GOOD HUNTING!

I bet you think this is going to be a post about hunting, right? NOT! The phrase “Good Hunting” is a jungle greeting we learned in theater camp this week! Yep. Every year the kids and I participate in 2 MCT plays – one in the fall and one in the spring. Missoula Children’s Theater (MCT) http://www.mctinc.org/ travels around the world putting on plays. Two directors show up on Monday to cast 50-60 kids for the play. They start rehearsal on Monday after the audtions and by Friday night they put on a full length hour long play! It’s AMAZING! Here are the two directors we had this year, Lucas and Jeremy. They are in the back row on the left. One of them acts and one of the directs… at their next location they will switch.

This fall’s play was Jungle Book and as I say EVERY TIME *THIS* was my favorite play. (LOL). This is the 8th play in which I’ve had the priviledge of being the piano accompanist.

Josh was cast for the part of Buck, but he was not thrilled at having to be on stage with only one other actor and at having so many lines. I also don’t think he liked the idea of having some of the funny parts! You know… the buck stops here, wouldn’t want to buck the system, etc. So, he ended up not being a part of this play but hopefully he will join Em and I in future plays. Amanda has been in many plays over the years, but she doesn’t have time now that she’s a senior and has so many music things going on in her life. She has had group parts, speaking parts, and she was an assistant director a couple of times. So, I decided she has been fully exposed to all of these opportunities and I’ve let her move on to other things (LOL)!

Emily LOVES the play and as long as one of my kids wants to be in the play I’m happy to get to play the piano! It’s one of the few times I “get” to read “real” music these days (LOL)! Ok.. so on to Emily and enough about me already. She was cast for one of the wolf parts. Here you can see her in her costume, which btw, the costumes are WONDERFUL! I don’t remember how many costume designers work for MCT, but I do remember the directors said last night there are several of them and they work FULL TIME keeping up the costumes and making new ones for upcoming shows. Here is Emily’s wolf costume.

Here is the back of her costume and she’s “playing” with her tail……. well she said she was adjusting her tail.

I forgot to take a picture of the props this year, but you can see some in the background of the above picture. On dress rehersal day, the kids get into their costumes, we do the run through, and then they do makeup before/during/after dinner. Here’s Em getting her makeup!

Testing out her WOLF HOWL!
Back stage getting last minute instructions from the directors and shaking out the wigglies and noise before they go on stage!
Here are Emily and I before the show.After show photo shots! Emily with her pack of wolves.

THE END! We always wonder on Monday whether or not we REALLY want to do this again, but by Saturday when it’s all over and done Em always wants to do it again!