Hi-Line Living: Theatre Excitement

Actors from Montana Repertory Theatre visited Havre to work with St. Jude Thaddeus School students and perform at Montana State University-Northern Monday.

Three actors from the group performed "Once Upon a Time in Ancient Greece: Stheno's Descent Into the Underworld" Monday night to a varied audience.

The story follows one of Medusa's sisters, another Gorgon, as she travels to Hades to locate the slain snake-locked monster of Grecian lore.

Paige O'Neill, Jamie Parnell and Heidi Mudd, the actors, also visited St. Jude Thaddeus to have a workshop with the students.

A group of students were led in performing various short plays.

O'Neill said this is the first location of their 50-performance tour. They chose to start at the eastern part of Montana and work their way back west to Missoula, where they are headquartered.

"This is a part of the Montana Repertory Theatre's educational outreach tours that they do every year," Mudd said.  

Parnell said at St. Jude Thaddeus, the kids wrote plays, and the actors helped them make the plays reality. At the end of the workshop, the students performed their creations.

"They used a parable to center the story around," Parnell said. "They used 'honesty is the best policy.'"

One of the stories involved a stolen soul and another was about Cupid running amok, making people falling in love, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom having to stop them.

"It was actually really great," Mudd said. "It seems like these kids already know a lot about Greek mythology."

She said this was refreshing, as many schools do not teach mythology at early grades.

Every year the theater company casts three people to travel around the state and perform for communities. This trio's tour ends Nov. 11.

They will also be giving workshops at other schools around the state. Mudd said they offer two workshops and the schools can pick between them.

The performance at MSU-Northern that night was written by a Missoula professor and they all agreed that people seemed to like the story.

"It's an incredibly witty, funny, fast-paced script but it also has a heart-felt message, I think," Parnell said.

"It was really good," said Jim Potter, director of university relations. " ... I think what was great about it was they showed a variety of acting styles, and it made it fun for the audience."

Potter said he was glad Montana Repertory Theatre came in as the first of the Chancellor Lecture Series that the university holds throughout the school year.

"I think it set a good tone for the whole year," Potter said.

He added that their simple but clever use of sets, lights, costumes, masks and sound effects created a great atmosphere, and they told the story well, in an entertaining way.

"It was real clever - real fun," Potter said.

The theater company has been to Havre before to perform at the lecture series and at other events.

"This was good to get them back," Potter said. "They always do outstanding work, and this was no exception."

The lecture series brings displays and stories in arts and culture to the Hensler Auditorium in the Applied Technology Building at MSU-Northern.

"This is our fourth season," said Barbara Zuck, a business professor and head of the committee that organizes the lecture series.

She said the the events were brought back to MSU-Northern to create discussion in the community.

"Designed to create campus and communitywide conversation, the 2013-2014 MSU-Northern Chancellor's Lecture Series will consist of talks on vital topics by distinguished guest speakers," the committee's motto reads. "The campus, community and general public are cordially invited to attend all of the lectures, and admission is free."