A little red pick-up truck from Missoula Children’s Theater rolled into Clinton last weekend, the back loaded with scripts, sets and pirate costumes for this Saturday’s production of “Treasure Island.”
Also on board were tour directors Susie Hankins and Amber Gantt, who last Monday, auditioned 33 young local actors, ages 5 to 16, for a musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of pirates, treasure maps and buried chests.
Landon Brewer will be playing the lead as Jim Hawkins and Landon’s sister, Hadly Brewer, landed the role of his mother, the Widow Hawkins.
The audition for the MCT show is done as a group, with the actors divided into age groups, then asked to demonstrate stage skills — speaking with loud, clear voices, using expressive faces and body language, performing simple steps while singing a song, and most importantly, following directions.
The youngest children start out in MCT productions playing animals. In Treasure Island, they are the gulls, who add a coastal atmosphere, cawing and flapping their wings across the stage on cue. The gulls also help guide the Jolly Roger to Treasure Island.
Performances will be on Saturday, July 27, at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the Clinton High School Performing Arts Center, 1106 S. 2nd, Clinton MO 64735. Tickets are $5, $3 for students. MCT productions are a great introduction to live musical theater for young children, with shows running 60-70 minutes with no intermission.
Other young locals portray the ruffians, Jim Hawkins’ gang of friends who accept the pirates’ invitation to leave hearth and home and go to sea in search of adventure and buried treasure. Jim’s sisters work for his mother at the Inn, renamed the Whales Breath, serving the mariners who eat there. The sisters reappear as forest spirits on Treasure Island.
Pirate roles include Captain Patches, who only communicates by honking a horn, first mate Davy Jones and Sing-Sing Sam. Songs include “It’s the Pirate Thing to Do,” “Look To The Sea,” and “O Follow Me.” MCT Founder Jim Caron and Michael McGill wrote the music and lyrics for MCT’s version of Treasure Island.
One of the tour directors will play Long John Silver, a key speaking part that introduces the story at the Inn and provides narrative between songs in the subsequent scenes aboard the Jolly Rogers and on the island.
Missoula Children’s Theater, which started bringing theater productions to small towns in Montana in 1970, has grown to be the largest children’s touring theater company in the world. This year, 44 teams of tour directors will visit 1,200 communities with multiple touring shows through the United States, Canada and a dozen other countries, including Japan.
There is no charge to the actors who appear in MCT productions, which are the equivalent of a free, week-long theater camp. MCT’s annual visits to Clinton are sponsored by the Clinton Arts Council and Clinton Methodist Church, which provides audition and rehearsal space. Janet Parks and Marnie Bellamy, who plays the piano for the show, serve as local coordinators.
For more information, go to the Treasure Island - Children’s Theater Clinton Methodist Church Facebook page, or contact the church, 601 S. 4th Street, Clinton, MO 64735 at 660-885-5597.
