Flap over Palin line in MCT’s ‘Mikado’ reflects the hazards of bias

Years ago, as a teenager, I attended a meeting of my church youth-group led by a guest minister. I still remember how he arrayed our group in a circle, and without any explanation, whispered something in the ear of one of our group members.

She laughed, turned, and whispered in the ear of the person next to her, who then passed the message along around the circuit.

The secret eventually got around to me. Now, 20-plus years later, I don’t remember much of it, but it had something to do with a bicycle, a list of items from the store, and some places and names. “Pass it on,” I was told.

Eventually, the circle was completed. The minister asked the last person in line to say what he had heard out loud. Then, the minister read from a piece of paper the original message he had whispered in the first girl’s ear.

Neither a single fact nor even the basic gist of the story had made it all the way around the circle. [Read More...]

Mikado-gate: MCT Community Theatre deals with backlash over Palin quote

On Sunday night, MCT Community Theatre wrapped up its two-week run of Gilbert & Sullivan’s satirical operetta, “The Mikado,” with a frolicking performance at its home theatre on East Broadway in Missoula.

On Monday morning, MCT executive director Michael McGill set about the hard business of mending all that had gone awry over the weekend, when word spread across the Internet that MCT’s production advocated the beheading of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

What began with a single letter to the editor, published in last Friday’s Missoulian, quickly erupted into a nationwide controversy after dozens of political bloggers picked up the thread and ran with it – some adding their own colorful amendments to the story. [Read More...]

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No news is good news in Missoula’s arts scene

Last week, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin took the podium at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia to lead that city’s venerable orchestra in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Requiem.” Critics lauded the performance and the work of the French-Canadian conductor, who last summer was named the orchestra’s new music director, after a troubling period without a permanent leader.

But the program itself perhaps signaled something else about the times. [Read More...]

Help MCT win $250k

I received an email that I thought I would post up here about a contest that Missoula Children’s Theatre is involved in. The winner gets $250,000, which would surely be a nice shot in the arm for the company. Here’s the email I received, with instructions on how to help out: [Read More...]

Fire on First Night

Anybody who’s looked at Friday’s Entertainer knows that there’s a ton of interesting stuff happening as part of this year’s First Night Missoula festivities on Dec. 31. One performance that carries special significance is the appearance by the Frederico Brothers, at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts. [Read More...]

MAT contemplates life after “Rocky”

Last weekend, more than 2,300 people turned out to cheer and sing along at Montana Actors’ Theatre’s production of “The Rocky Horror Show” at the Wilma Theatre. With four performances spread over just 32 hours, it was a watershed weekend for local professional theatre — a moment when good timing and material (“Rocky Horror” at a spooky old theatre on Halloween weekend) combined with a great production to set new standards for what’s possible in locally produced, professional theatre.

So Grant Olson can be excused if his head is still in the clouds.

“I didn’t sleep Friday after the shows,” said Olson, MAT’s artistic director. “When we finished, everybody in the cast was like, did we really just do this? Is it really over? When do we get to do that again? It felt almost surreal.”

For longtime Missoula theatergoers, it might have felt more like a flashback. [Read More...]