About Us

 

Neon Venus Art Theatre, was founded by Peter Valentino and Lissette Napoleoni, members of the band Neon Venus.  The Neon Venus Art Theatre is a performance space and a school designed to uplift the spirits of our comunity through classes in the arts, music, acting, film, photography, improv and much more.    There are currently two Neon Venus Art Theatres, one located in Hollywood and one in Las Vegas.

 

History of project

The Neon Venus Art Theater is located in Las Vegas, a few blocks north of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino, and right at the entrance of the downtown arts district.  A second theatre opened on Melrose, in Hollywood in September of 2009.  

It’s a school that focuses on acting, voice, photography and film classes, etc.  It is also becoming a center for acting classes for kids.   The classes and activities at the theatre are partly the product of the financial investment and daily promotional efforts of  classes by owner and marketing savvy entrepreneur Lissette Salazar Napoleoni.  Lissette came up with the idea for the Neon Venus Art Theatre in 2008, signed a lease, and invested her money  into this new venture, which has been successful so far, and which has been the home for her band Neon Venus.  She formulated and executed a marketing strategy for classes and the theatre developed a nice student constituency. Her husband Peter Valentino became her business partner from day one, as well as an equal investor, and helped envision and build this new idea of a multi media performace space, providing much of the technical theatre assistance that all the teachers, artists, musicians and students needed.  He has enjoyed working and supervising the children’s classes inmensily, especially due to the interaction with parents, family and public.  With the help of volunteers, he manages all engineering aspects of sound at the theatre and supervises the general upkeep of the theatre.  Peter is also preparing to launch a non-profit dedicated to acting classes for children in the Spring of 2010. 

The theatre has also featured many plays for children and adults under the supervision of teachers Dani and Emily, and both of them have led great children’s program for many months.  Together, they have recruited many talented children actors for many fun and creative theatrical performances.

Lissette and Peter have been members of Neon Venus, the band, for many years, and their videos have been featured on MTV Espanol, VHUno and MTV Puerto Rico.

We would also like to thank Jackie Williams, who helped us immensely with launching our first website and taking care of it for over a year.  Jacquie has also helped Neon Venus with many online projects.   Sabrenia Perez has been an amazing volunteer to the project as well, helping us with posting of classes, promotion of First Friday events and art exhibitions.  There are many parents of kids who have embraced us with their love, and we would like to thank Ted and his lovely wife, as well as Don, for his help shooting and photographing events.

 

NEON VENUS BIOGRAPHY

Neon Venus creates a mix of original, dance/rock music with Anglo and Latin sounds and rhythms.
In 2008, Neon Venus opened the ‘Neon Venus Art Theatre’ in Las Vegas, as a home for their music and shows, and as an outlet of artistic expression for fellow artists.  In 2009, they opened a second theatre on Melrose, right in the heart of Hollywood.

- In 2007, two songs from their latest CD “Irresistible” were pre-nominated for the 49th Annual Grammys in two categories: “Best Record of the Year” and “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal”.

- In 2006, MTV Español (USA) aired Neon Venus’ latest video for their song “Irresistible”. The video features underwater singing sequences and shows off Lissette’s background as a national representative in synchronized swimming for Puerto Rico at the Pan Am games.

- Three other Neon Venus music videos (Beso a Beso, Step Into My Island, and Volveremos) have aired on MTV Español, VHUno (Latin VH1- USA) and/or MTV Puerto Rico. “Beso a Beso” first aired on MTV Español in 2003.

- In 2005, MTV Español aired Neon Venus’ self-directed rockumentary based on their tour of Europe, which included cities in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and the Sinai.

- Many tracks from their records have received college and internet airplay in the US, as well as on commercial stations and shows like Rodney on the Rock, on KROQ 106.7 FM in Los Angeles.

- So far, Neon Venus’ original songs have been on a few compilations including one to benefit tsunami victims (check it out at Rolling Stone.com), and many compilations for top Latin rock magazine “Boom!”.

- Neon Venus has released three CDs: “Irresistible” (2006) a bilingual double CD, with one disc containing songs mostly in English, and the other with songs mostly in Spanish, and two previous CDs, “Slip Into Rhythm/Cae En El Ritmo” (2002) and “The Birth of Neon Venus” (1999).

- Neon Venus members are: Lissette Napoleoni—Puerto Rican born and raised lead singer, and Peter Valentino—lead guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. Thamar plays percussion, JR bass, and Luke drums.