Rainbow Company Youth Theatre celebrates 40th anniversary
The members of Las Vegas' award-winning Rainbow Company Youth Theatre ensemble range in age from 10 to 18.
But Rainbow Company itself has been around for a lot longer: 40 years.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman led a 40th-anniversary tribute Tuesday, offering an official proclamation praising Rainbow Company for bringing "40 years of entertainment to the families of Las Vegas."
Cirque du Soleil, however, provided the birthday present: a $10,000 grant, to be used for the upcoming Rainbow Company production "(W)rites of Passage." Based on student writings exploring the joys, and challenges, of growing up in Las Vegas, the free production will be staged in June.
Tuesday's Rainbow Company celebration also featured a musical number from the group's "A Year With Frog and Toad," which opens Friday at the Charleston Heights Arts Center.
Other Rainbow Company productions include touring shows devoted to Nevada history that play to more than 25,000 students throughout Clark County every year.
Tuesday's presentation took place at downtown's Art Square Theatre, home of the Cockroach Theatre, which will host an upcoming Rainbow Company production.
The 40th-anniversary proclamation is hardly the troupe's first honor, however.
In 2010, the Children's Theatre Foundation of America presented Rainbow Company with its Medallion Award; previous winners include "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, TV favorites Shari Lewis and Fred Rogers and author Maurice Sendak.
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