Our Beginning
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OUR STORY
Since opening the doors to Missoula Children’s Theatre in 1998, we have hosted more than
Two million guests!
Our Story
Each year, we estimate that 100,000 people – volunteers, board members, kids, program participants, touring artists, donors, performers, actors, dancers, sponsors/advertisers, students, tour groups, musicians, employees, patrons, out-of-town visitors, parents, vendors, brides and grooms, guest speakers and many more – have come through our building. We love being Missoula’s unofficial community center; contributing to and being a catalyst for community vitality, artistry, and service for many years to come.
MCT has a significant economic footprint. We average 120 full-time staff members, about 50 of whom live in Missoula. We earn the majority of our $5.5 million budget outside Missoula and spend over 70% of it locally. MCT employees volunteer at dozens of local organizations. We are members of the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Missoula Partnership, and Destination Missoula— the official Missoula Convention and Visitors Bureau, to name a few.
Our Story
From where did this amazing company and collection of people come? To answer that, we need to go back in time to the summer of 1970.
an unemployed actor, was searching for a mission in life, on his way from Chicago to a friend’s wedding in Oregon when his aging Volkswagen van broke down. The nearest service station was – fortunately and fatefully – in Missoula, Montana. While waiting for the van to be patched together, Jim noticed an audition poster for Man of La Mancha. Just for fun, he auditioned and was cast in the role of “Sancho.”
Jim developed an instant and lasting friendship with Don Collins (the actor playing “Don Quixote”), and together they organized a company of adults to perform plays for children on a make-shift stage in a local movie theatre.
The plays, as well as the idea of developing live theatre for kids, were well-received in Missoula. Soon, nearby Montana and Idaho communities requested performances of their own. During the early days, the company began casting kids when it seemed appropriate, such as the title roles in Hansel and Gretel or as Dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In 1972, when February performances of Snow White were booked in Miles City (a small Montana community located an icy 500 miles from Missoula), Jim and the other directors were not excited about the prospect of traveling with seven children across the state and decided to take a radical step: they would attempt to cast the Dwarfs roles from children in Miles City. The directors traveled across the state a week before the rest of the company, a bit skeptical about finding seven kids who might be interested in being in the play…
the astonished team improvised quickly to create a fair audition process and by the end, they had cast the seven Dwarfs. The success of that week was obvious from the interest among kids, parents, teachers, and the press. The week culminated in sold-out performances of an excellent production, which opened the eyes of the MCT staff…and the doors to the future.
We bring the arts to all 50 states, 5 Canadian Provinces and more than 12 foreign countries and territories. We continue to reach the small communities that have few creative outlets or resources for their children. We want to provide access for places that have none. We envision helping our country’s children grow into confident, successful citizens using the positive results of our programs.
to share everything we have learned about developing life skills in children with the world—to Japan, Bahrain, Spain, Italy, Guam, India, Taiwan and many more locations. Kids are kids, no matter where they live. Children in China, children in small towns, and children with special needs all have something in common: a desire for opportunities to express themselves, learn and have fun doing it. That’s where MCT comes in.
Our Future
We continue to dream because
We have the program and
We have the people.
We have the expertise and
We have the track-record.
We have the will and
We have evidence that the program works, so…
We continue to reach for the stars.
“Thank you for so many wonderful years and delightful memories. Your program launched a thousand ships and brightened all of our futures.”
Carlsbad, NM