Here’s the latest in theater, music and family fun

Family fun

ROTARY PARK

SALUTES ARTS

From music to dance, from clay to jewelry, there’s a world of creativity on tap Saturday at the free Rotary Park Arts Festival.

Introducing the work of new, upcoming and established artists, the festival provides an opportunity for locals, and local artists, to interact.

Participants include Clay Arts Las Vegas, Painting Pets &People, Kent LeFevre, Laura Lenzy, Michael Hendrick, Theresa Lucero, Marisol G. Yaffa Cary, Lindy Glantz, Brian Ayriss, Las Vegas Paiute Jewelry, Alan Spector, Shane Cooper, Anne Hoff and Crystal DiPietro.

Scheduled entertainers range from the guitar ensemble from Hyde Park School Middle School (adjacent to Rotary Park) to the Kaminari Taiko Drummers, the Melanie Spector Trio, the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe Dancers, the Tonality Women’s Barbershop Quartet, the Nani Ola Hawaiian Dance Company, the Shelby &Tieg Folk Duo and the Sol Huasteco Mexican Folk Dancers.

The Rotary Park Arts Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Rotary Park, 901 Hinson St. For more information, visit www.artslasvegas.org or call 702-229-2787 or 702-229-3514.

Music

OPERA LV SHARES

‘PASSION FOR PUCCINI’

Opera lovers who already have “A Passion for Puccini” — and those looking to catch the fever — will enjoy a feast of the Italian composer’s glorious melodies Wednesday at The Smith Center’s Cabaret Jazz, courtesy of Opera Las Vegas.

Eight young singers will perform arias and ensembles from such Puccini classics as “Tosca,” “Madame Butterfly” and “Turandot,” along with such lesser-known works as “Girl of the Golden West” and “La Rondine.”

Singers Mark Covey, Marcie Ley, Jonathan Mancheni, Sheronda McKee, Alex Rodin Mendoza, Athena Mertes, Jorge Ortiz and Eugene Richards lead the musical journey; Spencer Baker provides piano accompaniment.

Opera Las Vegas’ “A Passion for Puccini” will be presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. For tickets ($39-$79), call 702-749-2000 or visit www.thesmithcenter.com.

Theater

‘CIRCLE MIRROR’

OPENS CSN SEASON

“Circle Mirror Transformation” — for which playwright Annie Baker won an off-Broadway Obie Award for Best New American Play — kicks off the College of Southern Nevada’s 2014-15 theater season Friday.

The comedy-drama traces the lives of a handful of small-town New Englanders who enroll in a six-week drama class at a local community center.

Director Douglas Hill describes “Circle Mirror Transformation” as “a tender comedy,” one that recognizes the desire for self-expression.

“The play is a little like a haiku poem: Not a lot gets said, and yet it seems to be about a lot of things,” Hill notes. “It’s reaching back for that childlike joy of just breathing and being and playing. It’s making peace with our adult secrets and struggling with forgiveness.”

The production opens at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the BackStage Theatre on CSN’s Cheyenne campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., North Las Vegas, and continues at 7 p.m. Oct. 16-18 and 2 p.m. Oct. 19; for tickets ($12 adults, $10 students/seniors), call 702-651-5483 or visit www.csn.edu/pac.

Music

ST. OLAF BAND

VISITS ACADEMY

One of America’s “pre-eminent bands” (at least according to The New Yorker) will visit Las Vegas as part of its national tour — but the St. Olaf Band will be playing “Mostly British” music when their cross-country tour stops Saturday at the Las Vegas Academy.

As its title promises, “Mostly British” features works by such composers as Gustav Holst, Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, along with traditional tunes and new band music — including a composition by conductor Timothy Mahr.

Founded in 1891, the St. Olaf Band is the oldest music organization at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and has toured nationally since 1904 — and internationally since 1906.

They’ll perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Las Vegas Academy’s Lowden Theater for the Performing Arts, located at Ninth Street and Clark Avenue. The concert is free for students and $10 for adults and seniors; for advance tickets, call 800-363-5487 or visit stolaf.edu/stolaf-band.

Theater

‘BREADCRUMBS’ MARKS PREMIERE

“Breadcrumbs,” by award-winning playwright Jennifer Haley, makes its local premiere Thursday in the Las Vegas Little Theatre Studio.

Presented by Las Vegas-based Table 8 Productions, “Breadcrumbs” features Las Vegas-based actresses Gail Romero and Monica Delgado in the drama, which focuses on a reclusive fiction writer, diagnosed with dementia, who must depend upon a troubled young caretaker to complete her autobiography.

“Although Alzheimer’s is an element in the script, ‘Breadcrumbs’ isn’t an ‘Alzheimer’s play,’ ” according to director Stephen R. Sisson, who’s also making his Las Vegas debut. “The tragic disease becomes a background to the struggle between the two women,” resulting in “a very human story that contains some crucial slivers of hope.”

The production opens Thursday in the Las Vegas Little Theatre’s Studio, 3920 Schiff Drive, and continues through Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets ($15 Thursdays and Sundays, $18 Fridays and Saturdays), visit the Table 8 Productions website at www.table8lv.com or call 702-423-6366.

— By CAROL CLING