MAT youth production of 'The Velveteen Rabbit' starts this week

Montana Actors’ Theatre is bringing a children’s classic to the stage this week and next with its youth production of “The Velveteen Rabbit.”

The Margery Williams story asks children — and adults — what it means to be “real.” A child’s new toy, a velveteen rabbit stuffed full of sawdust with ears lined with sateen, is sad that his owner wants to play more with his modern, mechanical toys, and asks the oldest and wisest toy in the nursery, what it means to be real. He is told that when a child loves a toy for a long time, it can become real.

The MAT production, of Phillip Grecian’s adaptation of the book and produced by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois, is sponsored by Charlie’s Heating and Air.

It opens in the Little Theatre in Montana State University-Northern’s Cowan Hall at 7 p.m Thursday, with additional shows at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 3-5.