Neon Of A Different Kind
July 18, 2009
Las Vegas Weekly Article June 2009
by Jacob Coakley
It started as a band’s rehearsal space. Well, technically it started as a laundromat, but when Peter Valentino and Lissette Napoleoni, the duo behind the alternative Latin-rock band Neon Venus, signed a lease at 1404 S. Third St., at the south end of the arts district, the idea was to change the space into a venue for multiple artists to use and grow from. Drawing on Valentino’s work as a vocal coach and acting teacher, the two decided to combine the band space with a theater.
“Then we were like, ‘Oh, if we’re gonna combine it with theater, let’s open it up to other visual arts,’” says Napoleoni, who has worked as a photographer and documentary filmmaker. “‘So let’s do some photography, and we’re in the arts district, so let’s bring art to the walls.’ And we were looking for a name, [so] we figured we’ll put the name of our band and theater and art, because it’s a combination of different arts.”
They cleaned the space and built the stage, and the Neon Venus Art Theatre was born.
Valentino immediately began offering acting classes and reaching out to the local artistic community. But because both Valentino and Napoleoni share a very DIY, punk aesthetic, the emphasis has always been on actualizing your own art—going out and doing, not waiting to be discovered. The classes quickly turned into full-length productions for students to direct and act in. Neon Venus recently presented a production of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, directed by Valentino and starring students from the classes. “We want to have our students do productions, and then also we’re pulling from the general public for certain auditions, too,” Valentino explains.
More
- From the Archives
- At the Neon Venus, art is life and life is a party (4/10/09)
- Beyond the Weekly
- Neon Venus Art Theatre
“Nothing compares to the realistic practice of actually doing something live,” Napoleoni adds. “Otherwise … you’re studying, you’re studying, you’re studying, but you never get anywhere.”
Kids’ classes and productions were another natural outgrowth. Neon Venus Art Theatre started offering classes in several arts disciplines for kids—part of the nonprofit arm—and two teachers, Emily Donn and Dany Meyer, began heading up kids’ productions. The Theatre offers a full schedule of kids’ camps and classes throughout the summer. “We had 18 kids in our production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” says Valentino, a little proudly.
Valentino and Napoleoni are trying to leverage the synergy—they’d never use the word—among Downtown arts groups to create a scene that reaches across disciplines and empowers artists to get their work done by doing it themselves. Atlas Theatre’s Feed the Monkey, a performer-written show, takes place at Neon Venus the last Saturday of every month, and Valentino is exploring a possible partnership with Asylum Theatre to help that company relaunch as a haven for writers of new work.
“We’re engendering writers,” says Valentino, but it’s more than that. Neon Venus pushes local artists to take the reins of their creativity and produce their work. Through their space, classes and partnerships with established artists, Valentino and Napoleoni are trying to create a fertile performance- and art-based scene.
“Our ultimate vision is to aggrandize the arts district and the arts so that it gets on the map,” Valentino says, leaning in to be heard over auditions that have just begun onstage, “So that all the tourists coming here will say, ‘Oh there’s also this arts thing happening here that Las Vegas is known for.’”
At the Neon Venus, art is life and life is a party
July 18, 2009
Photo: Kit Rogers
On May Day as the sun starts to set, between 50 and 200 people painted in vibrant colors will freeze in expressive poses, creating a living sculpture garden alongside the Strip.
“We’re trying to bring people together to make a splashy thing,” says Peter Valentino, who co-owns Neon Venus Theater with his wife, Lissette Napoleoni. Valentino and Napoleoni are organizing the human sculpture experiment, which will take place in the small park adjacent to the theatre where Las Vegas Boulevard and 4th Street intersect. “We’re working towards having tourists become more aware of the Arts District and First Friday. We want them to think of the Arts District as another Las Vegas attraction.”
Valentino sees the potential for Vegas to be more like Rome or Paris, where the main tourist destinations include art galleries and museums as well as dining and shopping. But in Las Vegas arts offerings have to compete with the siren calls of clanking slots, glittering neon, the drama of Rehab and Le Reve and T&A lining the Boulevard.
The multitalented couple is taking on the challenge. At every First Friday arts festival in 2009 they are staging elaborate, multifaceted live art installations that incorporate theater, fashion and music and invite everyone to join in the celebration of aesthetics and humanism.
This past First Friday on April 3rd, renowned costume designer Kit Rogers—known for artistic window displays of live mannequins—dressed models in innovative couture, styling their hair and makeup on stage, so they could strut down the runway to the beats of a live drum circle and a couple of guitarists. The fashion was followed by contortion acts and improv comedy.
“We consider fashion to be a part of the arts, because we’re more holistic,” says Valentino. “What is art? It is creative and it is artistic.”
