Missoula Children’s Theater (MCT)

Audition, rehearse and perform!

The internationally acclaimed touring company Missoula Children’s Theater will cast 60 of our Mary Woodward students. These 60 students, grades K-5 will spend a week of rehearsal refining acting skills and learning new ones. Throughout MCT’s residency week your kids will have fun learning lines, songs and dances. And they’ll learn that if they work hard….if they push themselves….they can create something wonderful. The week will conclude with a full-scale musical production!

No advance preparation or experience is required for auditions.  Students will be asked to both speak and sing in a group audition.

What is the MCT?

The Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT), the nation’s largest touring children’s theatre, has been touring extensively for 42 years now from Montana to Japan, and will visit nearly 1,200 communities this year with up to 47 teams of Tour Actor/Directors. A tour team arrives in a given town with a set, lights, costumes, props and make-up, everything it takes to put on a play…except the cast. The team holds an open audition and casts 50-60 local students to perform in the production. The show is rehearsed throughout the week and two public performances are presented on Saturday.

All MCT shows are original adaptations of classic children’s stories and fairytales . . . a twist on the classic stories that you know and love. Creativity, social skills, goal achievement, communication skills and self-esteem are all characteristics that are attained through the participation in this unique, educational project. MCT’s mission is the development of life-skills in children through participation in the performing arts.

How will my child benefit from this experience?

The primary goal of MCT – indeed, the organization’s mission – is the development of life-skills in children through participation in the performing arts. Within each MCT cast, girls and boys are equal; the disabled become able; the shy experiment with bravery; the slow are rehearsed to perfection; and the gifted become part of the whole.  The lesson they learn is that all of them are necessary for the show to go on. Few arenas exist where responsibility is taught and learned so clearly. MCT provides a unique opportunity to learn the lessons of group dynamics while excelling as an individual – a lesson from art that carries into life. MCT strives to use participation in the performing arts as a vehicle to develop life-skills including social skills, communication skills, self-discipline, a strong work ethic, an understanding of the team concept and self-esteem.