New theater troupe for Carson; music at Tahoe

Another theater company is in the process of being born in Carson City with a working title of Brewery Arts Summer Stock Theater. The idea is to offer live theater at the Brewery's outdoor stage on an annual basis. Kris Garrett is the company manager and the indefatigable Karen Chandler is the director.

First outing will be "The Little Shop of Horrors," starring veteran local pros Domenic Procaccini and Andy Anderson, with Chandler directing, of course. The musical is funny and oddly enough it was inspired by a Roger Corman film of the same name. Show opens on Aug. 2, but "previews" in the form of skits and songs are being presented at the Greenhouse Garden Center on weekends.

MUSIC AND DANCE OUT THERE

• On Saturday at the MontBleu in Stateline, Kaskade appears. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Opal Lounge doors open 8 p.m. Show is at midnight.

• At the Silver Legacy in Reno, Blues Traveler plays Friday. Michael Bublé appears at the Reno Exposition Center at 8 p.m. July 12 and Ron White at the center July 14.

• At the Grand Sierra Casino, the old Hilton, the Deftones show up tonight at 8 p.m., tickets are $30; Steve Winwood plays Friday at 8 p.m., tickets are $71.50, $49.50 and $38.50. Boz Scaggs appears Sunday at 8 p.m., tickets are $71.50, $49.50 and $38.50. The American Ballet Theatre, presented by Artown, dances Tuesday at 8 p.m., tickets are $40, $60, $80 and $125.

• The Lake Tahoe Food & Wine Festival in Crystal Bay is this weekend. It begins on Saturday with the Festival as the main event, on the luckiest day of the century - 07/07/07, at the Crystal Bay Club in both indoor and outdoor venues. See insidetahoe.net/fw_fest.php.

UP IN THE AIR

Squaw Valley offers a Soaring Kites and Music Festival Saturday with pro and amateur kite fliers, a kids' kite-making seminar and live music.

STREET ART

The Tahoe Arts Festival brings the romantic art of street painting to the North Shore this Saturday and Sunday at the Cal-Neva Resort & Spa in Crystal Bay. Admission is free.

FROM THE VAULTS

"The Conformist" has been hailed as one of the finest films of the 20th century, despite it barely being known in the United States. As the title suggests, it's about a man who desperately wants to fit into the Mussolini Fascist Italian state of the 1930s. Directed by Benardo Bertolucci, and based on Alberto Moravia's novel, this is a disquieting tale that mixes issues of existence, politics and psychology.

The film moves in flashbacks and back, mixing up chronology and events. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Stefania Sandrelli star, he the conformist.

To belong to the Fascist party, Trintignant must kill his former college professor, an anti-fascist living in Paris. Trintignant finds the professor and masking as a former student plans to murder him. Meanwhile, the professor's wife, played by Dominique Sanda, becomes involved with Sandrelli first and then with Trintignant (in a brief nude scene).

The murder of the professor and his wife takes place on a lonely road as Trintignant watches. In the end he attempts to conform with the new Italy that is emerging. No fool he.

The best of its times? Perhaps. Absorbing to say the least, from the director who went on to film "Last Tango in Paris." And a look at an Italy that most Americans have no idea existed. Certainly worth your time. In English, 111 minutes, (1970), rated R.

• Contact Sam Bauman at 881-1236 or Sbauman@nevadaappeal.com.