Neon Venus Theater will soon offer fashion photography classes for children and adults, teaching hair and makeup styling and costume design, and the theater already offers acting, singing, voice classes and painting classes, taught by Valentino and others. It’s also home to a children’s theater program, which recently debuted The Chronicles of Narnia and will soon feature a cast of 22 in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“We’re constantly trying to do things that bring more attention to the arts and to get the kids to be part of it,” says Valentino.
June’s First Friday will revolve around dance, but next month’s, which falls on May 1, will be Valentino’s largest yet. A culmination of weeks of preparation involving around 200 people, he promises it will be “very springy, very extravagant.”
More
- Neon Venus
- Free Hugs Campaign
- If you would like to be a model, stylist, percussionist or participant in the live sculpture garden, contact Peter Valentino at 702-787-2481
A recruiter for the arts, Valentino wants you. He is spending the next few weeks “getting in league with as many people as possible,” and loves fresh faces who are interested in being models, percussionists or who just want to get dressed up and get out on the street to be a part of the live sculpture garden.
Friday afternoon will be spent getting into costume, then everyone will move to the outdoor park where at promptly 7 p.m. they will freeze in position as photographers, videographers and painters capture the moment in all its audacious splendor. A drum circle will lend rhythm to the display, which will all be over by 7:30 p.m., coinciding with sunset.
“We’re trying to make a lively thing for people on the Strip,” Valentino explains, “To get as many people out there as we can in a short period of time to create a traffic-stopping, attention-getting thing.”
The living sculpture garden is also a tribute to Mayor Oscar Goodman to thank him for his support of the arts. Valentino and Napoleani proposed a permanent sculpture garden to Goodman and he put them in touch with people who could make it happen. Says Valentino, “It’s a demonstration of love more than anything of an anti-thing.”
“Desert Rose” by Breanna Curry, on display at the Neon Venus Art Gallery.
Napoleani is also directing and filming a documentary with the working title Making Art in Sin City, which will be filmed over the course of the year and will capture all 12 First Friday live art installations. If they receive the required funding, Napoleani hopes to make it into a feature film.
“The main thing is to follow people and how they develop and how they evolve due to the influence of the [Neon Venus] Theatre, which is also a gallery,” Valentino explains. “We’ll be following people for a year and following their progress and how they’re making an impact. We will show the changes that take place in the Arts District, the changes people have gone through and what we’re trying to create.”
Despite the fact that similar ventures have died young, Valentino and Napeoleoni entertain grand visions. They are currently working on obtaining a 5013c permit, which would grant the operation non-profit status. With financial assistance from grants, they would like to renovate the theater for increased capacity and institute art exhibits and film festivals.
Valentino would also like to turn a couple spaces around town into all-ages entertainment venues. “All-ages venues get shot down really fast because of drugs,” says Valentino. “We’re looking for something that’s more clean and educational.”
“Lasso of Truth” by Breanna Curry, on display at the Neon Venus Art Gallery.
After the live sculpture garden and drum circle at 8:30 p.m. on May 1, the theater will perform a teaser scene of its first adult production, The Shape of Things, directed by Valentino, originally a Broadway play that was made into a movie. Tickets are free, but $1 donation is requested. Later, live bands will come on, including Rubicks Hotel and Neon Venus. Valentino plays guitar in the latter and his wife is the singer; the band has produced three CDs and has appeared on MTV.
Late-night comedy extravaganza Feed the Monkey, now a resident at the Neon Venus, will participate in the installation, the Neon Venus sketch group the Sketchofrenics will perform and Free Hugs Campaigners will be there giving out free hugs.
During the evening’s events the Neon Venus gallery will also be open, showcasing paintings by local artists as well as photographs of the fashion shows and live art from past First Fridays.
“It’s like being in a cave filled with cave paintings or a church, with art all around you,” explains Valentino. “You have all this beauty around you and it takes you into a different way of looking at things.
“When you come in here you know you are in some place different. We view art in the way of Joseph Campbell: We want to have a mythological space. When you come in here it connects you to the arts and the unconscious.”
Theater camp allows kids to have fun, learn showbiz ropes
July 18, 2009
By AMANDA LLEWELLYN
CITY VIEW STAFF WRITER
http://www.viewnews.com/2009/VIEW-Jun-09-Tue-2009/Summerlin/29148787.html
This summer, kids from all over the valley will have an opportunity to participate in five hands-on, built-from-the-ground-up productions courtesy of the Neon Venus Theatre Camp inside of the Neon Venus Art Theatre in downtown Las Vegas.
According to Children’s Theater director Emily Donn, children ages 4 to 18 will learn from professional actors and teachers who will pass down classic acting techniques and theater secrets. Donn said that children are not separated by age and all the children learn together, the youngest working alongside the teenagers.
“Not all of our kids have the dream of becoming professionals, but most do,” she said. “We want them to get the most fun and knowledge and experience that they can out of each and every session.”
