2017 Arts in the Bitterroot

arts

in the Bitterroot october 2017

music • art • sports • education • food & Drink government • youth & schools • special events

BitterrootEvents.net

A partnership between the Ravalli Republic Newspaper and the Ravalli County Fairgrounds

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in this issue Bitterroot Arts Guild roots go deep.............4 Artists Along the Bitterroot studio tour.......7 Bitterroot Baroque.......................................10 Translated literature.....................................12 Bitterroot Valley chorus...............................14 Hamilton Culture Crawl...............................17 Bitter Root Empty Bowls program.............18 Stevensville Playhouse................................23

Arts in the Bitterroot is published by the Ravalli Republic Newspaper, a division of Lee Enterprises.

Mike Gulledge, Publisher Kathy Best, Editor • Eve Byron, Associate Editor Kristine Komar, Community Liaison Jodi Lopez, Advertising Sales Manager Kathy Kelleher, Jodi Wright, Lauren Parsons, Advertising Sales Dara Saltzman, Production & Design Arts in the Bitterroot is copyright 2017, Ravalli Republic.

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Page 4 - Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017

Bitterroot Arts Guild roots go deep in the Bitterroot and in Montana

By Merle Ann Loman For

the

Ravalli Republic

The guild began in the 1930s when Gretchen Jellison and friends held weekly painting sessions. The group flourished and in the early ‘50s became part of the Montana Institute of the Arts (MIA).

Phyllis Twogood and Gretchen Jellison, two Ravalli County women, were founding members of MIA, which was formed in 1948 as a grassroots organization. It consisted of artists, writers, musicians and crafts people who promoted their artistic interests at an annual festival and by a traveling exhibit shown throughout the state.

The Bitter Root Arts Guild adopted that concept when local artists split from MIA to form the guild. In the spring of 1970, they held the first Art in the Park event using the library park and the O’Hara provided photo House as the venue. The Bob Neaves demonstrating at Art in the Park in Hamilton July 1988. group has held a variety of other shows, sales and events,

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 5

provided photo

Joseph Thornbrugh working on a wildlife painting that was auctioned off at the Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Auction in 1988.

up to three a year including the Starving Artists Sale.

As years went by, the membership grew to a peak of 190 members in 1983 and held a membership of more than 100 until 1995. The dues in 1990 were $3; today the dues are still a bargain at only $10. With more art galleries, groups and organizations being formed, the membership has slipped, averaging 35 members annually, but the commitment and purpose remains strong.

-provided photo

Sandy Ingersoll, standing, teaches an art class in the improved art building at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in November 1976.

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Guild members, including Fran Maentz, have carefully compiled beautiful scrap books that contain a history of the group. There are pictures and names of early members, many of whom have made important contributions to our community and the world of art. Spending a few hours perusing the scrapbook is a walk through history – artists like Sandy Ingersoll and B.K. Monroe live on in their marvelous contributions.

The Bitter Root Arts Guild continues to live up to its dedication and purpose as stated back in 1930.

The mission is to encourage and promote participation in all the arts by members and young people of the Bitterroot Valley and to provide opportunity for the development of skills and display of their artistic endeavors.

The guild still holds two major shows each year; a holiday show and sale in November and Art in the Park in July. All proceeds are used for promoting and awarding excellence in art to the youth of the valley and include at least one, sometimes more, $500 scholarships for a Ravalli County graduating senior to further their art education in honor of Lois Wetzsteon; President’s Awards to youth art entries bestowing 20 cash awards and ribbons across all categories; and donating art books and supplies to local libraries and schools.

The Scrapbook and other historical items will be on display at the Bitter Root Arts Guild Holiday Show and Sale at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds, Hamilton, Friday Nov. 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday Nov. 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. High quality, hand crafted work by local and guest artists will be on display and for sale.

Photo by Christine Johnson

pril 1974. Hamilton Artist Barbara Dye is shown on a piece of leather craft that was part of the Bitter Root Arts Guild Spring Exhibit at the Elks Lodge in Hamilton

provided photo

Painting Class. March 1979 at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds.

Esther Bagley (left) of Hamilton is shown with Edna Holliday, a Darby artist

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 7

Painting by Bob Phinney

Painted silk by Georgine Lisa Archer

Fall Colors: 9th Year for Artists Along the Bitterroot Studio Tour

By Barbara Liss For

the

Ravalli Republic

Artists from Lolo to Hamilton are opening their studios to allow the public to explore the places where they create their art. The combination of functional spaces for storage, desk work, and the artist’s business are combined with creative space. Often studios include a place to relax and reflect; environments that invite inspiration.

Most artists begin creating from whatever corner of their home or garage they can carve out.

Then the art becomes a central focus of their life that deserves a space only meant for creating.

The studio emerges. Oh, how glorious: proper

lighting, room for endless materials, inspiration all around, works in progress in various stages, completed works to be enjoyed until they move on to galleries or new homes. The end result is unique, personal, organized for each artist’s sensibilities and needs.

To be welcomed into a studio is a great gift to those interested in learning more about the creative process or about an artist whose work they enjoy. Far from a “retail” experience as at a show or gallery, the studio reveals the artist behind the artwork and adds to the enjoyment and understanding of the artwork one might purchase to take home. Studies have shown that having a bit of the artist — a story or experience – to go with an artwork increases the intrinsic

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Painting by Patty Jo Thomas

Concrete sculpture by Barbara Liss

Fine art mosaic by Patty Franklin

Photography by Steve Slocomb

value of the art for the person who owns it.

Artists on the Bitterroot Studio Tour are particularly interested in arts education and welcome young people into their studio. Artists and parents alike enjoy watching wide eyes as budding artists gain encouragement and begin to stitch together what life as an artist might be like.

