, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Fifty-five potential villagers, wizards, knights and a band of busy little bees gathered for a two-hour audition Monday morning in Doyle Hall at Saint Catherine Catholic Church for this weekend’s production of “Rumpelstiltskin.”
The Missoula Children’s Theatre musical will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday and again at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Palace Theatre in downtown Luverne.
Tickets are $5 per person.
Rehearsals take place over a five-day period with the assistance of MCT employees Jillian Mauro and Alice Gittins, who audition, cast and divide the participants into groups to learn life skills as they practice.
“I like the experience we have,” said 15-year-old Julia Ferguson of Luverne. “I used to be a really quiet person. On stage you can be loud and I enjoy being someone else for awhile.”
Ferguson, along with 14-year-old Jo-Hannah Ladd, also of Luverne, played stepsisters in last year’s production of “Cinderella.”
“It’s fun,” Ladd added.
MCT is the largest touring children’s theater based in Missoula, Montana, whose focus is to further develop creativity, social skills, goal achievement, community skills and self-esteem through the performing arts.
The same goals are supported locally.
“The No. 1 thing is to have fun,” said Shirley Connor with the local Blue Mound Area Theatre.
Development of friendships along with listening and following directions are the top three goals for bringing MCT to Luverne.
The Green Earth Players and Luverne Community Education joined BMAT in sponsoring MCT in Luverne.
“Rumpelstiltskin” is an original adaptation by MCT of the classic children’s story. The musical was conceived and written by Don Kukla with music and staging by Michael McGill.
The musical focuses on a strange little gnome (played by Gunnar Oldre) who can spin straw into gold for a price. Since his price is so steep, the gnome challenges anyone to guess his name.
Clara (Allison LaRock plays the older Clara and Rylee Anderson, younger Clara) sets out to guess the gnome’s name. She encounters a jester (Donald Ray), wizards (Tori Hemme, Julia Ferguson, Sophie Holmberg, Reilly Wulf, Erika Dysthe and Mekiah Kremin), a queen (Jo-Hannah Ladd), a king (Britton McKenzie), knights (Xavier Carbonneau and Xander Walgrave) and a band of busy bees, villagers and gnomes.
The gnomes include Josie Scholten, Anna Warntjes, Josie Golla, Maria Rops, Griffin Jarchow, Kyle Ferguson, Parker Carbonneau, Leif Tollefson, Hallie Bork and Ben Hartquist.
Villagers are Scarlett Xiong Velasquez, Joelia Lopez, Marie Nath, Matt Gangestad, Kaleb Hemme, Leigha Ehlers, David Lopez, Lydia Talsma, Elisabeth Kelm, Rachel Den Herder, Camden Hoven, Lydia Schuld, Katharine Kelm, Xavier McKenzie, Zander Carbonneau, Zoe Perkins, Josie Anderson, Finn McDonald, Elijah McLendon, Katia Jarchow and Janica Oechsle.
The cast of bees are Sam Connell, Kate Sexton, Elaine Nath, Kloe Brockberg, Claire Talsma, Khloe Viskar, Aaron Nath and Dylan Hoff.
Student directors are Hannah Ehlers and Sophie Gutkoski.