Theater, arts and music: March 14-20

Theater

LITTLE THEATRE

GOES ‘TRUE WEST’

Sibling rivalry powers “True West,” Sam Shepard’s acclaimed play about two estranged brothers, which begins a three-weekend run in Las Vegas Little Theatre’s Black Box.

A finalist for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Shepard’s tale centers on an ambitious screenwriter Austin (played by Shane Cullum), who’s sold a bleak contemporary love story to producer Saul Kimmer (Brian Scott). That is, until Austin’s brother Lee (David Beck), a desert-dwelling drifter, drops in — and pitches his own script idea, a trashy Western tale.

Shawn Hackler directs the drama, which will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff Drive. Other performances will be at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 30. For tickets ($14-$15), call 702-362-7996 or visit www.lvlt.org.

Music

JAZZ JOINTS

ARE JUMPIN’

The Las Vegas Jazz Society kicks off a weekly jazz series at the Bootlegger Bistro on Sunday with a concert headlined by Los Angeles-based trumpeter Carl Saunders, who’s played with the likes of Stan Kenton, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Robert Goulet.

Drummer Santo Savino, bassist Ken Seiffert and pianist Bill Zappia will provide musical backing for Saunders, who performs at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Bootlegger, 7700 Las Vegas Blvd. South. For tickets ($10 in advance and for LVJS members, $12 at the door, $5 for students), call 702-313-6778 or click on VegasJazz.org.

And local mainstay Lon Bronson brings his horn-infused All-Star Band to The Smith Center’s Cabaret Jazz, 361 Symphony Park Ave., at 9 p.m. Wednesday for a blast of rock, funk and contemporary tunes. For tickets ($15-$30), call 702-749-2000 or visit www.thesmithcenter.com. Theater

FERAL TALES TROUPE

HOSTS CABARET

Cabaret is all about up-close-and-personal entertainment, as Feral Tale Theatricals will demonstrate in “Intimate Feral: A Close and Personal Cabaret,” to be presented Friday at the Summerlin Library.

Presented in association with the Rudy Foundation, the free show will bring to life Broadway and pop favorites in a witty showcase of song and dance. Among the featured performers: Troy Heard, Erik Ball, Kady Heard, Sean Critchfield, Christian Escobar and Emily Ball, along with performers from such Rudy Foundation youth programs as the Las Vegas Young Entertainers and Broadway Bound.

“Intimate Feral” will be presented at 7 p.m. at the Summerlin Library and Performing Arts Center, 1771 Inner Circle Drive. More information is available by visiting www.FeralTaleTheatricals.com.

Theater

STUDENTS ACT UP

AT CSN FESTIVAL

College of Southern Nevada students team up with local community theater members this weekend for CSN’s annual One-Act Play Festival, which features nine 10-minute plays for two or three actors. (One of them is “The M Word” by Alan Ball, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “American Beauty” and creator of “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.”)

More than 45 directors, actors and crew members are involved in staging the festival, to be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the BackStage Theatre at CSN’s Cheyenne’s campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., North Las Vegas. For tickets ($5) and more information, call 702-651-5483 or visit www.csn.edu/pac.

Musical theater

WOMEN’S LIVES

INSPIRE SHOW

They were some women — as local audiences will discover in “Ain’t I A Woman,” to be presented Saturday at the Charleston Heights Arts Center.

Performed by the Core Ensemble Chamber Music Theater, “Ain’t I A Woman” celebrates the lives and times of four notable African-American women: ex-slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth; novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston; folk artist Clementine Hunter and civil rights worker Fannie Lou Hamer. (The show’s title comes from an 1851 speech Truth delivered to an Ohio women’s rights convention.)

Deep South spirituals, Jazz Age tunes and concert music by such African-American composers as Diane Monroe make up the score for the production, to be staged at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Charleston Heights center, 800 S. Brush St. For tickets ($10 in advance, $15 at the door), call 702-229-6383 or visit www.artslasvegas.org.

Art

EXHIBIT FINDS

LOCAL ARTISTS

Artworks by a trio of local artists using reclaimed objects inspire the new exhibit “/Found/,” opening Tuesday at downtown’s MCQ Fine Art.

Curated by Aurore Giguet, programming director of UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum, the show features the work of Giguet’s late father, artist Jean Giguet, who used discarded plywood, metal and found images to reflect, and comment upon, the changing Southern Nevada landscape.

Works by Troy Gillett (whose art has been influenced by his construction industry experience) and DK Sole (who uses discarded materials to create collages and small assemblages) complement Giguet’s work.

An opening reception will launch the show from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at MCQ Fine Art, 620 S. Seventh St. Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and by appointment, through April 15. For more information, call 702-366-9339 or go online to www.mcqfineart.com.

Theater

‘GIRLS NIGHT’

POPS INTO LV

The jukebox musical is alive and well, as “Girls Night: The Musical” checks in for a five-performance run at The Smith Center’s Cabaret Jazz.

The show, now touring North America following its off-Broadway debut, has been likened to “ ‘Desperate Housewives’ meets ‘Mamma Mia!’ ” as five friends ponder their collective past, celebrate the present and look to the future — all to the tune of such pop hits as “Lady Marmalade,” “It’s Raining Men,” “I Will Survive” and “We Are Family.”

“Girls Night: The Musical” opens at 7 p.m. Thursday in Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. Additional performances are at 7 p.m. March 21, 2 and 7 p.m. March 22 and 2 p.m. March 23. Tickets are $35-$40 and may be purchased by calling 702-749-2000 or visiting www.thesmithcenter.com.

— By CAROL CLING