'Mamma Mia!' back after an 18-month delay

After more than 18 months, Montana Actors' Theatre will finally be able to put on their production of "Mamma Mia!", a show that was canceled at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The play is scheduled to run Sept. 10, 11, 16-18, 23-25 at 8 p.m., MSU-Northern's Little Theatre in Cowan Hall, and at 2 p.m. Sept. 12 and 19.

MAT Youth Activities Director and House and Costume Manager Angela Pratt, director of the production who will also be playing Tanya, said it's been a difficult year-and-a-half waiting to finally be able to do the show, and while there is stress involved everyone is excited to finally be able to do it.

Pratt said it was hard to see "Mamma Mia!" have to be closed down last year, especially because they got the final notice that they wouldn't be able to do it on the day of the first show.

"We were ready to go and to see the set coming in here was really hard," she said.

She said in the last 18 months about half of the cast has had to leave and be replaced, many because they had jobs or had to move. This, combined with the huge delay, she said, has resulted in them having to all but redo all the choreography and cues, and relearn a lot of lines.

Pratt said actors tend to devote all of their time and mental energy to one big production before moving on to another, so doing other projects as "Mamma Mia!" remains on a year-and-a-half long delay was strange for a lot of people.

"It's hard to just move on to another show as an actor," she said.

MAT Artistic Director Grant Olson said the effective cancellation of "Mamma Mia!" last year was a significant blow to a lot of people, and while MAT did adapt, 2020 and 2021 have been frustrating years.

Olson said the people working at MAT understood why "Mamma Mia!" had to go last year, but it was still difficult to see after putting in so much work.

"It was difficult. It was painful," he said. "But everyone took it in stride and had a really good attitude."

Olson said adapting ideas from last season into more pandemic-safe versions made was interesting, but not doing what they love most in the way they want to was difficult for the actors.

"Not being able to really perform for a year-and-a-half and having this set on stage that whole time has been strange," he said.

Beyond the oddness of having to see the set every day, just keeping it up has been a challenge in itself.

He said sets like this are meant to last a few weekends and they've had to patch up, repair, and modify the set throughout the last year-and-a-half.

Olson said the pandemic has also thrown off MAT's normal schedule. He said they'd normally be easing into full productions and working on Death by Chocolate right now, but everything is different this year.

He said they've also made some pretty major changes to the season, switching out productions to be more in line with the current state of things in the community.

He said MAT tries to have shows be topical or align with the general feeling of the community, and he found that their plans for this season really didn't fit a world still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Olson said despite some frustrations and the logical hurdles with trying to stay active and safe during the pandemic, it has brought good things with it for MAT.

He said engaging with the audience in different ways has been genuinely interesting and doing new things like 24-hour plays and putting on "Midsummer Night's Dream" outside has been fun.

He also said COVID-19-related funds have been used to upgrade technology, including some improvement's they've always wanted to do but haven't had a chance.

He said they now have a new and improved sound system, and they've been able to add new components to their lighting system as well.

"We can do some really cool effects that we didn't have the capability of doing before," he said. "So, in some ways, it worked out."

Pratt said the pandemic has also given MAT a chance to work on things they've wanted to do for a long time, especially the youth program.

She said even after the pandemic ends the experience will have changed how MAT does things for the better.

She said having to work safely within the pandemic has necessitated that MAT get more creative and think outside the box, doing what they love in a number of different settings.

She said the experience of working and communicating digitally has also been useful, and the pandemic has emphasized the importance of actors taking care of themselves.

Pratt said actors have a tendency to work through pain and illness even when they probably shouldn't, passion for the craft sometimes overriding reason.

She said the pandemic has made it clear that actors need to allow themselves to get well, and they're going to be much more conscious of when they need to stay home for the sake of themselves and their fellow actors.

As for "Mamma Mia!" specifically, Olson said, the 18 months have allowed them to make improvements to the show, and he thinks it will be a great way to usher back in the days of proper theater performance for MAT.

He said live theater provides a certain kind of beautiful joy that the community needs right now and "Mamma Mia!" is such a good time that everyone is raring to put the show on and have fun doing it.

Pratt and Olson said everyone is excited and having fun despite the stress of the project, but they are both nervous about the delta variant and the safety of the community.

They said they hope things will not get so out-of-hand that they need to shut down a second time.

Olson said safety is a daily conversation at MAT and, with the current state of things, he's highly encouraging everyone to get vaccinated before the show and wear their masks.

Tickets are available at Bear Paw Meats, Computer Center, the Havre-Area Chamber of Commerce and on MAT's website at https://mtactors.com/tickets .