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Lake Las Vegas is the
happening venue this Fall!
So much FREE cultural entertainment!
Also, free theatre shows this weekend, Friday October 6th, Saturday October 7th and Sunday October 8th at the Government Center Amphitheatre (next to the little pyramid). The Arts Council of Henderson is presenting 'Hamlet,' supported by musicians and Madrigal Singers from the School District singing groups. See below for more information.
 AT LAKE LAS Vegas, east of Henderson proper, there is a distinctive venue hosting a broad variety of events throughout the year. There, a 'stage on a barge' is docked at 'The Monte Lago Village.' Rows and rows of folding chairs are sometimes set up on the dock and the broad concrete, semi-circular staircase, which is the waterfront edge of this charming Italianate 'village.' Access is down one of several cobblestone streets lined with shops, restaurants, art galleries and a couple of small drinking establishments such as Sunset & Vines and the Auld Dubliner.
 Evenings are balmy, the streets are festooned with light strings, and many of the shops stay open for those arriving to the venue with some time to spare. The restaurant aromas, the strolling people along the streets, quaint shops with doors flung open, all contribute to a pleasant surprise—Lake Las Vegas has matured into more than even the original developers had envisioned so long ago. I remember its beginnings, and then the long, lean years of the '90s when only the bravest business folks took a chance on the then distant location. Now you swing off the 515 east loop or the 215 south loop onto good ole Lake Mead Blvd., headed east, and notice road signage that says six miles to Lake Mead. When did it get so close? Before you ever get to the Lake, you encounter on the left, the massive faux stone arches amid a Palm tree grove, the main entrance to Lake Las Vegas.
 
This outing is a lot easier than people who haven't been think it is. A semi-private community, there is one roundabout to navigate, staying on the main road, after which you use the right lane and follow the event signage, which guides you to turn right to the resort and village off Monte Lago Blvd., where you can go into the self-parking garage, or you can continue to the next driveway and pull into valet at the Casino entrance. Access to the Village is easiest through the Casino to the back, which opens onto the upper plaza area. The Auld Dubliner on the right has live music Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings right now. On the left, the Como restaurant's patio dining wafts over the area, all yummy smelling.
 Once down to the dock, the event organizers designate seating. Seating on the VIP levels can be up to 650 or so. Lawn Seating, a grass hill, accommodates some 1700 people with their own blankets and chairs. This portion of the small lake is called Reflection Bay, sparkling around and behind the stage. The lights from the Luna di Lusso building shimmer across the Bay at night, a rare treat in the desert. Light strings define the arches of the Pontevecchio building bridge over the Bay, to the left of the stage. Gondolas float by. Yachts float dockside. All in all, a very pleasant setting, even though the autumn evenings chill down on the water's edge and you have to put on a sweater—ooohhh, brrrrrr.
 This past weekend for 'Comedy of Errors,' the lower plaza area at the venue showcased the Arts Council of Henderson's non-profit tables. Servers maneuvered through the crowds offering pumpkin-flavored coffee cooler samples to lure us up the street to their Starbuck's shop. Lights glistened on the gelato shop, handily to the right of this casual amphitheatre, with barrels of frozen confections—my choice was half hazelnut chocolate and caramel mocha. The Greensshow youngsters were an entertaining prelude to the play.
 
 Monte Lago Village's Reflection Bay venue is simply a kick—just not to be missed. They are refining a lineup of community weekend culture to get locals conditioned to the short sprint out to their amenities. It's working with me. This month, every weekend offered something—season openers for the Nevada Ballet Theatre and the Nevada Opera. The Nevada Shakespeare in the Park joined the lineup this year, and CineVegas seems to be making a September gig out there an annual event. This wealth of local culture is punctuated by elegant music concerts—Seal was here this past weekend—his performance, of course was not free.
Their calendar shows more free upcoming weekend happenings: Jazz On The Lake Friday night series—October 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th as well as November 3rd, 10th & 17th. On Saturdays, October 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th, you will find musicians on hand for their Lakeside Music Series featuring '80s & '90s, Country Rock & Adult Contemporary styles. Sooner than you think, the holidays will be here and the ice rink will open up on the barge. And there will be a Tree Lighting, though no date is set as of this writing.
www.montelagovillage.com
www.starsonthelake.com
 
