“I went to the Dollar Store and by finding the right shapes, like a little trash basket and a dip bowl, I was able to make a light that looks like something from a gymnasium from the ’60s,” she says. In other instances she’s had to be less MacGyver and more experimental artist. “If a set-designer wants a painting that looks like a Pollock on the wall, then I’ll maybe look up some Pollocks and I’ll slap some paint together and stick it in a frame,” she says, laughing. “No one will ever accuse me of being a true forger of art, but I’m able to do things like that in this job.” Despite their whimsical veneers, these behind-the-scenes jobs are not for the laid-back daydreamer. There’s pressure to be precise, especially during a play’s run. In a hallway behind the stage at the MCT Center for Performing Arts, a props table is stacked with shelves meticulously labeled for each set of items. The beer steins, for instance, are stacked together for the tavern scenes in the recent production of Les Misérables. Across from the props, Muth’s costumes are carefully divided into vests and peasant dresses, hats and other accessories. Everything must be in place for when actors make their entrance on stage; there’s little room for error. Both women also do work on the children’s theater productions, specifically the touring shows where MCT staff take props and costumes on the road to communities across the nation. For those shows Washburn sews the sets, which are made from fabric so they can break down easily.
temperature conditions and transportation, not to mention handling by youngsters. The other difficulty is that most community theater involves realistic fashions, but children’s shows require a level of absurdity. “As far as designing is concerned, it’s very fun to research the Renaissance or the French Revolution,” Muth says, “but then when the director comes and tells you that the 5- to 7-year-olds are going to be clouds, you say, ‘How am I going to make a small child look like a cloud? Or a mosquito?’” The Secret Garden was an especially tough task when Muth was told she had to dress children as a dead garden that comes to life on stage. “We tried a couple of different permutations before we came up with something that was actually going to work,” she says. In the end, she made the kids brown capes with dead leaves that could flip over to reveal green and flowery fauna underneath. Muth and Washburn see those difficult obstacles as the good kind of challenge that requires creativity. The payoff is sweet, usually involving the sight of some little kid dressed as a cloud wavphoto by Cathrine L. Walters ing proudly to her family in the audience (even “We’ve got one right now, Rapunzel, with a big tower which has when she was told not to wave at the audience.) giant hula hoops and uprights,” Washburn says. “You take some bolts “It is a lot of fun,” Washburn says. “I get to try new things—and apart and the whole thing collapses down and it can all fit into a truck.” sometimes they fail. But I consider myself very lucky to be able to have The children’s shows are almost more challenging than the adult in Missoula a stable job that’s creative. I find myself very very fortunate.” community productions. Props have to be made to withstand different Erika Fredrickson
Don Gisselbeck AGE: 59 OCCUPATION: Mechanic PLACES OF WORK: The Trail Head, Bike Doctor, Adventure Cycling SALARY: $15,000 One of the biggest prerequisites for a prime Missoula job involves having the flexibility to duck away on gorgeous powder days in the winter or on bluebird afternoons in the summer. Few locals have that schedule dialed in as well as Don Gisselbeck, who’s managed to carve out a niche in two of Missoula’s main recreation pursuits. Gisselbeck, 59, runs the ski shop for The Trail Head in winter and turns wrenches for the Bike Doctor in summer. He also works the occasional junket as the mechanic for multi-day Adventure Cycling trips. But a life of grease and gears wasn’t his first choice of work; he calls himself a “recovering teacher.” After graduating from the University of Montana in the 1970s, Gisselbeck signed up for the Peace Corps, taking on a hardship posting in Sierra Leone. Fresh out of college, he taught English for three years in a classroom without electricity or running water. He calls it a “tough job,” but optimistically adds that it allowed “a poor farm kid from Montana [to see] the world.” To round out the adventure, he traveled from Kenya to England, taking whatever public transport was available. Once Gisselbeck made it back to the United States, he wound up teaching at Thompson Falls’ Spring Creek Lodge Academy for at-risk youths in the mid-’80s. It was important work, he says, but emotionally taxing. Part of his job at the lodge was to keep the kids’ fleet of mountain bikes in good shape, which gave him a glimpse of his future. He left Thompson Falls to work as a bike mechanic in Seattle for more than a year, then returned to Missoula, where he’s been fixing bikes and skis ever since. There are downsides in the day of a mechanic, he says, like the boredom of mundane tasks and the occasional attempt to rescue a bike that’s better suited for a junk heap. But for the most part, Gisselbeck’s pretty
photo by Cathrine L. Walters
pleased that he can support himself and, just as important, have access to some of the most beautiful country on earth. He sees a nonmaterialistic, outdoorsy lifestyle as a “poke in the eye” to the upper classes. “The idea that you should be working 80, 90 hours a week, even to get highly paid, that’s obscene,” he says. When Gisselbeck turned 50, he had a “midlife crisis” of sorts and re-
solved to ski at least once a month, year-round. He likes lift skiing just fine, but relishes the pristine calm of Bitterroot or Glacier backcountry during the spring. He calls May the start of the “real ski season.” “It’s nice to have jobs where you can go, ‘It’s my birthday next Tuesday, I’m gonna take that off and go ski.’” Kate Whittle
that actually pays, create memorable work that lasts a lifetime, usually impresses the ladies/lads) / Newspaper Staff Writer (fame, fortune and—nah, just ink stains and long conversations about monetizing new media) / Splash! Montana Lifeguard (great tan, casual work attire, easy access to Dippin Dots, plus we owe Missoula County Parks & Rec after our 2012 worst jobs list) / Freelancer for National/Out-of-State Company (better pay, flexible work schedule, fewer inter-office politics) / Allan Matthews, Local Historian (history gets written by those who win—or, you know, those who become the go-to source for local facts about yesteryear) / Nurse Practioner (despite recent hospital mergers and health care industry shakeups, remains at the top of most best jobs lists because of good pay and increasing demand) / Good Food Store Cashier (front-row view of Missoula culture, discounted quinoa and other groceries, join a long line of now-famous locals who used GFS as the ultimate gateway job)
missoulanews.com • May 8–May 15, 2014 [17]