Theatre visits Trout Creek

Put together in just four days, an entire, hour-long musical was put on in the gymnasium of the Trout Creek school, Friday night. The Missoula Children’s Theater led the school in the production of, “Blackbeard the Pirate,” an adaptation of the children’s story. Auditions for parts were held Tuesday, and by Friday night parents and residents were given the treat of a complete, full length theater production.

 Andrew Stairs describing the theatre said, “The Missoula Children’s Theatre is a traveling children’s theatre company based out of Missoula. We’ve been operating for about 40 years. We go to residencies in all 50 states, and in 17 countries... Monday we audition and on Saturday or Friday depending on the week, we set up an entire, one hour long musical.” Sam Ricci of the company interjected, and said that because of the snow day on Monday, the school and the company pulled the whole thing together in only four days.

At six o’clock the children finished eating a prepared dinner so they could stay after school and work on getting ready for the play. When the dinners were finished, the children went into the basement of the gymnasium to put on their makeup. As the students lined up in rows, teachers, other students and Ricci applied makeup and baby powder. It was hectic and loud as everyone readied themselves, but with time to spare, they were all ready for the play before show time at seven.

Set up in the gymnasium was an entire beach back-drop that had three different entrances. “Theatre in a truck bed!” said Stairs describing how the entire set is hauled in the bed of a Ford F-150.

For an hour, a story was told to the audience about Blackbeard’s treasure, with dancing, singing and small scenes. Every grade participated and .... helped lead the students through the play. There was a group of parrots, crabs, beach bums, pirates, alligators, sailors and sea creatures. The sea creatures had the important part of disrupting story lines and the crabs, who were very crabby, protected the treasure.

The play was well received, and when it was over, parents were taking tons of photos with their children. Becky Barrus loved how the entire school was involved. She said, “Everyone was involved, all the teachers, all the kids, it was wonderful!” Matt King of Trout Creek, who did not have a child in the play, decided to enjoy the night’s play. He enjoyed how Ricci worked with all of the students.

Daisy Carlsmith, the supervising teacher, was very pleased with the theater company and how they worked with the students and school. “We are so thankful they came out... This is really special, with costumes and lighting.”