So…what has happened culturally speaking, and what still is to be seen? Nevada Shakespeare in the Park stages 'Hamlet' this weekend, October 6th, 7th and 8th at 8 p.m., at the Government Center amphitheatre, which is also lawn seating, though they are more lenient, allowing chairs, coolers, picnic baskets, etc. They generally have a couple of vendors selling something to eat, as well. These evenings are also free, and promise to be lovely outings, as the temperatures drop this week. First Friday is this Friday, too—if you attend, you have Saturday or Sunday for 'Hamlet.' Produced by the Arts Council of Nevada, with the Shakespeare at Play Theatre Company members joining in, as well as local school district program Madrigal Singer groups, this 'Hamlet' will fully immerse you in Elizabethan-style, Shakespearean entertainment.
OK, this is what has happened so far this year on the Monte Lago cultural scene. If you missed these events, tuck the thought away for next fall, as Monte Lago appears to be succeeding in their bid for a annual 'culturally saturated' September.
Nevada Ballet Theatre kicked off their season at Monte Lago Village with their beautiful and extravagant gala on Friday, Sept 15th, including guest artists Lorena Feijoo and Joan Boada, Principal Dancers from the famed San Francisco Ballet. The floating stage framed the Don Quixote de Deux and Flames of Paris Pas de Deux among others.
Note: Dracula is up next for the Nevada Ballet Theatre, at UNLV's Judy Bayley, for Halloween, and Sunday, October 1st, NBT Academy performances will be at the Summerlin Arts Festival. Nevada Ballet Theatre booth will be on-site or call 702.243.2623 x 241.
www.summerlin.com
www.nevadaballet.com
 
 
Opera Under the Stars at Lake Las Vegas was on September 23rd and 24th, the Nevada Opera Theatre set the tone of their new season with an elegant white-linen-set stage, complete orchestra including harp, to perform vignettes of their upcoming operas for their 2006–2007 season, as well as their fundraising events in November and December, March and May. Their show was exquisite, with all of their leading singers up front and in fine form. Viktoria Kurbatskaya, my favorite soprano, was on hand, as was Demetra George, and Dr. Morton Hyson, bass. Adding to that masterful set of principals, the lineup was strengthened with Mathew Edwardsen, tenor, Shelley Matinsen, soprano, and Stephen Plummer, tenor, Lance Taubald, tenor.
 
 
Plummer and Kurbatskaya picked off the best performances with aplomb, as they cavorted through a couple of their numbers. Kurt Mische, KLVX-TV's PBS affiliate Development Director was the Master of Ceremonies. Frank Fetta is now in his fifteenth year as the Music Director and Conductor, and seemed thoroughly happy to be doing his thing. Donald Westwood was the Artistic and Stage Director. All in all, a passionately rousing program.
 
The stage, with a town scene backdrop, framed the Arts Council of Henderson's Shakespeare in the Park: 'A Comedy of Errors,' Thursday, September 28, 2006. A rare treat! The audience laughed in all the right places. The actor's seemed in fine form and energetic. The choice of humorous Italian accents tossed in from time to time was quite strange, even though this play is not a drama. The set was designed to fit the Mediterranean theme of Monte Lago Village, rather than the usual Elizabethan themes.
 
During intermission, a person, for his group seated behind us, asked if we could understand anything being said. That brings to mind the vision of the Shakespeare At Play school programs that are designed to train the young ear to the melodramatic delivery, clarifying the Elizabethan confusion of language to be made simple, comprehensible. Its forms of speech no longer familiar to our ears requires one to cultivate a 'taste' for Shakespeare, and the seemingly odd sentence construction. Shakespeare At Play educational programs are definitely growing their future audiences, so they will never invite such an answer as: "Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator."
 
