Nevada Theatre Company... closing.
I don't even know what to think or say. I'm in shock.
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001022021
Las Vegas August 25, 2005
Nevada Theatre Company
By Anthony Del Valle
If you don't know Vegas theatre, the news may not seem like much. But for those who care about the city's slow progress toward some kind of thriving local performing arts scene, the announcement was devastating.
The seven year-old Nevada Theatre Company will be closing.
Founder/artistic director Deanna Duplechain says she's planning on moving to Austin. The NTC will finish up a couple of commissioned shows, and will then sign off.
"It's a tragic loss," Community College of Southern Nevada theatre director Joe Hammond said. "The Nevada Theatre Company was one of Las Vegas' most innovative arts organizations," Nevada Conservatory Theatre artistic director Robert Brewer commented.
Some amount of hyperbole is to be expected when a theatre troupe folds, but there are some interesting reasons why NTC's demise is being taken particularly hard by some.
Before the NTC's birth in 1998, the typical Vegas community theater show, with some exceptions, was geared toward the senior citizen. Two of the most popular groups-- the off-Broadway Theatre, and Las Vegas Little Theatre--specialized in comedies that tended to be about kooky New York Jews and their social security checks. Young people simply didn't go to the theatre. When critics complained, they were told that local playhouses had no choice. The elderly crowd supported the arts, and "mindless" comedies were what they wanted.
Enter Duplechain. She was widely traveled, with New York credits, a B.F.A. from Cornish College and an M.F.A. in directing from the University of Virginia, and over 20 years experience in community, public school, university and professional level theatre. She had contacts in the local Cirque du Soleil shows--the shows that some say helped Vegas entertainment grow up--and worked in entertainment at the Venetian Hotel.
She says when she first got here, she reached out to some people in the community to try to get a sense of neighborhood and some help in vision, and detected little interest on the part of local artists beyond their own self-created worlds.
She wasted no time in finding the NTC, renting out spaces, and diving into scripts that the older theatres said Vegas just wouldn't accept: things like David Ives' "Mere Mortals"; Tony Kushner's version of Pierre Corneille's "The Illusion"; John Cameron Mitchell/Stephen Trask "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"; Bertolt Brecht "The Good Person of Szechuan"; Shakespeare, Charles Busch, Paula Vogel. In most major cities, these works might not seem radical, but in Vegas--where less than a decade ago Neil Simon was thought by many locals to be the only playwright in the English-speaking language--Duplechain's bravery was borderline shocking. (She also forayed into the worlds of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Cole Porter, as if to suggest to her audiences, "It's all good.")
What was amazing was that the NTC found its audience. And that audience tended to be young. NTC was literally the only community theater in town in 1998 that made the arts appear hip.
Duplechain soon found her own performing space-a tiny, former video store (once robbed at gunpoint by the late actress Dana Plato) -- in a small, Lakes shopping center. Rarely did the space look the same for any two shows. Sometimes bleachers would be set up for proscenium productions, sometimes chairs would be scattered about a thrust or center stage. For "Hedwig," designer Steve Turner transformed the playhouse into a delightfully sleazy lounge (complete with wine service). The sleaze was only in the atmosphere: the local daily paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, named "Hedwig" (directed by David Tapper) the city's best theatrical production of the 2003-2004 season. (The same critic named NTC the city's best troupe for six consecutive years.)
It wasn't long before other playhouses started to realize that young people were not by nature allergic to plays. Las Vegas Little Theatre began experimenting with a late-night program with sometimes "daring" works (under the heading, "Insomniac Project"), and even its main-stage line-up began loosening up a bit (they've scheduled "Take Me Out" for the upcoming season, which, with its lengthy nude scene, may forever change the expectations of LVLT audiences). Cockroach Theatre, made up of a group of friends from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, many of whom worked for the NTC upon graduation, began their own company and continue to explore works of dramatic depth. Even Theatre in the Valley--a small, ultra-conservative troupe whose audiences tend to be bused--in senior citizens and whose board tends to turn down things like "Proof" in favor of the likes of "Arsenic and Old Lace" and murder-mystery spoofs--has added Charles Busch to its repertory this season. There are those who would argue the NTC paved the way for this change in attitude about "acceptable fare."
Duplechain also managed to unite the city's artistic directors, ever so briefly, for monthly meetings to share common concerns and to avoid the frequent occurrence of several theatres scheduling the same shows. The get togethers didn't long survive-some complained the artistic directors were too territorial to maintain the camaraderie that was necessary to keep the organization going-but they helped seal, in a very short time, Duplechain's leadership position in the community.
It wasn't all smooth sailing. Duplechain developed a reputation as a director who did not allow actors much breathing room. It's said she usually knew exactly what she wanted, and some major local actors complained that they were never permitted to bring anything to the table. She was not known for her tact, which may have led to her losing some local support.
Duplechain gave up her space in 2004, because she said, it was too much of a financial burden. She said she'd do shows at different venues on a regular basis. But it was the beginning of the end. The NTC did only two major public productions this past season. Rumors of Duplechain's departure were rife for months. Finally, after the press kept pressing, she released an e-mail announcing her departure. "It is just my time to move on and shake myself up and look for new challenges and collaborations." She promised two tours which have been commissioned will be honored. "As we know, there have been some arts organizations that have sold season tickets or raised money for shows or programming that never saw the light of day."
It was no secret that some were hoping Duplechain would wind up giving Vegas its first full-fledged Equity theater. There are also some who feel Duplechain's departure is further indication that Vegas just doesn't have a nurturing enough artistic environment.
There's little doubt, however, that Duplechain and the NTC made an impact on Vegas. At the very least, it hit hard to some that local theatre can be something more than elderly Yiddish jokes--and that maybe it really is true, that if you do it well, they will come.
