Trains roll on stage at Havre High

Havre student actors are bringing to life - on roller skates - trains that come to life in the mind of a young boy at the Havre High School Theatre in the rock opera "Starlight Express."

Jay Pyette, who co-directed the play with Angela Pratt, said choreographing the skating with the extensive cast - which has been rolling around the high school practicing for the play - has been challenging, but rewarding, since most of the students didn't know how to roller skate.

"Most of that has been teaching them as we go," he said, adding that they have learned through rehearsals. "Some of them are quite good."

The play, written by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Richard Stilgoe, tells the story of a boy who falls asleep while playing with his toy trains and dreams they come to life.

The trains, portrayed by the actors on roller skates, come to a conflict in which a gang of tough, mean trains challenge a small steam train to a race. The steam train asks for help from the mystical Starlight Express to help him win.

The cast includes some veteran Havre High actors and some new thespians, with Trenton Parrotte playing the steam engine Rusty, Chris Steinmetz playing the diesel challenger Greaseball and Julea Pratt playing Pearl, the "brand new girl."

Other cast members are Oriah Pratt, Millie Loftus, Theron Williams, Emily Simonson, Brandon Bergren, Dani Murphy, Shandon Oberquell, Randi Ruhkamp, Jacob Bachmeier, Aylan Pratt, Hannah Pepprock, Aubrea Worm, Jessa Pyette, Aria Pratt, Hannah Bean, Mina Everingham, Raynell Clancy and Hailee Kilgore.

The play has extensive choreography and staging, with Pyette building an extension loop into the auditorium seating so the actors can skate right into the seating area.

The play, which costs $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, runs tonight and Friday at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday's performances including a 2 p.m. matinee and another 7:30 p.m. run.