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News you can use
Rory Everingham, an intern at Montana Actors' Theatre, stands in the center of a group of children during the first day of the KidsMAT Camp June 10, 2019, in Montana State University-Northern's Little Theatre. KidsMAT is taking its work to Havre schools, running programs to teach theater and acting to local students Wednesdays after school.
The local acting troupe is bringing their acting knowledge to the youth of Havre.
Montana Actors' Theatre Youth Activities directors Angela Pratt and Tylyn Turner, as well as other MAT volunteers, are traveling to schools around Havre to teach children some basic acting skills.
The first session was Wednesday.
"We are just doing small acting workshops with the K-3 graders," Pratt said. "Workshops are free to the participants. We started last week and will continue through the end of the month. We will then be starting another set of workshops at the 4-8 grade levels, running the month of February."
Pratt plans to make the lessons fun and easy to learn.
"We start at the beginning, learning about how our bodies and voices can help tell a story. Young actors learn how to find the story and help others see and believe it," Pratt said, "Character development is taught in ways that are tangible to the students. Lots of games and fun activities help teach the craft of acting."
For the month of January, MAT will be at Highland Park and Lincoln-McKinley elementary schools. For the month of February, the crew plans to visit Sunnyside and the Havre Middle School.
Workshops will take place after school Wednesdays, and they are open to any student of those grade levels and schools. This workshop includes those who are in a home school program, to ensure all children get the opportunity to learn about acting.
Workshop participants must register through the MAT website to be able to attend.
Workshops for this month are full and February is already filling up quickly.
"This is the first time that Montana Actors' Theatre has been able to offer this kind of thing. We have been doing theater-related workshops in the high school for a year now, but this expansion is new. We are so excited to expand our summer youth program into the school year," Pratt said, "Superintendent Gum has been very instrumental in helping this endeavour move forward, as well as the amazing cooperation of the principals at each school."
"Next month's workshops will be at Sunnyside and the middle school. They will take place right after school on Mondays and Wednesdays," Pratt said, "These classes will move at a much quicker pace and cover more in-depth technique for the participating actors. The month will culminate with a small performance at the end of the month to showcase their work."
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