On Sunday, July 10, the Missoula Colony gathering of theatre artists gets down to business with its first event, a day-long discussion and workshop covering the particular challenges of scriptwriting for television. It is a topic known well by workshop leader Ron Fitzgerald, a writer with long-time Missoula connections and a resume stacked with impressive projects, including the Showtime series “Weeds,” NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” and the upcoming NBC series, “Prime Suspect.”
The day’s events culminate with an 8 p.m. staged reading of “Mississippi Queen,” a script for a television pilot by Missoula filmmaker Paige Williams. Based on her own life and autobiographical documentary of the same name, the script – Williams’ first – sets the stage for a fictionalized television series about a young lesbian woman growing up in a fundamentalist family in Mississippi.
As much as the day’s events aim to convey useful professional guidance to participants in this year’s Colony, they also speak directly to the underlying spirit of the annual gathering, now in its 16th year. [Read More...]
In times like these, America needs Red Green. The Canadian comedian and star of the long-running PBS series, “The Red Green Show,” Green has won over scores of us south-of-the-northern-border yokels with his patchwork brand of homespun advice (“If life gives you lemons, throw ‘em into a quart of vodka”), pithy philosophies (“Men are like gas, they take up the space available”), and most of all, fix-it tutorials.
In his new book, “How to Do Everything,” Green explores plenty of the latter, offering do-it-yourself ideas for how to fix a draughty window using mice, how to fix squeaky floorboards with a whoopee cushion, and how to lift the engine out of a car using just a nine volt cordless drill, clothesline pulleys and his famously favored fix-all, duct tape.
On Saturday, Green will appear at the Montana Theatre on the UM campus as part of his current “Wit and Wisdom” tour. I caught up with him by phone earlier this week to talk about the life experiences that brought him to where he is today, and the winding road that brings him here this weekend. [Read More...]
It’s known as one of the most rollicking comic operas in all of history; and this summer, it will come to Missoula. Montana Lyric Opera has announced that tickets go on sale today for its production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” which runs at the Montana Theatre on the University of Montana campus August 10, 12, and 14.
The centerpiece of Montana Lyric Opera’s third annual Summer Opera Festival, the production promises a full immersion in Mozart’s classic score, with full sets, costumes, and a pit orchestra, said Luis Millan, music director for the Missoula-based professional opera company.
“It’s simply one of the great operas; that’s the most basic reason we chose to do it,” said Millan, who will conduct the performances. “It has this broad public appeal, with beautiful music, a funny story; and it’s touching in the end.” [Read More...]
I wrote a preview of UM’s upcoming production of “Crazy For You,” which you can read below; time’s a wastin’, though, because today only, you can get two tickets for the price of one through the Missoulian’s Deal of the Day. Here’s that link; and here’s that preview… [Read More...]
Few people outside theatrical circles today remember the name William Inge. Half a century ago, the Kansas-born playwright was considered one of America’s great living voices of the theatre, on equal stature with the likes of Tennessee Williams (who helped foster Inge’s career). His best-known plays – “Picnic,” “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” and most of all “Bus Stop” – were celebrated by critics and widely performed in their time.
Yet something happened on the road to legend: Where Williams’ reputation only grew, Inge faded even before his death, by suicide, in 1973.
Looking back through the lens of Montana Repertory Theatre’s new production of “Bus Stop,” which continues through next week at the Montana Theatre before embarking on a far-reaching national tour, it’s at once easy and confounding to comprehend the fate of Inge and his erstwhile Broadway hit. [Read More...]
Last Friday night, I was sipping a beer amongst a packed crowd of people at the Badlander for Montana Lyric Opera’s performance of Opera on Draft when Creighton James, the opera company’s artistic director, approached me with a rather frazzled look in his eye.
“Could you come outside and talk for a minute?” he whispered in my ear. I followed him out into the foyer of the bar, where he turned to me.
“We’re in a real jam,” he said. “We don’t have anyone for the kid’s role in ‘Madama Butterfly,’ and I feel like I’ve exhausted all the other possibilities I have. What would you think of Julian doing it?”
I stood for a moment, so surprised that my ears were ringing. No, strike that; someone on the stage inside the bar was singing a high note. The music stopped, and the crowd began cheering and clapping.
My son? My three-year-old? In an opera?
“Uh,” I stammered, “well, I guess I’ll have to talk to him.” [Read More...]
If Jeff Kitto looks more like a rock star than a stereotypical opera singer, there’s good reason: He almost was a rock star. If he exudes the easygoing gregariousness of your favorite bartender, there’s good reason for that, too: For years, as he built his career as a singer, he split time between tending bar and flying out to perform in opera productions around the country.
But if you think Montana couldn’t possibly be home to world-class opera singers, just wait ‘til Jeff Kitto opens his mouth. [Read More...]
On a hot July evening last summer, an eclectic crowd of Western Montanans filtered into the University Theatre on the UM campus and found their seats for the opening performance of Montana Lyric Opera’s production of Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto.
In a way, it was one of those quintessentially Missoula moments: grown men in shorts and Hawaiian print shirts found their seats next to kids dressed in their Sunday best; doctors and rockers shared armrests; people waved across the auditorium and chatted with old friends. Take off the roof and remove the plush chairs, and it could have been just another Saturday morning at the Farmer’s Market
Except it wasn’t that. Because it was also one of those unique Missoula moments, when the city’s newest performing arts organization staged the centerpiece of the first-ever Western Montana Summer Opera Festival. [Read More...]
Montana Rep’s production of “To Kill A Mockingbird” — which spent most of 2009 out on tour around the country — will return to the stage of the Montana Theatre in Missoula this coming week, for two nights only.
You can read my review of the production’s opening run, here — but of course, one presumes/hopes that much has been tidied up and refined since last January (and the opening wasn’t bad by any means).
Click through for a press release detailing the upcoming shows… [Read More...]
If Jeff Kitto looks more like a rock star than a stereotypical opera singer, there’s good reason: He almost was a rock star. If he exudes the easygoing gregariousness of your favorite bartender, there’s good reason for that, too: For years, as he built his career as a singer, he split time between tending bar and flying out to perform in opera productions around the country.
Montana Rep’s production of “To Kill A Mockingbird” — which spent most of 2009 out on tour around the country — will return to the stage of the Montana Theatre in Missoula this coming week, for two nights only.
Recent Comments