For those who missed it — or those who want to see it again — the production of Josh Wagner’s play, “Ringing Out,” at the Crystal Theatre has been extended through Thursday night, Jan. 26. Performances begin nightly at 7:30 p.m.
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It is not uncommon for people to feel ready to be rid of holiday-themed music and entertainment by the time Santa flies through town. But as December morphed into January of this new year, Rebecca Schaffer found herself still preparing for the premiere of a new play in which Christmas figures prominently. Before you chalk up the upcoming opening of “Ringing Out” as just a late arrival to the holiday party, however, know this: This feast of the senses won’t taste anything like the traditional turkey. “Christmas is an important part of the play; but at the same time, I don’t think it’s really about Christmas,” said Schaffer, who directs the upcoming production of local playwright Josh Wagner’s script, at the Crystal Theatre. “Christmas is kind of a catalyst that serves as an instigator of what happens. But ‘A Christmas Carol’ this is not.” If anything, “Ringing Out” will more likely appeal more to fans of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. [Read More...] Advertisement Montana Actors’ Theatre has put out an audition call for its upcoming production of “Arsenic & Old Lace.” Alas for you football-loving thespians, the auditions take place this Sunday, aka Super Bowl Sunday. Not to worry though; if you just can’t miss the game, they’ll find a way to hear your audition. Here’s the full call direct from the source: [Read More...] Late in Larke Schuldberg’s play, “Sound of Planes,” 24-year-old Margaret stands on a plain, gray platform and intones a monologue that begins in passive voice. “Now I am breathing in. Now I am breathing out. Now I am breathing in. I see the men. Men in uniform. Men coming up the steps. I take a breath.” The men come silently in the door. “Guten tag,” she says, her greeting echoed in ragged unison by her 20-year-old and 16-year-old self, both of whom stand nearby. It’s a scene that breaks that most basic maxim of conventional theatrical wisdom: Show, don’t tell. With its mash-up of German and English phrases and its mix-up of three different personifications of the same person, it’s also a scene that could only happen in the unreal space of the theatre. Yet, as the glint of tears on the cheeks of more than one audience member attested, it was a scene that nonetheless punched hard to the gut in Wednesday’s performance of the play’s world-premiere production, at the Crystal Theatre. [Read More...]
Rarely does one find a plot so easy to summarize as that of Larke Schuldberg’s play, “Sound of Planes,” which opens at the Crystal Theatre next week. Yet, according to those involved in Montana Actors’ Theatre’s world premiere production, the plot hardly tells the whole story of Schuldberg’s script. “I’ve been looking forward to this production all year,” said Rebecca Sporman, the set designer for MAT’s production and a member of the Havre-based company’s artistic council, which selected the play as one of ten shows in the company’s current Missoula season. “It’s my favorite script we’ve chosen.” “Larke’s plays deal on a very deep character level,” added Kaet Morris, director of the production. “None of the people you see in her plays are stock characters. She’s extremely talented and rigorous with herself about what she chooses to leave in there; so it’s a distilled essence of these people. “That’s the beauty of this play: It’s about people that are real enough that they could be you or me or any other person.” [Read More...] C.B. is not the Charlie Brown you know. Instead of a comic-strip character, he is a real guy standing before you at the Crystal Theatre, in Montana Actors’ Theatre’s production of “Dog Sees God.” His yellow shirt with the jagged black line, like a lightning-strike across his chest, and his big head under a stocking cap may resemble features of his drawn doppelganger; but C.B. will not delight your grandmother with his luck-lorn humor and wry commentary on the human condition. Not that he lacks either. But, from the beginning, one must be prepared for the particular kind of humor and insight that frames the very funny pages of Bert V. Royal’s 2004 script. [Read More...] If there is a common theme to the four plays currently running at the Crystal Theatre, it is that work does not define a person. In exploring this straightforward insight through the minds of three locally connected playwrights, Montana Rep Missoula continues to define itself by its excellent and important work. The quartet of new plays — split into two nights, with two by Missoula playwright Roger Hedden, plus one each by Missoula Colony regulars James McLure and Ron Fitzgerald — comprise the final act by MRM in a season themed around topics of labor and profession. One could say the UM-based company has saved its best for last. [Read More...] At Montana Actors’ Theatre’s first-ever dinner theatre production, the courses come small and hearty, a series of rudimentary concepts made artful through complex seasoning, with just the right balance between effervescent and earthy, tart and soothing, dense and delicate. The food is really great, too. [Read More...] The backdrop is steely gray, but the mood is even darker when the lights come up on Montana Rep Missoula’s production of Clifford Odet’s classic Depression-era political play, “Waiting for Lefty.” A rowdy gathering of unionized taxi drivers argues over whether to strike. A union leader, the unsubtly named Harry Fatt, insists that the workers should wait for the nation’s new President to intervene. When workers in the audience try to shout him down, Fatt calls them Reds, and warns the crowd of the dangers of Communism. “Give those birds a chance and they’ll have your sisters and wives in whore houses, like they done in Russia,” shouts Fatt. “They’ll tear Christ off his bleeding cross. They’ll wreck your homes and throw your babies in the river. You think that’s bunk? Read the papers!” As he bellows that last line, Fatt, played by local theatre veteran Howard Kingston, leaps to the front of the stage at the Crystal Theater and points a front-row audience member straight in the eye. Read the papers, indeed. [Read More...] At some point in life, we all have nights like this. The kid is crying, the cupboard is bare; and then, a surprise knock at the door. In Yasmina Reza’s 2000 play, “Life x 3,” Henry and his wife, Sonia, get three chances to make that night turn out alright, even as unexpected guests Hubert and his wife, Inez, connive to make a mess of it. It’s “Life Times Three,” but it’s also a bit of complex algebra, where the “x”-factor can change the entire tenor of the night. [Read More...] |
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