Column: Local show biz

Wyoming Centennial Singers appear in Carson

On Wednesday the University of Wyoming Centennial Singers bring a spectacular show of song and dance to Carson City.

The UW musical theater troupe is acclaimed as one of the top big five collegiate show groups in America.

They span such diverse musical styles as Big Band Swing, Gospel, R&B, Jazz, Country and Rock & Roll in the Centennial Singers 2000 Show: Millennium.

Music by 20th Century legends like Fats Waller and Irving Berlin are joined by current hits by Garth Brooks and Ricky Martin. These songs are woven with tunes from such Broadway hits as Ragtime, Smokey Joe's Cafe and Rent to create this unforgettable musical revue.

Centennial Singers Millennium will perform this all new musical revue at the Carson City Community Center Theater at 7:30 p.m.

This is the fourth appearance by the University of Wyoming Centennial Singers in Carson. Group members have come to think of Carson City as a 'second home.' People have always been enthusiastic in their acceptance of the singers. Performances for Carson elementary schools are planned for Tuesday and Wednesday.

General admission tickets for this musical show are $6 for adults and $2 for children (12 and under) and are available at the door.

Museum hosts annual Very Big Sale

The Children's Museum is looking for usable items including household, yard and office equipment but not clothes, for their Very Big Sale coming up Saturday June 3. Bring items to the lower level of the museum where a depository has been set up. Donated items are tax deductible.

The Very Big Sale will be held outdoors on East Ann Street on the north side of The Children's Museum from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Lots of fun stuff!

For information, call 884-2226. The Children's Museum of Northern Nevada is at 814 N. Carson St.

Midnight Riders at Carson Valley Inn

For all you cowboys and cowgirls out there, Midnight Riders returns to Minden's Carson Valley Inn on May 29. The group is known for blending hot country favorites with classic country sounds to provide for a great foot stompin' good time. As always, live entertainment at the Cabaret is presented with no cover and no minimum.

And just a reminder, the next Comedy Night Live show at the Carson Valley Inn is at 9 p.m. on Friday, June 23 in the Shannon Ballroom. The two-hour show features Mike Welsh and Derrick Leonard, plus host and producer Kat Simmons. Watch this column for more details.

The Motifs at the Nugget Show Lounge

One of Nevada's top show groups, the Motifs, will be at the Carson Nugget Show Lounge beginning Tuesday through June 4.

If there was ever a group with staying power, it's the Motifs. Brothers Al and Phil Velasquez have been entertaining audiences in Northern Nevada for more than 20 years.

With all those years of experience, the Motifs have no problems playing songs people want to hear. They play the current biggest hits of the 50s, 60s.

As always, there's no cover and no minimum at the Nugget Show Lounge.

Wild West comes alive in in Carson

The spirit of the Wild West lives on in Carson City as pioneers, gunfighters, Native Americans and mountain men gather for the 17th annual Carson City Rendezvous June 9-11 at Mills Park.

A rich and colorful three days of free events and activities, Carson City Rendezvous gives visitors an opportunity to see what life was like in the 1800s with a mountain man encampment, Native American village, Pueblo de Nevada village, Civil War encampment, gun fighters show and farriers contest. There's also a petting zoo, camel rides, western entertainment, over 100 craft booths and some of the finest tasting grub you'll ever experience.

Concerts in the Park

The Douglas County Parks & Recreation Department will host the fourth annual "Summer Family Concert Series" at the Minden Town Park Gazebo located at Fifth and Esmeralda.

The concerts will be offered free of charge and will take place on the last Friday of each month though August. Each concert will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The concert series was designed as a community and family event. Residents and visitors are encouraged to pack a picnic and come relax in Minden Park and enjoy an evening of music.

The first concert will be held Friday May 26 featuring Brian Farnon and the Tahoe Dance Band. Farnon will be conducting a variety of orchestra arrangements, including jazz and swing, Broadway hits and the classics. He performed with the Spike Jones Orchestra and was the musical director for Nat King Cole. He was musical director, arranger, singer and instrumentalist for a weekly KTLA television show in Hollywood before becoming the musical director in the South Shore Room at Harrah's Lake Tahoe Casino for 25 years.

This program is offered free because of the generous contributions of businesses in our community, which include Carson Valley Inn, Carson Valley Medical Center, Prudential Nevada Realty, Taylor York Salon, Bing Materials and Construction, Stockdale & Crum, Carson Valley Kiwanis, Syncon Homes, Stor-All, Carson Valley Lions Club, Town of Minden, Re/Max Realty, Silver State Printing, Artisan Trophy & Engraving and Carson Valley Sertoma.

Artists display their work

Michelle Legras' love for art flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area studio of her godmother, Shotwell Wood. She would sit and watch as the artist magically concocted vivid water color paints from powders.

"The cool spot to be was in Shotwell's studio," the artist said. In fact, several women in her family were artists and thus ushered Legras into the world of color and paint from the time she was a little girl.

When she wasn't visiting relatives in the Bay Area, Legras was roving the Lake Tahoe woods near Tahoe City where she grew up. It is the love of the outdoors and wildlife that has merged with her love of paint to create a new series of multimedia paintings on exhibit at Sun Mountain Artworks.

