Theater group leaves downtown for Town Square
The initials — CCTC — may be the same.
But what they stand for has definitely changed, as the proposed Cultural Corridor Theatre Center drops its downtown location — at the former Reed Whipple Cultural Center on Las Vegas Boulevard North — for the Town Square area, where a new Clark County Theatre Center will be built.
“Donors encouraged a more central location,” according to Ralph Stalter, CCTC’s executive director.
The planned move to the Town Square area, south of the Strip, represents “a better location for us, a more central location,” said Michael Gill, president and board chairman of Nevada Repertory and the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company, two resident theater companies that will anchor the $45 million arts complex.
Construction is expected to begin in late 2015 on the center, to include a 499-seat main stage, a 199-seat studio theater, a lounge and an Opportunity Village art gallery. But a 250-seat jazz club will replace the planned Rosemary’s restaurant at the downtown location, which was announced in September 2012.
“Town Square is an area where there’s already loads of activity and people are very comfortable going there,” Stalter said. “Being in that sort of retail center, in a part of town people are very comfortable with, when we open the doors, we should be able to get a good response from people who are already coming to Town Square.”
Theater officials are considering three different parcels in the Town Square area for the 6- to 8-acre complex, Gill said.
“We’re hoping to get the land completely donated,” he added, noting that property in the Town Square area was worth more than the $2.5 million earmarked to purchase the Reed Whipple center from the city of Las Vegas.
The location change means CCTC “is, in a way, starting from scratch in terms of design,” Gill said.
It also means that other groups involved in the new complex — including the Las Vegas Youth Orchestra, Next Wave Opera and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, which will present a Spotlight Series featuring more specialized programming — will be able to request specific features and facilities.
“We’re going to do it right — we’re not in any hurry,” Gill said. “We have the luxury” of “reaching out to our other partners” and asking, “ ‘In a perfect world, what would you like?’ ”
Gill said CCTC had raised $28 million for the $45 million complex, but “when we hit $33 million we can get bonded and start construction.”
He also predicted that the new Town Square location would spur additional financial support, citing “renewed interest in a more central location.”
Despite the change in name and location, the center’s inaugural production will remain the same: “On Your Toes.”
The Rodgers and Hart musical will team Nevada Repertory with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theatre, which has received permission to re-create the show’s “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” featuring choreography by the legendary George Balanchine.
But the production, originally announced for fall 2015, will be delayed “at least a year,” Gill said, “if not more.”
Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.
