Stillwater children to star in two Missoula Children's Theatre performances Saturday

Aug. 3—Willow Boling, Amelia Oehrtman and Annie Nghiem are no longer amateurs at performing in productions. The girls are the three cyclops in this year's Missoula Children's Theatre production of "Hercules," and they're ready.

Ninth-grader Oehrtman, a Stillwater homeschooler, said her mom has been helping organize the production. Eighth-grader Boling, another homeschooler, has been performing every summer for six years. Sixth-grader Nghiem has been performing for three years, and she heads to Stillwater Middle School this month.

The three represent the variety of students who join more than 60 children and teens to star in MCT Stillwater's production at a one-week theater camp for children.

Performances will be 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Winfrey D. Houston Theater in the Stillwater Community Center. The show is approximately an hour long. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door. Children 5-and-under are free.

The City of Stillwater has been hosting the Missoula Children's Theatre on its national tour for more than two decades, said Stillwater resident Beth Furnish, co-coordinator for the production. Brandi Dotter and Stephanie Surratt, two other moms, are also coordinators.

Due to budget cuts, the theater productions were discontinued in 2017. Another mom asked Furnish to help with the production, and she has now been helping as a volunteer coordinator for seven years.

Furnish said coordinators have teamed up with the Stillwater Community Center Foundation and the former Oklahoma Wondertorium, and now they partner with the Stillwater Community Singers. By doing so, they could apply for a $2,500 grant through the Oklahoma Arts Council, a grant which coordinators then have to match.

Funding for the match comes through donations and ticket sales. The community center allows them the use of the building. And Furnish even hosted the theater directors from Missoula in her home to save on expenses.

"We really like to keep expenses down to a minimum, and we've managed to scrape it together and keep this program going because it is so popular," Furnish said.

Furnish said she likes to keep community participation in the program free for families, so the grant helps.

"Some of our families, they've been doing this for years," Furnish said.

Furnish said in the past, they held auditions and 100 kids would show up. With only 64 parts for this year's production, they've had to start using a new plan. They now require families to register for auditions. This helps families plan for vacations if they know their child is in the production, and then kids who don't get a part know that upfront.

And since the whole production — auditions, practices and performances — only lasts one week, it's convenient for families who can't commit their whole summer to the production.

"It's really cool to see — to get to see some of the same kids come back year after year," Furnish said. "It's so much fun — it's kind of a crash-course theater camp."

The MCT directors — Kim Hoyle and Hannah Atkinson — are highly trained, Furnish said. They brought all of the costumes needed for the production. The MCT national tour directors travel not only across the states, but internationally at U.S. military bases.

In addition to the production, Furnish added three 45-minute workshops on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for those not selected for a part. The workshops were open to the community.

"They go through a bunch of exercises with the kids to get them thinking on their feet and it prepares them for the performance," Furnish said. "I've enjoyed being able to give that to a broader group in the community."