The camp, which began June 8, will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Neon Venus Art Theatre is at 1404 S. 3rd St.
The camp costs $100 a week per camper, and kids can attend one or more of the five two-week sessions. Registration will be open throughout the sessions. For more information, visit www.neonvenus.com or call 787-2481.
Each two-week session will revolve around a particular theme, including young adult literature, Shakespeare, musicals, sketch comedy and playwriting.
According to Donn, campers will have the opportunity to participate in every facet of the theater experience, from costumes and props to sets and acting.
At the end of each workshop, campers will put on a public performance.
“They will create a modern version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ” Donn said. “We will be doing everything from Broadway musicals to improv comedies where kids create their own sketch. We’re also going to work as a group to create an original play during the playwriting portion.”
This will be the camp’s inaugural year, and according to owner Peter Valentino, it won’t be the last.
“We’re really getting things up and running around here now,” he said.
The theater opened its doors last year, providing classes in art, writing, music and acting to the public for a fee. But even with the economy being on its heels during most of the center’s life span, Valentino said financial concerns have been among the least challenging aspects of running a successful program.
“There’s a real fear culture in this country when it comes to the arts,” he said. “People don’t want to be made fun of when they open themselves up, as you must do when you are in a creative setting.”
Valentino said he has watched students, both adults and children, transform before his eyes after taking a few classes and learning to honor their creativity.
“It builds self-esteem, no doubt,” he said. “That is part of the function of the children’s theater camps. We are building self-esteem and creativity. We’re sending these kids back out into the world with an understanding of just what they can accomplish if they are willing to work for it.”
NEON VENUS ART THEATRE: Helping artists bloom
2007 - City Life - Las Vegas
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Jenna Dosch/ViewKim Threat, theater manager for the Neon Venus Art Theatre, carries artwork into the facility on Aug. 1.
From front, digital art instructor Tara Bishop, artist Yadira Lopez and Peter Valentino, co-owner of the Neon Venus Art Theatre, put art on display at the facility.Jenna dosch/View
Jenna Dosch/ViewArtist Yadira Lopez unpacks a box of her artwork on Aug. 1, to be hung at the Neon Venus Art Theatre, located at 1404 S. 3rd St. |
By AMANDA LLEWELLYN
VIEW STAFF WRITER
Self-proclaimed underground, Latin pop and rock duo Neon Venus has found a brand of unconventional success in the music industry, being featured on the MTV Tr3s network and releasing albums since 1999, but an inherent need to build something concrete and stationary spurred members Peter Valentino and Lissette Napoleoni to plant artistic roots in Las Vegas, opening the Neon Venus Art Theatre, 1404 S. 3rd St., earlier this summer.
“We wanted our own little place to perform,” Napoleoni said. “There’s a definite need for a theater of this kind in Las Vegas, but the opening really stems from our need for a place like this.”
The venue offers classes and workshops in a variety of subjects, including screenwriting, video storytelling, yoga, Spanish, vocal performance, fiction writing, dance, painting, computer graphics, positive thinking and acting for adults and children.
“We wanted to produce a creative center for those burgeoning artistic souls looking for a place to call home,” Valentino said. “We wanted to offer something of substance, at a reasonable cost. There’s nothing else like it downtown.”
Novice writer Fiona Clauphshone said that her interest in pursuing training in the form of a writing class has perked up since learning about the theater’s affordable pricing and close proximity to her residence.
“Writers don’t have a lot of money,” she said. “I’m not a professional, and part of that is because I haven’t had the budget that would let me take classes to improve my writing. I like the way this theater has things set up, though. It’s affordable without having to take out a loan or grant or something.”
Valentino said that the city’s image sometimes sustains the idea that nothing exists beyond the Strip; that nothing outside of that mile-long sliver of real estate is authentic.
“The entire town has this lounge feeling to it, but at the same time, it’s an interesting place filled to the brim with artistic and talented people,” Valentino said.
With an offering of regional art and hipster-frequented galleries, the downtown area has become the heart of an artistic movement seeking to infuse a semblance of culture into the community.
With the opening of the Neon Venus Art Theatre, Valentino and Napoleoni have made it a personal goal to be an instrumental part of that movement. Along with the classes already being offered at the theater, the pair plans to add an art gallery to the property’s attributes, to feature the works of teachers and students. There also are plans in the works to hold film industry premieres at the theater, but Napoleoni said the reality might be a bit far off yet.
“We believe in the Arts District,” Napoleoni said. “There are a lot of exciting, young artists kicking around. They often can’t find ways to hook up, to produce results from their work. We want to be that for this community.”
Classes typically meet once a week and cost between $50 and $150 per four- to eight-week session. For more information, call 787-2481 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, or visit http://neonvenus.com/.