Start to finish in five days

It started on Monday and ended 7:00pm Friday night. The Hot Springs Elementary School with help from the Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT), held tryouts, rehearsed and put on two performances, Friday at 2:30 and 7:00.

The MCT, which in January sent employees to Trout Creek, is in its 40th year of existence. The company, based out of Missoula, is a traveling theatre company. It boasts having worked with over million children and this year alone will work with 65,000 children in every state and 17 countries. It visits schools and communities in rural settings to help foster a love of theatre and to give new experiences.

Held in the old gymnasium, the whole place was filled with parents, friends, and residents of Hot Springs who laughed and cheered during the play. Ice cream and pie was served to the patrons of the play. This years performance was an adaptation of the fairytale, “The Princess and the Pea,” written by Michael McGill.  

The play focused on two different kingdoms, Riverdom and Glacierdom, one a frozen landscape and the other a lush green land with rivers and hills, the other a frozen icy landscape. Using the original plot of the, “Princess and the Pea,” the play focused on the unification of the two lands to touch upon feminism issues, friendship, those subjugated by the unjust, environmental issues and it was all done with comedy. The play had singing, accompanying music and lighting effects, which made the play feel like a professional play.

Some students had the pleasure of getting to be make up artist and directors. Angelica Lopez had the opportunity to work along side the two MCT employees. “Starting out, I helped roll lines and yesterday and today I was doing lights for the the rehearsals and the play.” she said. Before the plays she helped apply the make up and give instructions to the younger students.

As part of the MCT program on Wednesday, the two employees, Megan Wiltshire and Billy Pipinich, gave an assembly on the history of comedy. They discussed the beginning of history with clowning dating back 4,000 years. The two discussed the intricacies of Shakespeare, the age of melodrama and Vaudeville. All the while acting it out and using students in small skits to help the students understand. They ended their talk with reminding the students by saying, “Comedy is always changing and their is a time and place to be funny and it is that time.”

The MCT packed their entire set, costumes and lighting equipment in the back of a Ford F150. At the end of the show, they were already planning their next stop.

Wiltshire has traveled all over the United States and has even worked in Canada and has been to Bahrain twice. “What’s not to love about it. I get to play dress up with be silly with kids all the time... and we get to play dress up and be silly with kids all the time.” said Wiltshire.

At the end of the plays, there was time for photos and parents had flowers for their children, the MCT workers collected the costumes and gave a demonstration on how they pack the entire set into the back of the truck.