carson Valley’s resident theater firm would be the second one this summer time to convey Andrew Bergman’s Social Safety to the stage. As director Toni Tomei explains, the unique 1986 Broadway manufacturing was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Marlo Thomas, Ron Silver and Olympia Dukakis. It’s a comedy a few hip married couple in Manhattan’s Higher East Aspect whose tranquility is shattered when the spouse’s polar-opposite sister, brother-in-law and stereotypically Jewish mom descend on their doorstep. The present runs July 14-23 on the CVIC Corridor in Minden.
Carson Metropolis Ghost Stroll
Brüka Theatre’s personal Mary Bennett heads up this annual capital metropolis favourite. In her function as Madame Curry, spouse of Carson Metropolis’s personal founding father, Abe Curry, she leads individuals on a stroll alongside the town’s streets, mentioning a few of its most historic (and haunted!) buildings and regaling friends with fascinating and spooky tales. Ghost walks happen on occasional Saturdays by way of the summer time, beginning June 10, main as much as an all-day tour in October that allows friends to step inside houses and expertise visits from “spirits.”
Proscenium Gamers, Inc.
PPI, the oldest theater firm in Carson Metropolis, is bringing again its well-liked manufacturing of Gaslight for one weekend, July 7-9, on the Carson Metropolis Group Middle. Written by Patrick Hamilton, this darkish drama “dives deep into the psyche,” says director Steven Segal. It’s the story of a husband who tries to drive his spouse insane so as to take away her from their residence in order that he can proceed looking for stolen treasure. It’s supposed for mature audiences solely.
Wild Horse Productions
Wild Horse’s Youngsters’s Theater enjoys presenting works that can delight the youngest of viewers members—even those that have a tough time sitting nonetheless. This summer time, the corporate presents Jungle E-book Youngsters, a 45-minute condensed model of the Disney traditional. It strikes alongside at clip, and there’s no intermission to sluggish issues down. Two back-to-back performances happen on Friday, June 23, on the Brewery Arts Middle Efficiency Corridor.
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Competition
This yr’s annual Shakespeare Competition won’t function Shakespeare, and it’ll not have two reveals … nevertheless it’s actually doubling down on foolish, outrageous enjoyable with Little Store of Horrors as its mainstage manufacturing! So excited are the competition’s patrons that tickets are promoting briskly. In case you’ve missed it till now, it’s the story of a plant that drinks blood and grows to such an unlimited dimension that it could actually eat individuals.
Apart from the mainstage present, LTSF additionally will host a number of different native performing corporations (some talked about right here), in addition to concert events by such big-name acts as Pink Martini and Pablo Cruise.