Musical zombies on the Havre stage

Two weeks ago, the musical "Everybody Loves Zombies (except Ashley)" debuted at Montana State University-Northern's Little Theatre.

"I have to remind myself I am the one who wrote it," said Holt, a 48-year-old bookkeeper at the Best Western Great Northern Inn and Havreite, who penned the musical that is now being performed by Montana Actors' Theatre.

The full-stage musical, which is Holt's first, debuted on the weekend of Oct .16 and 17 with encore performances on Oct, 23, 24 and 26. It's run will end this week with showings at 8 p.m. today and Saturday, There will also be a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Holt, who has been an actor with theater groups such as MAT and Fort Peck Theater since he was 15, said he has written one-act plays for friends and for Friends of the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation's annual meeting and dinner. However, this is his first foray into writing a full-length play.

The story revolves around the cast and crew on the set of a horror movies about zombies, who, unbeknownst to all but the make-up artist, find themselves in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. While they are dressed in their makeup,

zombies make their way onto the set, mixing with the costumed actors, making for confusion, comedy and plenty of song. Amid all the chaos, there is a love triangle of sorts between the makeup artist who is attracted to a very business-like assistant director, who in turn is attracted to an egotistical lead actor.

Holt said his work's journey from conception to stage began in 2010, when he presented David Simmons, a director at the Fort Peck Summer Theatrewith the draft for a dramatic play he had been working on.

After reading it, Simmons made a suggestion that surprised Holt: he should do a musical.

"I thought OK, a musical, that sounds fine' and I sort of dismissed it," said Holt.

About eight months later, Simmons asked for his friend's help in coming up with a Halloween-themed musical. As it happened, Holt had been entertaining an idea.

Holt was inspired by an incident from 2011, when about 20 actors fell from an elevated platform while filming the science fiction action thriller "Resident Evil Retribution" in Canada. When paramedics arrived, they struggled to discern between the truly injured and actors who were merely dressed as zombies and smeared with fake blood.

Holt soon got to work on the script, but Simmons pulled out of the project. With the script nearly completed, though, Holtdecided to finish the play.

In all, Holt estimates that the writing took him about 18 months: six months on the story and another 12 on the lyrics.

Later in the process though, Holt found a collaborator in his mother, Marge, a pianist who wrote the musical score.

"It took her some work to get just the right tune to the lyrics," he said.

Since its debut, Holt said, he hasn't read any official reviews of his play but what he has heard is "very gratifying."

Final performances of "Everybody Loves Zombies (Except Ashley)" will be at 8 p.m. both tonight and tomorrow, along with a special matinee showing tomorrow at 2 p.m. The cost of admission for all performances is $20.