Shakespeare troupe will start push to remake arts center

Exactly one year ago, the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company took the stage - the one at downtown's Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

Today, the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company launches a plan to take that stage to the next stage: a $45 million capital campaign that would remodel the 50-year-old center and transform the troupe into a full-time professional company.

In the process, the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company would become the first Nevada member of the League of Resident Theatres . The professional theater association includes 75 not-for-profit companies throughout the United States - among them San Diego's Old Globe, Orange County's South Coast Repertory and Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, which operates the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center.

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen were expected to attend this afternoon's news conference announcing the capital fund drive, with Las Vegas City Councilman Ricki Barlow.

Barlow's ward includes the downtown cultural corridor, which also is home to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum and the Neon Museum, scheduled to open next month across Las Vegas Boulevard from Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

Plans for the center's renovation and expansion were part of a 52-page proposal presented last year to the Las Vegas City Council, which voted to turn over Reed Whipple to the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company for a $10 annual rental. The switch saved the city an estimated $300,000 in yearly maintenance.

Since the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company took over Reed Whipple, the troupe has presented five shows in the center's Studio Theatre, which seats about 275, according to artistic director Dan Decker.

But plans call for a new, state-of-the-art theater, with an orchestra pit and a fly loft for hanging scenery, that would seat 499.

The new stage would be built behind the center's current back wall. The Gensler architectural firm's Las Vegas office designed the Reed Whipple renovation "pro bono," said Michael Gill, president and chairman of the theater's board of directors. "They jumped on the bandwagon."

Gill and Decker previewed the Reed Whipple expansion plans Thursday, consulting interior and exterior renderings for the proposed theater complex, which would house an art gallery, lounge and restaurant; a deal with a branded restaurant is imminent, Gill said.

The $45 million campaign includes a 10 percent challenge grant that will kick in when half of the total amount has been raised, Gill said.

Initial talks with potential donors "have been surprisingly positive," Gill said, adding that the troupe hopes to raise the money in a year's time.

The capital campaign also includes a $6 million endowment that would provide operating funds, raising the troupe's annual budget from the $400,000 range to about $8 million.

The Las Vegas Shakespeare Company produces Henderson's annual Shakespeare in the Park tour ("Hamlet" opens next month), which also visits local schools, along with other productions.

"Even without the building, we're a very busy theater company," Decker said.

But an expanded cultural center will make them even busier.

The League of Resident Theatres designation "means it's a resident professional company with a staff of actors and designers who make their year-round living producing professional theater," Decker said.

With Shakespeare, each nine-month season would include musicals and an annual world premiere.

Debuting new works that move on to Broadway and other regional theaters is "extremely beneficial to the home theater," Decker said, "and we have every intention of fully engaging that business model."

For example, Tony-winners "Jersey Boys," "Memphis" and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" originated at the La Jolla Playhouse near San Diego; "Into the Woods" began at San Diego's Old Globe.

Las Vegas' own Smith Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in March, is "proving to the town that yes, there is a place for the arts here," said Gill, a commercial theatrical producer and manager whose Las Vegas credits include "Jersey Boys" at Paris Las Vegas.

And with Zappos.com moving into Las Vegas' former city hall, south of the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, "there's a whole corridor, an alignment of all things arts-related" along Las Vegas Boulevard, Gill said.

Or, as supporters have been telling Decker: "It's about time."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.