RAINBOW: Exploring only-in-Vegas, universal moments

What: “(W)Rites of Passage” When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6

Where: Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza in Lorenzi Park, 720 Twin Lakes Drive

Tickets: Free (702-229-6553 or artslasvegas.org)

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 nowadult 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.