Phoenixes

As most readers have probably noticed, times are tough here in Reno. Locals who love this town tend to be drawn toward every flicker in the ashes, hoping it’ll be a phoenix primed to rise. While the suburban malls and downtown casinos seem to decay, one area of town that seems to thrive is Midtown, a loosely defined area south of downtown, roughly from California Avenue to Plumb Lane. It’s where many of the best new restaurants, clothing boutiques and bars are located. It’s also home to some hip small businesses—bookstores and hardware stores—and diversity of nonprofit organizations—including the area’s oldest theater company.

Biggest Little Theater

Reno Little Theater has been homeless for years—since 1995, when it moved out of its old space on Sierra Street. In that time, the company has staged productions in a variety of locations, most prominently in the theater at Hug High School. But, on Jan. 6, RLT presented the first performance of its latest production, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in its recently completed theater on Pueblo Street. (See our review of the play on page 19.)

The all-volunteer staff of RLT is excited about the new theater, a project that has been many years in the making, and hope the building will serve as an “anchor” for the burgeoning Midtown district.

“We want this space used by the community,” says chairman of the board Moira Bengochea. “We want to integrate it into the community, because it’s a gift for the community. Theater transforms lives, because it allows us to experience life in new ways.”

The actual theater is a “black box,” with flexible seating to accommodate about 99 people. It’s a large, versatile room. RLT hopes to rent it out in between their productions to other arts organizations for film screenings, musical performances and other theatrical productions. But the priority is RLT’s own productions.

“One exciting thing about having our own space is that we can do more shows—more one-acts, more fringe,” says boardmember McKenzi Swinehart. She says the group wants to augment its traditional seasonal mix—“a classic, a modern, a drama, a comedy, a murder mystery, and something just off Broadway”—with more experimental and left-field fare, the kind of stuff that’s difficult to stage in a high school. Additionally, the new theater will have beer and wine available.

“I’m grateful for our partnership with Hug High, but you don’t put on a cocktail dress to go see a play at a high school,” says Swinehart.

The new location means that RLT can once again be a date night destination, Swineheart says, especially with all the many nearby restaurants—she cites the Gas Lamp, Silver Peak, PJ & Co. and Lulou’s.

Bengochea says that all the nearby businesses have been very supportive and welcoming, and she gives a special commendation to the various contractors and builders who worked on the construction.

“My faith in the community has continually been renewed,” she says.

Home for the Holland days

The theater also contains a small art gallery, the Semenza Gallery, which will feature, according to Swinehart, “A rotating gallery of local artists or local subject matter.” It currently features large photographs of Lake Tahoe by John Thomas Voss Ravizé, with accompanying poems by his wife, Lindé Ravizé. But for future exhibitions, and posters and program designs, RLT plans to collaborate with another nonprofit organization that just moved into the neighborhood: the Holland Project.

Holland Project is a nonprofit that curates art and music events geared toward an all-ages crowd. It too had been quasi-homeless for a couple of years. Since not long after its Keystone Avenue location closed in 2007, it has been staging its music events at Rainshadow Community Charter High School and presenting its art exhibitions within the small of confines of an office on Cheney Street—both locations that were also in Midtown.

“Midtown was really a pleasant surprise for us,” says Holland’s director, Britt Curtis. “Especially at first, with the close of the Keystone location, our headquarters was based in Midtown before Midtown was happening. We moved into a neighborhood that had a couple of existing things—a couple bars, Maytan’s Music, and Rose’s Sandwich Shop was there, but it was kind of an older sleepy neighborhood on the outskirts of downtown. Just in the time we were in that headquarters space, we saw a bunch of new boutiques open, including our neighbor, Never Ender. …

Now, there’s a ton. From Ace Hardware and what the Carter brothers are doing to Crème and Süp and Midtown Eats and the Hub. Public House. There’s a lot of really cool projects and energy and new business in that area. … Being in our little headquarters space on Cheney and at Rainshadow I think it really allowed us to see the potential that Midtown had for our project ultimately.”

The organization moved into its current Vesta Street location last summer, immediately began renovating it, and started hosting events there in the fall. Like RLT, Curtis says that having a dedicated space made fundraising and other forms of community support much easier.

“We made a challenge to ourselves to meet a $50,000 fundraising goal by the end of 2011, and we did it,” she says. “In the nick of time—one or two days before January 1.”

She says most of that money will go toward the continuing renovations of the space. The building will eventually contain an art gallery, music venue, library and workshop space. The first two components are still under renovation, but up and running.

Reverse dive

The Zephyr Bar, a central Midtown watering hole since long before anyone used the term “Midtown,” also recently completed a renovations. Longtime Reno bar-hoppers might not even recognize it.

“They come through the door, look around, and say, ‘Is this still The Zephyr? … It doesn’t stink anymore!” says bar manager K.J. Flippen.

It was long one of Reno’s most beloved dives, but now it’s cleaned up. Some locals are excited to discover it’s now a clean little joint with more than 100 craft beers, specialty cocktails, and stone tiles.

But other local drinkers feel like one of Reno’s most beloved dive bars has been sanitized beyond recognition—now, above the door, there’s a sign that reads, “I love this bar,” attributed, for some inexplicable reason, to Toby Keith. It seems almost too sober—perhaps like a bar in a Midwestern airport.

But even diviest dive bar aficionado has to be happy about one change in the Zephyr atmosphere: “The bathrooms are actually bathrooms now,” says Flippen.