Missoula Theatre passes on skills that students can use on and off the stage
Maryfield students perform Hercules
December 2, 2024, 3:57 pm
Nicole Taylor
Maryfield School held two performances of the play Hercules on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 3 pm and 7 pm. The performance was put on with the help of the Missoula Children’s Theatre program, with the students and Missoula theatre bringing the entire performance together in under a week.
“Missoula Theatre has been coming to Maryfield every other year since 2000, until Covid hit, the pandemic put us on pause so we haven’t seen them since 2018,” says Maryfield School Principal Petina Fox.
The staff at Maryfield school gathered information from the students to see how many would be interested in acting with Missoula.
“The students sign up in advance so we can make sure we have enough kids, without reaching out to other people that aren’t in our school,” said Fox. “Generally we get an idea of how many want to be involved and as long as that’s enough we arrange for Missoula to visit. The students audition on the Monday, and all of the roles are cast by supper time the same day.
“We had about just over one hundred people watching in the audience for each show. All of the community was there to show their support—parents, family, and friends. There were some people who graduated from Maryfield over the years that came to watch. They don’t necessarily have any connection to the students, but they have their own memories with Missoula,” said Fox.
There was a fee to watch the Performance of Hercules, which helped Maryfield School cover the cost of bringing in Missoula.
“We did quite a few fundraisers leading up to it, to help raise money to bring them here. We did a Purdy’s Chocolate fundraiser, a Little Caesars Pizza Kit fundraiser and we also did a Steak Night fundraiser at the Arlington Hotel in Maryfield,” said Fox. “All of those fundraisers were to help with costs so we could make it free for the kids. When we bring things like Missoula to our community we don’t want there to be a massive fee on the parents.”
Fox says the Missoula team does most of the work mentally preparing students for their roles.
“The Missoula team does a great job at finding the right kids for the right roles. They’ve done this show quite a few times now, so they’ve definitely got a rhythm, and they can spot different characteristics that make each character come to life.”
Each perforce of Hercules was approximately 50 minutes long. “It went so good, I was a little worried, but they pulled it together by Saturday,” said Fox. “The kids had all their lines mastered and they did amazing.”
Fox says it’s important for students to have the resources to be able to explore interests like theatre.
“It’s really hard to bring theatre arts to a super small school. We have such a limited staff, sometimes it’s hard for us to find people with all of the different avenues of their interest. We don’t always have someone that’s interested in drama and right now, we wouldn’t really have anyone that’s dramatic on staff. It’s nice that this program brings a totally different side of extracurricular activities for our students that they don’t normally get. Students have the opportunity to explore different parts of their personality.
“We saw a few kids that truly came out of their shell as the week went on. I also noticed different kids interacting with each other that don’t normally. Students that maybe aren’t in the same class are becoming friends with each other in ways that they wouldn’t normally. The interactions and the opportunity for our kids is the biggest thing,” said Fox.
Fox says the community feedback has been overwhelming. “I had a few parents come and ask how we could make this happen every year. They love seeing their kids come alive in the theatre setting!”
Fox said that even though some kids may try it and decide theatre is not for them, it’s an opportunity they never would have had otherwise.
“Some of the students might do Missoula now, and decide not to as they get older. We end up with a lot of younger ones signing up to give it a try, and it might not be for everyone, but they’re all learning more about themselves throughout the experience.”
Janet Lemon, one of the staff that arranged to have Missoula come to Maryfield, says that this experience teaches the students many important values.
“This experience teaches life skills like teamwork and communication. We saw students helping one another and working together to put on a great show,” she says.
Austin Plunkett, who works for Missoula and was one of the actors in Maryfield teaching the students, says he has been with Missoula for half a year and is loving the experience so far.
“Missoula has been travelling around the world for about 50 years, they do these residency weeks all over the country. Missoula goes to all 50 states, five Canadian provinces and 17 different countries,” said Austin. “We do all kinds of shows, it’s completely random which show winds up where.”
Missoula sends two of their team members to go into a community, hold the auditions that Monday, and by the end of the week, they have a show ready to perform.
Missoula travels and holds performances by tour blocks. There’s three different tour blocks: Summer Tour, Fall Tour and the Winter/ Spring tour. Missoula mostly works with schools, but will occasionally go to theatres and host weekly bootcamps for theatre arts.
Plunkett says Missoula will work with a broad range of ages.
“We allow anyone from 5 years old and up until 18 years old.”
Plunkett says he first heard of Missoula when he was in college and a professor had recommended the program.
“An old college professor had recommended it to some of my friends that had graduated before me. She got a job and said she loved it. That’s pretty much when all of our friends started getting jobs with the company, so I joined suit and followed right along.”
Plunkett has a bachelors degree in Theatre Arts with his focus being directing.
Plunkett says that preparing the students for their performance is a process that gradually progresses over the week.
“It starts out on the Monday when kids are shy at the auditions. We try to make auditions as open and welcoming as we can. We tell the kids don’t think of this as an audition, but more just us having fun together. As they come to rehearsal every day you just open the idea to them that this is a team effort. We are all in this together, your cast-mates have your back and no one wants you to fail. Everyone here is here to watch you succeed. That’s what really helps the kids come out of their shell at the end of the week.”
“The cast of students practice every day for four hours. It’s broken up into two different sections—a two hour-segment, then a break, then another two-hour segment,” said Plunkett. “We only keep the certain groups that we’re teaching that day there. It’s kind of like building blocks as the week goes on.”
Plunkett says that he was proud of how well Saturday’s performances went.
“All the kids did amazing! Just watching their growth from Monday to show day, it is absolutely astonishing at how far they can come in just a week. The most rewarding part of the job is when you have a kid who starts off really shy and reserved, but by the end of the week they’re saying ‘please don’t leave.’ It’s hard whenever you’ve gotten close with kids and at the end of the week they’re saying ‘you’ll be back next year right?’ ”
Plunkett says he believes Missoula teaches so many valuable lessons and is an important experience for young people.
“Not only does it teach acting skills, but more importantly, I think it teaches general life skills. They’re getting up on stage and they’re acting, but also they’re making friends, and they’re learning how to speak in public, to come out of their shell. It teaches important lessons that can transfer into their everyday lives and they carry forward after we are gone.”
