The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival continues with "Richard III" and "A Midsummer night's Dream" alternating at the Sand Harbor Stage. But there's a contemporary musical being staged there as well: "CAMBIO," an original work. I haven't seem it yet " but plan to this coming week " so I'll let the Festival give its summary of what it's all about:
"CAMBIO is an original musical that we are creating here at the Festival. It's a re-telling of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," set in modern-day Havana, Cuba. In our show, the Hunchback's timeless story of a young man whom people reject as a monster, and his love for a beautiful, rebellious young woman, will take place in contemporary Havana, a city of simmering tensions, on the brink of tremendous change."
"CAMBIO" plays on Monday nights and tickets are available online at LakeTahoe ShakespeareFestival.com or at the gates.
"Richard III" is Shakespeare at his darkest, we will report on it next week.
RENO JUMPS
The Go Big Project Inc., Grand Sierra Resort and Nikki Beach Club are teaming up to bring B.A.S.E Jumping back to Reno Sunday. The jump, along with a day-long meet- and-greet event featuring world class athletes and music from DJ Kos, is a teaser to September's Organized Chaos " one of the largest stunt spectaculars to take place at the Grand Sierra Resort. The event, which costs $15 at the door, kicks off at noon at the Nikki Beach Club in the Grand Sierra Resort with DJ Kos.
Motocross fans will get the chance to mingle and mix with the famous Livfast Freestyle Motocross Team. The team is practicing for The Reno Arch Jump " the first ever attempt to jump the "Biggest Little City" arch in downtown Reno.
The event finale, a B.A.S.E jump by Kristian Geissler from the roof of the Grand Sierra Resort, will take place between 6-8 p.m.
Call (530) 386-2565 or visit www.thegobigchannel.com.
LYON COUNTY PARTY
"A Night in the Country" is being celebrated in Lyon County Friday and Saturday from 7-11 p.m. at the Lyon County Fairgrounds in Yerington. They have some major talent lined up so it is worth the drive (you can do it on less than a tank of gas). This is a fundraiser of the Boys & Girls Club of Mason Valley.
Friday's concert features Taylor Ware at 6 p.m., plus Collin Raye and Billy Ray Cyrus. Saturday features Chris Cagle and Clay Walker. General seating is $25; $45 for both days. Call 463-2334 or go to www.nightinthecountry.org; or drop by the Main Street offices in Yerington or call 775-463-2334 or 463-5112.
BIZ PROS MEETING
Join the Carson City Young Business Professionals in celebration of their one-year anniversary Thursday, Aug. 7 at one of Carson City's hot spots, Firkin and Fox. Enjoy music, great food, drinks and networking.
Firkin & Fox is at 310 S. Carson St., time is 5-7 p.m. Free for members; $5 for non-members. See www.carsoncityybp.com.
FROM THE VAULTS
P. D. James holds an honored place among British mystery writers. Her whodunits are literate, complex and absorbing. But then along came her "Innocent Blood" (Fawcett Public Library, originally published by Charles Scribners Sons, 1980, soft cover Fawcett, 350 pages, 1981) and James stepped up more than a notch into the non-genre category.
The novel (no need to call it a mystery) tells of a British woman of 18 who seeks out the name of her birth mother after growing up in the upper-class family of Maurice and Hilda. Philippia, the 18-year-old, finds that her birth mother is serving a life sentence in prison for the murder of a 12-year-old girl but is due to be paroled. She determines to meet her birth mother and offer her the chance to share an apartment for a couple of months before Philippia is off to university.
Then Norman surfaces, the father of the slain girl Julie and husband of Mavis. The parents had agreed to slay the murderess with a knife when she was released from prison. But Mavis dies and Norman is left alone to murder.
This is a not a quick and easy read. Characters are examined as if under a microscope, their thoughts and actions detailed. This is not a novel about who did it but about the kind of mind that would plan and execute such a plan.
If a plain murder mystery is what you're after, skip this one. Nothing plain about it " just careful, thoughtful writing that winds up in a coda of emptiness.
- Contact Sam Bauman at Sbauman@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1236.