The Arts Council of Henderson is staging 'Hamlet' as their second week's entry, October 6th, 7th and 8th, 8:00 p.m. each night, at the Government Center Amphitheatre downtown. It is a tiered level, lawn seating venue, so bring stuff to make you comfy.
For donations, which they richly deserve, you might want to visit their Web site and download a donation form, or keep them in mind in the future:
www.artscouncilhenderson.org
CineVegas Screening Series, as part of the complete CineVegas Film Festival year, was Thursday, October 5th, when they held a free screening of the film 'Thanks to Gravity,' which was the festival favorite this past June—the movie was fantastic and a crowd pleaser.
'Thanks to Gravity' was the directorial debut of Jessica Kavana. The movie is set amidst the eccentric intellectual world of debate, where a Jewish Latin-American girl (played by Gina Philips) struggles with questions of identity, culture, tradition, and love to find out for herself if a woman can really have it all. The film is based on Kavana's Latin-Jewish cultural upbringing, as well as her experiences as one of the top female debaters in the country. The film also stars Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), Adam Rodriguez (CSI Miami), Shirley Knight, Bryan Greenburg and Rachel Miner. As a special treat, after the screening, the Associate Director of Programming, Mike Plante, conducted a Q&A session with the film's director, Jessica Kavana, where audience members will have the opportunity to ask her questions about the film.
CineVegas 2007 will be June 8th through the 16th.
www.cinevegas.com
Keep Lake Las Vegas on your 'favorites lists'; to keep up with what is going on there…it's a short ride and well worth it for the ambiance.
Notes:
The generous hosts:
Lake Las Vegas Resort is a premier residential and resort destination situated on a privately owned 320-acre lake located 17 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. Within the 3,592-acre master planned resort are exquisite residential offerings including custom home sites, waterfront and golf villas, resort condominiums and luxury executive homes. The Mediterranean-inspired destination also features world-class resorts including the AAA Five Diamond-rated The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas, the AAA Four Diamond-rated Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort, Spa and Casino, MonteLago Village Resort and Loews Hotels' Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort anticipated to open in 2008, a collection of three challenging golf courses and a fourth course designed by Tom Fazio opening in 2007, pampering spas, elegant casinos, full-service marinas with watercraft rentals and yacht cruises and MonteLago Village, an enchanting enclave at the center of Lake Las Vegas Resort, offering water's edge entertainment, restaurants and cafes, quaint boutiques and the 40,000-square-foot Casino MonteLago. For more information, call (877) LLV-LAKE (558-5253) or visit www.lakelasvegas.com.
Specific info for venue on the Monte Lago page of www.ticketmaster.com.
Directions: Located about 17 miles east of the Las Vegas STRIP and the Airport.
I-215 East, freeway turns into Lake Mead Drive. Continue East, Past Boulder Highway to Lake Las Vegas parkway. Then Follow Event Signs.
Parking: Follow Special Event signs to Reflection Bay, free parking located next to Reflection Bay, (concert venue) on MonteLago Blvd.
Box Office Numbers: (702) 795-SHOW (7469)
Types of Payment Accepted: CASH, Credit Cards & Local Checks.
Will Call:
MonteLago Village: Will Call may be picked up starting at 3:00 p.m. in front of the event venue entrance.
Reflection Bay: Will Call may be picked up starting at 3:00 p.m. in front of the event venue entrance.
General Rules: No smoking, No photography, No coolers or Food and Beverages allowed in the venue, No Pets allowed except those to ADA use. No lawn chairs.
SMALL Blankets are allowed for the LAWN area.
Children Rules: Everyone MUST have a ticket to enter event. Children under 2 are free.
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