The gallery is at 198 North C St., Virginia City. The show will continue through Wednesday May 31.

"Originally, the theme for the exhibit was going to be the wind in Nevada but as I painted, more and more animals started to come out," Legras said. "I fight with my paintings a lot, if I just give up, it comes out with lots of color and animals."

Legras used watercolor, acrylic and found objects to create the 15 pieces in the show. The paintings revolve around the ideas of the wind, Nevada's wildlife, and human involvement with earth and nature. Be sure to check out her collection.

And speaking of art, Carson Valley artist Robert Tomkins is currently exhibiting 22 of his pastel and watercolor paintings at the Nevada State Library & Archives building on Stewart Street in Carson City.

Tompkins is a member of the Nevada Artists Association, where he has received many awards. He is also a member of the Carson Valley Art Association and the West Coast Pastel Society.

His subjects are portraiture, familiar scenes in Virginia City, the Carson Valley and nearby mountain landscapes.

The exhibit will run until July 27.

Tahoe Dance Band returns

The music that inspired the generation of swing will return again to the Ormsby House Hotel and Casino when Brian Farnon brings his Tahoe Dance Band to Carson City for a Sunday, June 11 performance. The show starts at 3 p.m. and costs $5.

Guitarist takes the stage at Brewery

This should be very impressive. The Brewery Arts Center in Carson City has a couple of venues lined up for June that is sure to pack 'em in.

On Tuesday, June 13, the Brewery Arts Center welcomes folk, classic, and traditional guitarist Richard Gilewitz to its stage.

Gilewitz is known in folk music circles as an accomplished finger-picking guitarist, who mixes an eclectic blend of folk, classic and even blues guitar into his work. As Relix Magazine affirms, Gilewitz is "a player with incredible dexterity and imagination."

Couple Gilewitz's solid playing with his own brand of offbeat humor, and critics will tell you it is a show not to be missed. His talent has even been noted in the Washington Post as a musician with "graceful facility."

In the concert setting, the program he calls "A History of Finger-style Guitar" Gilewitz turns his talent into a two-hour musical journey for the ear as well as the eye. He is known to take his audiences into the past and present realm of instrumental music, according to his publicist.

Never quite knowing what time period he'll chose, Richard blends mixtures of tunes peppered with stories about the composers. Listeners will experience samples of European and Spanish classical works of J.S. Bach, Andres Segovia, Alonso de Mudarra, Fernando Sor, and Isacc Albeniz. The traditional folk section encompasses the American Primitive sounds of John Fahey and Leo Kottke and stories behind the origin of "Freight Tran" by Elizabeth Cotten; "Mrs. Firecracker's Place" and "The Maison Blanche Exit Song."

Gilewitz, who has written seven records, has appeared in concert with such artists as Steve Morse, The Squirrel Nut Zippers, the Indigo Girls, Richard Thompson, Jorma Kaukonen, Norman Blake, John Hammond, Taj Mahal and Adrian Legg.

Tickets for the June 13 performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m., cost $12 for general admission and $10 for students. Call 883-1976 for more information.

Pianists return to the Brewery

The Brewery Arts Center announces the return of duo-pianists Squeek LaVake and Jane Theiss in an All-American Program highlighting the works of Barber, Copland, Joplin, Gershwin and Gottschalk on Thursday June 22 at 7 p.m.

Jane Theiss and Squeek LaVake, two well-known local musicians with extensive training and performance credits, will present this unique musical experience.

Squeek is a pianist, teacher and composer and holds a bachelor of arts degree in music from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a master's degree from Catholic University of America, with additional study at the Mozarteum in Austria.

Locally, she performs not only classical music but also ragtime and popular music.

She has composed several musical scores for several documentaries and is currently composing music for a local dance company. Squeek is an instructor for UNR and lives in Virginia City and performs at the Gold Hill Hotel and the Bucket of Blood Saloon.

Jane is a graduate of Carleton College and received her master of arts degree from Eastman School of Music in New York. She has performed in workshops in Utah, San Diego and California.

Her many performances have been as piano soloist, as pianist with High Noon String Quartet in Reno and Dayton, as accompanist for the Sierra Nevada Master Chorale at Carnegie Hall and many collaborations with singers Lenora Morvaya, Jon Fay, Patrick Jolly and Karen Randall.

Jane and Squeek sold out the house last year.

Tickets are $10 general public, $8 students, seniors and BAC members for $6 for children 12 and under. Call the Brewery Arts Center at 883-1976 for tickets or for information.

Shakespeare at Tahoe gets new stage

When the sun sets and the curtain rises on the 28th Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor on July 25, it will do so above a brand new, state-of-the-art $1.5 million stage facility.

Thanks to an aggressive capital fund raising campaign that has attracted donations ranging from $5 to $500,000, the festival has been able to realize and fulfill its dream of building a first-class stage facility and surrounding venue. Of the $1.2 million that has been raised to date for the new facility, an unprecedented $300,000 has been directed toward environmental research and preservation, making it one of the most environmentally friendly projects of its kind.

(Jeff Munson, content editor for tahoe.com, writes Local Show Biz Weekly for Diversions magazine. You can reach him at (775) 881-1216 or by e-mail: editor@tahoe.com)