Sam Crabtree, 24, is a recent UNR grad with an acting degree. Tonight at 7:30 PM he is hosting his first cabaret night at Shim's Surplus Supplies, which he says will consist mainly of Broadway music rearranged into "a fun, informal night of song."
The cabaret show has been largely Crabtree's own doing, but he credits professors and friends who have guided and helped him make the show possible.
"There's not always been a strong connection between nightlife and the arts entertainment section of Reno," Crabtree told Our Town Reno as he made final preparations.
In addition to creating a local space for cabaret, Crabtree seeks to provide theatre students in Reno a place to grow their skills.
The big night comes just as Crabtree is planning to move out of Reno, to take on a theatre internship in Florida later this summer. He hopes to make the event big enough to pass it on to someone to keep up the "fun, frantic energy of cabaret."
"There's something so valuable for students to perform in front of a crowd of people who just want to be entertained," said Crabtree. He recognized a need for performers coming out of UNR to have experience performing for the public in addition to shows at the university for an already accepting audience. "There's something valuable about that in terms of crowd work and learning how to win an audience over."