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001022021
Las Vegas August 25, 2005
Nevada Theatre Company
By Anthony Del Valle
If you don't know Vegas theatre, the news may not seem like much. But for those who care about the city's slow progress toward some kind of thriving local performing arts scene, the announcement was devastating.
The seven year-old Nevada Theatre Company will be closing.
Founder/artistic director Deanna Duplechain says she's planning on moving to Austin. The NTC will finish up a couple of commissioned shows, and will then sign off.
"It's a tragic loss," Community College of Southern Nevada theatre director Joe Hammond said. "The Nevada Theatre Company was one of Las Vegas' most innovative arts organizations," Nevada Conservatory Theatre artistic director Robert Brewer commented.
Some amount of hyperbole is to be expected when a theatre troupe folds, but there are some interesting reasons why NTC's demise is being taken particularly hard by some.
Before the NTC's birth in 1998, the typical Vegas community theater show, with some exceptions, was geared toward the senior citizen. Two of the most popular groups-- the off-Broadway Theatre, and Las Vegas Little Theatre--specialized in comedies that tended to be about kooky New York Jews and their social security checks. Young people simply didn't go to the theatre. When critics complained, they were told that local playhouses had no choice. The elderly crowd supported the arts, and "mindless" comedies were what they wanted.
Enter Duplechain. She was widely traveled, with New York credits, a B.F.A. from Cornish College and an M.F.A. in directing from the University of Virginia, and over 20 years experience in community, public school, university and professional level theatre. She had contacts in the local Cirque du Soleil shows--the shows that some say helped Vegas entertainment grow up--and worked in entertainment at the Venetian Hotel.
She says when she first got here, she reached out to some people in the community to try to get a sense of neighborhood and some help in vision, and detected little interest on the part of local artists beyond their own self-created worlds.
She wasted no time in finding the NTC, renting out spaces, and diving into scripts that the older theatres said Vegas just wouldn't accept: things like David Ives' "Mere Mortals"; Tony Kushner's version of Pierre Corneille's "The Illusion"; John Cameron Mitchell/Stephen Trask "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"; Bertolt Brecht "The Good Person of Szechuan"; Shakespeare, Charles Busch, Paula Vogel. In most major cities, these works might not seem radical, but in Vegas--where less than a decade ago Neil Simon was thought by many locals to be the only playwright in the English-speaking language--Duplechain's bravery was borderline shocking. (She also forayed into the worlds of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Cole Porter, as if to suggest to her audiences, "It's all good.")
What was amazing was that the NTC found its audience. And that audience tended to be young. NTC was literally the only community theater in town in 1998 that made the arts appear hip.
Duplechain soon found her own performing space-a tiny, former video store (once robbed at gunpoint by the late actress Dana Plato) -- in a small, Lakes shopping center. Rarely did the space look the same for any two shows. Sometimes bleachers would be set up for proscenium productions, sometimes chairs would be scattered about a thrust or center stage. For "Hedwig," designer Steve Turner transformed the playhouse into a delightfully sleazy lounge (complete with wine service). The sleaze was only in the atmosphere: the local daily paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, named "Hedwig" (directed by David Tapper) the city's best theatrical production of the 2003-2004 season. (The same critic named NTC the city's best troupe for six consecutive years.)
It wasn't long before other playhouses started to realize that young people were not by nature allergic to plays. Las Vegas Little Theatre began experimenting with a late-night program with sometimes "daring" works (under the heading, "Insomniac Project"), and even its main-stage line-up began loosening up a bit (they've scheduled "Take Me Out" for the upcoming season, which, with its lengthy nude scene, may forever change the expectations of LVLT audiences). Cockroach Theatre, made up of a group of friends from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, many of whom worked for the NTC upon graduation, began their own company and continue to explore works of dramatic depth. Even Theatre in the Valley--a small, ultra-conservative troupe whose audiences tend to be bused--in senior citizens and whose board tends to turn down things like "Proof" in favor of the likes of "Arsenic and Old Lace" and murder-mystery spoofs--has added Charles Busch to its repertory this season. There are those who would argue the NTC paved the way for this change in attitude about "acceptable fare."
Duplechain also managed to unite the city's artistic directors, ever so briefly, for monthly meetings to share common concerns and to avoid the frequent occurrence of several theatres scheduling the same shows. The get togethers didn't long survive-some complained the artistic directors were too territorial to maintain the camaraderie that was necessary to keep the organization going-but they helped seal, in a very short time, Duplechain's leadership position in the community.
It wasn't all smooth sailing. Duplechain developed a reputation as a director who did not allow actors much breathing room. It's said she usually knew exactly what she wanted, and some major local actors complained that they were never permitted to bring anything to the table. She was not known for her tact, which may have led to her losing some local support.
Duplechain gave up her space in 2004, because she said, it was too much of a financial burden. She said she'd do shows at different venues on a regular basis. But it was the beginning of the end. The NTC did only two major public productions this past season. Rumors of Duplechain's departure were rife for months. Finally, after the press kept pressing, she released an e-mail announcing her departure. "It is just my time to move on and shake myself up and look for new challenges and collaborations." She promised two tours which have been commissioned will be honored. "As we know, there have been some arts organizations that have sold season tickets or raised money for shows or programming that never saw the light of day."
It was no secret that some were hoping Duplechain would wind up giving Vegas its first full-fledged Equity theater. There are also some who feel Duplechain's departure is further indication that Vegas just doesn't have a nurturing enough artistic environment.
There's little doubt, however, that Duplechain and the NTC made an impact on Vegas. At the very least, it hit hard to some that local theatre can be something more than elderly Yiddish jokes--and that maybe it really is true, that if you do it well, they will come.