Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT) is coming back to St. Ignatius on May 6, 2024! 

MCT, the nation’s largest touring children’s theater, has been touring extensively for over 40 years now from Montana to Japan, and will visit over 1,200 communities this year with 44 teams of Tour Actor/Directors. A tour team will arrive at St. Ignatius with a set, lights, costumes, props and make-up, everything it takes to put on a play…except the cast. The team will hold an audition and cast 50-60 students K-8th to perform in the production. The show will be rehearsed throughout the week and two public performances will be presented on Saturday.  All MCT shows are original adaptations of classic children’s stories and fairytales . . . a twist on the classic stories that you know and love. This year we will be producing “Beauty Lou and the Country Beast”. Creativity, social skills, goal achievement, communication skills and self-esteem are all characteristics that are attained through participation in this unique, educational project. MCT’s mission is the development of life skills in children through participation in the performing arts.

If your student is interested in performing, please submit the permission slip by Thursday, May 2, 2024. Please see the show synopsis below.

**IMPORTANT-This is the week of the 8th Grade Carnival. However, 8th graders are welcome to participate in the play. The Directors know that these students will be unavailable the morning of May 10th. Please look at the rehearsal schedule, especially Friday’s and make sure it will work for you and your student.**

Missoula Children’s Theatre presents BEAUTY LOU AND THE COUNTRY BEAST, an original country western adaptation of the classic fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Beauty Lou is the oldest daughter of the bronc-bustin’ balladeer Buck. At the local county fair, young Beauty Lou is upset by the ungrateful behavior of a miner who has won the blue ribbon for his beautiful roses. She calls him a beast and wishes that he would look like one too. Years later, when in danger of losing the family farm, Buck meets the miner-turned-beast. Beauty Lou agrees to befriend the Beast to save her family. Beauty Lou and the Beast both learn to look beyond appearances and first impressions and to see the beauty that dwells inside. The story, set in the American West, also features Beauty Lou’s six sisters, her Imaginary Friend, her dog Fleabite Clyde, farmhands Slim and Dusty, the neighborly Country Folk and the Barnyard Critters.