“(W)Rites of Passage” shares Las Vegas stories

Every child, every teenager, every human being who ever has inhabited that space between childhood and adulthood knows that there are times when a kid’s life is nothing but pure drama.

So what better way to deal with the ups and downs of youthdom than turning them into a theater production?

That’s the idea — well, sort of — behind “(W)Rites of Passage,” a Rainbow Company Youth Theatre ensemble show that will be presented Friday and Saturday at the Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza in Lorenzi Park, 720 Twin Lakes Drive. Showtime is 7 p.m., and the shows are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.artslasvegas.org or call 702-229-6553.

The show will feature Rainbow Company’s student ensemble, whose members range in age from 10 to 18, and Karen McKenney-Dyer, Rainbow Company’s artistic director, says the show will feature about 40 scenes revolving around “the unique experience of growing up in Las Vegas.”

All of the pieces were written by student ensemble members or Clark County School District students, and all are being produced, directed and performed by ensemble members.

Some of the pieces are unique to Las Vegas, like the 9-year-old girl who got a limo ride to her birthday, McKenney-Dyer says, and some are just things that could happen anywhere.

The production will be presented in the style of story theater, for which scenery is minimal and costumes are suggestive, McKenney-Dyer says.

“So they’ll all be in a single look and add to the pieces of costumes and props things they thought were absolutely necessary for the character.”

Similarly, music, some of it live and some of it performed by students, will be used for transitions and underscoring, based on students’ judgments of how it might be most effective.

Basically, McKenney-Dyer says, “I’m trying to guide them, but have it be their show.”

The scenes will cover the breadth of young people’s coming of age experiences, from handling homework to seeing a brother at a police station to looking at “what’s going on inside a kid’s head,” McKenney-Dyer says.

Some of the pieces were written for this particular show, and a few were used in a similar show several years ago and revamped for this production, McKenney-Dyer says.

“Our goal was to give kids in the company an opportunity to really develop some material and then put it onstage,” McKenney-Dyer says, “and I think they had a lot of fun.

“We tried really hard to make it an ensemble piece, so that you don’t go, ‘That’s the star.’ The philosophy of Rainbow Company anyway is, there are no stars at Rainbow Company. Everyone is as important as everyone else.”

Oliver Kompst, 18, is one of the show’s student directors. He’s finishing his senior year at West Career and Technical Academy, and has been involved in Rainbow Company since seventh grade. In the fall, he’ll attend Chapman University in Orange, Calif., to study film production, with an emphasis on direction.

Kompst says he has directed theater pieces previously, and says his aim in working with fellow student ensemble members — some of whom he has known and worked with for some time — is to foster collaboration.

“When you’re directing, you kind of come up with a vision,” he says. “But, then, you contribute to the actors, and then it becomes a collaboration between the actor and the director, because as much as you want to stay true to your vision, the actor and performers you’re working with bring so much to the table you may not have thought of.”

Kompst says that, at first, he wasn’t completely sure about the concept of story theater.

“When you take one piece by itself, you kind of go, ‘What’s the overarching theme?’ But the story makes sense on a grand scale,” he says. “When you take the message from this piece and add them all up (with other pieces), you actually come up with something.”

For adults, the show can offer at least a glimmering glimpse into what it’s like to grow up in a city that even adults can find strange.

“It’s really interesting,” says McKenney-Dyer, who didn’t grow up in Las Vegas but raised two now-adult children here, particularly when parents look at “the billboards and the advertisements and the gentleman’s clubs and those kinds of things.”

“There are a few stories that mention things that are unique to Las Vegas,” she says. “But I think, the experience of growing up, the stories are pretty much universal experiences that could have happened anywhere.”

The show is suitable for families, McKenney-Dyer says. “I think any child of at least kindergarten should be able to sit and watch it. It’s an hour or less.”

And, she says, the venue’s location in Lorenzi Park is perfect for a preshow family outing. “We invite people to bring a picnic and enjoy the lovely summer weather,” she says.

“(W)Rites of Passage” marks the end of the Rainbow Company’s current season — the student ensemble, for which members must audition, kicks back into action in August — and McKenney-Dyer says that because some members are graduating out of the program to begin college or other adult endeavors, mounting the show has been, at times, emotional.

“Some of them have been with us six or seven years,” she says, and “some of them were taking classes when they were 10, and now they’re 18.”

So, there have been moments that were “fraught with emotion,” McKenney-Dyer says.

“It’s not the performance that’s going to be emotional. It’ll be the saying goodbye afterwards. But it’s kind of an exciting time for them, too. All of them are going off to something else.”

On the upside, McKenney-Dyer adds, “the young people who are leaving are remarkable, and I’m confident they’re going on to do wonderful things.”

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280 or follow him on Twitter at @JJPrzybys.