Children’s performance series returns to city this summer

For more than 20 years, the Arts & Community Events Division of the city of Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services has presented a summertime series of productions designed to introduce young children to live performance.

This year's lineup of entertainers continues the tradition.

Each production plays at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St., on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., and at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North, on Fridays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets for each performance are $3.

Call 229-6383 or 229-6211 for more information.

Hudson Vagabond Puppets and Razzle Bam Boom received rave reviews last summer and are returning with new productions.

On July 11 and 13, the puppet company takes the audience on an underwater adventure in "Under the Sea with Silly Jellyfish." At the bottom of the ocean lies a world teeming with life and ruled by a discontented sea dragon. Jellyfish sets off a mission to help the dragon win the hand of a she-dragon and along the way encounters a blue crab, an octopus, a pair of manta rays, a great white shark and a blue whale. With colorful, larger-than-life-sized puppets, Hudson Vagabond Puppets travels across the country, performing in venues ranging from concert halls to school settings.

On July 18 and 20, the Razzle Bam Boom duo of Mark Beckwith and Obediah Thomas take an entertaining look at the "History of Rock 'n' Roll."

Prepare to laugh as they musically blast through the past 50 years, showing how the roots of rock 'n' roll were planted and developed. Beckwith is an award-winning, internationally published children's singer-songwriter, and Thomas is a comic, juggler, trumpet player and vocalist.

On July 25 and 27, Leland Faulkner encourages children to let their imaginations soar in "World of Wonder," a magical journey involving classic conjuring, fantastic tales, light-hearted humor, pantomime and shadow play. Paper butterflies take flight and shadows take on a life of their own. Faulkner regularly tours nationally and in the Far East, earning critical and audience acclaim wherever he appears.