The Nevada Conservatory Theatre at UNLV opens its Main Stage season Oct. 10 with Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" in the Judy Bayley Theatre. Barbara Brennan directs.
Part one of Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs was a Broadway hit in 1983 and again in 2009. The play is a comedic portrait of a young teenage boy in 1937 living with his family in a crowded, lower middle-class Brooklyn walk-up. Dreaming of baseball and girls, the boy must cope with the mundane existence of his family and the difficulty of living with seven people under one roof. This bittersweet memoir evocatively captures the life of a struggling Jewish household where, as his father states "if you didn't have a problem, you wouldn't be living here."
Brennan has collaborated with many theater groups in the Las Vegas area. She was one of the original adult members of the Rainbow Company and a member of the artistic team of New West Theatre Company. Her directing credits include Noises Off, The Women, Crimes of the Heart, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Rumors, Lost in Yonkers, K-2, Tally's Folly, Educating Rita, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Arsenic and Old Lace, Lend Me a Tenor, I'm Not Rappaport, Elephant Man, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Brennan is a UNLV alum, and began her career in technical services for the entertainment industry working for Cinema Services of Las Vegas.
The cast includes Jordan Fenn as Eugene Morris Jerome; Kayla Gaar as Blanche Morton; Equity actor Lisa Mandel as Kate Jerome; Almog Agron as Laurie Morton; Bri Ana Wagner as Nora Morton; Samuel Cordes as Stanley Jerome; and Jeff Granstrom as Jack Jerome.
The production and design team include assistant director Lili Stiefel, scenic designer Shannon Moore, lighting designer Josh Lentner, sound designer Megan Morey, costume designer Jennifer Van Buskirk, technical director Scott Hansen, production stage manager Erin Guernsey, and properties master Ian Mangum.
Show times are at 8 p.m. on Oct. 10, 11 and 12. Matinees are at 2 p.m. on Oct. 12 and 13. Tickets are $20-$30 for adults, and 10 percent off for children 18. For tickets or additional information, visit pac.unlv.edu or call 895-ARTS (2787).
