News
Missoula Children�s Theater brings the show to Bottineau
Scott Wagar
06/24/2014
The Holwell Auditorium was busy with the sounds of children’s voices and laughter as the Missoula Children Theater (MCT) was in town with two of its members to educated over 60 local children in the theater and directed them in the production of “Blackbeard the Pirate.”
MCT is a professional stage company from Missoula, Mont., which provides a week-long theatrical residency to local kids.
The children’s stage company has been touring for more than 30 years and visits close to 1,100 communities each year, which includes every state in the nation, four Canadian provinces and a number of countries overseas.
“Our mission is the development of life skills in children through participation in the performing arts,” stated the MCT’s website.
“Creativity, social skills, goal achievement, communication skills and self-esteem are all characteristics that are attained through the participation in this unique and educational project.”
The theatrical group comes to communities with two professional tour actors-directors who drive themselves up in a red truck filled with costumes, props, make-up, sets and lighting to present a full-scale musical along with workshops to teach kids about different aspects of theater and putting on performances.
What MCT doesn’t bring in the back-end of the truck are the actors who will perform in the musical – the actors are provided within the communities the play is being presented.
Making the trip to Bottineau from MCT were actors-directors Marta Knodle and Osmary Nieves.
Knodle holds a bachelor of arts in musical theater performance and education from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She has performed as Bille Dw yer in “Unnecessary Farce,” Olive Ostrovsky in “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz.”
Nieves is a graduate of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C., with a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater. She has appeared as Agona in the “The Last Colony,” the baker’s wife in “Into the Woods,” and Ronnet in “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Knodle and Nieves became involved with MCT because of their love for theater and children.
“I always knew that I wanted to be in theater, and I participated in Missoula Children Theater when I was in middle school and high school and I loved it so much, I thought it was absolutely amazing,” said Knodle. “So, I went to college and got a theater education degree with the intention of working for the Missoula Children Theater and here I am.”
“I got into children’s theater because I am a big advocate of arts in schools, and how important it is for kids to build life skills through the arts such as communication, team building skills and working together,” Nieves said. “This is something children lack nowadays with technology becoming so prevalent in their lives.”
While in Bottineau, Knodle and Nieves directed the students in their production of “Blackbeard the Pirate,” along with holding workshops on make-up, improv and other issues related to the theater and life skills.
On Saturday, the local kids gave two performances of “Blackbeard the Pirate” to large crowds in the Holwell Auditorium.
Knodle and Nieves said that their week with the Bottineau children made them proud.
“They are great,” Knodle and Nieves said. “They are determined, fantastic, team builders with lots of talent, which is always great to see.”
In the future, Knodle would like to be part of an educational department of children’s theater, along with directing and acting in children’s theater.
Nieves would like to build after school programming for theater companies in places that do not have the arts like rural areas.
Knodle and Nieves are gaining a great experience with MCT, the two have been touring with the theater company since December of 2012 and have visited 14 states.
After the Fourth of July, the two of them will be taking a new direction with MCT, because they will be trading in their little red truck for a military airplane where they will be traveling to Japan and other Pacific Islands where they will take the theater to U.S. military bases in that area.
This is Missoula Children Theater 10th anniversary in doing productions in Bottineau.
Bottineau Community Theater and North Central Electric Cooperative sponsors the Missoula Children’s Theater visit to Bottineau.