Over 50 students went over the rainbow in Humboldt last week, taking part in the Missoula Children's Theatre production of "The Wizard of Oz."About 50 students acted in the production, with even more involved behind the scenes. The kids involved ranged in age from Kindergarten all the way to Grade 12. The week started with auditions on September 10, and rounded up with a dress rehearsal and two performances on September 15. "It was fantastic. It really, really was a success," noted Glenda Lees of Arts Humboldt, the body that hosted the children theatre's visit. Close to 400 people came for the two performances on September 15, and they put on a great show, Lees noted. "I thought that they did very well," she said. "I watched the dress rehearsal and both performances.... and I was very impressed."The kids not only performed well, but enjoyed the long week of rehearsals, learning lines and choreography, Lees indicated. "I had very, very good comments both from kids and parents," she said. The entire week meant a lot to many students and their families. "They were so positive about the experience," Lees said. A few members of her drama class had acted in the production on Saturday, and others were involved in a backstage capacity, Lees added. All were still glowing from the experience on Monday morning. The parts were divvied up according to age groups, so each part was very workable."The whole thing was very age appropriate," she said, with the larger roles going to older students and the younger ones getting non-speaking roles. Arts Humboldt would definitely like to bring Missoula Children's Theatre back next year, Lees noted, but they'd like more hands on deck to help out with everything. Arts Humboldt volunteers were stretched pretty thin on September 15, with both Missoula Children's Theatre, and the Bash in the Boldt music concert happening on the same day. And while they had a great resource in Cori Norman, who used to bring Missoula in through the Quill Plains Regional Recreation Association, "some things you have to learn by doing," Lees said. "We would like to do this again, but we will need more hands," she smiled. Though Lees was kept hopping throughout the week, handling a lot of the details herself, it was absolutely worth it, she feels."I loved it," she said. The tour directors, Mike Bloom and Jessica Lynne Rigsby, were very professional, she said, and had a great rapport with the kids. "As a drama and choir teacher, I learned so much this week," she said. "It was like attending a week-long drama workshop."The rehearsals and performances were held on the new stage at Humboldt Collegiate Institute. "We had never used the facility as a theatre before," Lees said, and the space was found to be "workable," she decided. The only difference between this new space and Sutherland Theatre in the old high school is that the whole school needs to be booked for a performance - not just one space. Still, she said, the acoustics in the new theatre area were actually very good, and the space was made to look more like a real theatre thanks to some staging put up for lights, and curtaining put up by the City of Humboldt. "People worked together to make sure (we got what we needed)," she said. "And people put up with inconveniences in order to do this."