During an early year of the Studio Tour, I was accompanied by my mom who was visit-

ing from Chicago. What a wonderful way for us to explore the out-of-the-way studios of artists throughout our beautiful Bitterroot Valley.

Patti Jo Thomas’ magical garden creatures – larger than life size – were not her featured art but an expression of her artistic mind and endless energy, and we wouldn’t have been able to see them at a show or gallery. We enjoyed wandering through her gardens to find her

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 9

Mulit-media by Heyoka Merrifield

Fused glass by Amy Knight

log cabin studio. What an adventure. www. artistsalongthebitterroot.com/portfolio/patti-jothomas Amy Knight’s glass studio was roomy and well laid out. Big windows allowed natural light to stream through into the studio workspace. I had no idea art glass could be manipulated in a kiln. www.aknightglass.com Heyoka’s studio is a magical retreat, build by hand. There is a separate pyramid shaped Earth and Sky Temple that offers a meditative place to keep his inspiration flowing. Heyoka’s gallery is designed to showcase his work. It’s an amazing place to visit. www.heyoka-art.com Studios are located from Lolo to Hamilton, representing a wide variety of mediums. You can view the map of studios at www.artistsalongthebitterroot.com to plan your route to visit studios.

Or pick up a bright green tour brochure at local galleries and businesses throughout the community. A note of advice: plan your route ahead of time so that you can maximize your time and get to all the studios you’d like to visit.

For the first eight years, the Tour took place in June. 2017 is the first year with an added November opportunity: Friday through Sunday, Nov. 3-5, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

For more information, contact Barbara Liss at

406/351-0073. Or better yet, visit her studio and gallery during the Tour. www.montanablissartworks.com

November 3, 4, & 5 Friday - Sunday 10:30am to 6:00pm

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photo courtesy of bitterroot baroque

Quartet with Corvallis students. Photo courtesy of Bitterroot Baroque.

Bitterroot Baroque brings living history

By Sarah Stone For

the

Ravalli Republic

Bitterroot Baroque is bringing early music to Hamilton.

In its third season as a nonprofit, the presenting organization is bringing musicians from across the country to perform classical music from the baroque era including the Bay Area’s Music Pacifica and Agave Baroque, as well as Seattle’s Sound Counterpoint.

To start this season, New York’s Quartet Resound performed Haydn and Mozart throughout Hamilton, Corvallis, and Missoula during their week-long residency with Bitterroot Baroque. Nov. 10-11, Cleveland’s Les Délices will coach a baroque dance workshop at River Street Dance Theater in Hamilton and perform a program they’re calling “Myths & Allegories,” which weaves dramatic depictions from Homer’s Odyssey, instrumental chamber music inspired

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 11

by Greek mythology, and music of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Jean-Féry Rebel, and Thomas-Louis Bourgeois.

Other concerts this season include: J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, slated for Jan. 20, 2018, at St. Frances Xavier in Missoula; and the Montana Cantata Project will perform Bach on April 22, 2018, at St. Paul’s Church in Hamilton.

This rich, expressive period of baroque music starts in Italy around 1600 with Claudio Monteverdi and ends around 1750 with Johann Sebastian Bach’s death. Performers coming to the Bitterroot are playing on what are called “period instruments” or instruments built and set up in the same way that they would have been at the time that the music was written. By experimenting with old techniques and materials, the performers gain a new perspective on ancient music and give the audience a chance to experience living history.

One physical difference that effects the sound is the use of wound sheep-gut for strings, which are used because modern metal strings were not yet invented. Because they work differently, photo courtesy of bitterroot baroque this change pushes the musician to work with Quartet Resound at Skalkaho Falls. the strings to create sound that helps give the music a warmer range of colors.

Seeing baroque music performed live is both exciting and pleasing to the ear. Baroque music is flexible, fleet, and involves improvisation similar to jazz, so no two performances are ever the same. Like jazz, the back-up band – in this case called the continuo – reads and improvises chords from a chord chart (called figured bass) to fill out the harmony and add rhythm to the group.

The melody instruments, which include violins, flutes, and oboes, also decorate simple melodies with florid additions and expressive affects.

Within the baroque period there are many regional differences in ornamentation and style, MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic giving each composer’s music a unique flavor.

Alex Schaffer, Bitterroot Baroque Director, with Quartet For information on upcoming performances: Resound. www.bitterrootbaroque.org.

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Celebrating literature in translation

By Shawn Wathen For

the

Ravalli Republic

A paradox of the present is that despite the internationality of electronic media, allowing us to access information about any country on earth without ever leaving the keyboard, we nevertheless are becoming more insular, more fearful of the “other.” Daily talk of restrictions, denials, and walls, have denied us the opportunity to know, understand, and ultimately revel in the diversity of our planet’s cultures. As we circle the wagons, we turn our backs to that richness.

Book stores can offer an antidote to such narrow-minded thinking.

More and more books from nonAmerican authors are making their way into English-language translations. At Chapter One Book Store, we celebrate literature in translation. Today, I will only discuss fiction, leaving aside the rich trove of histories, biographies, and poetry from all parts of the globe. For the engaged reader, literary fiction can offer insights into the human condition that elude traditional nonfiction.

Like wandering with no destination in mind, there is a sense of discovery as you find new authors. Pick up a title by Manuel Vasquez Montalban, who suffered at the hands of Franco’s torturers. Through his character Pepe Carvalho, a Barcelona gumshoe, the author explores the complexities of Post-Franco Spain and the enduring legacy of the Spanish Civil War; all

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 13

wrapped in a detective romp complete with mouth-watering descriptions of Spanish cuisine.

As we vociferously argue over the legacy of our own Civil War, we might learn a thing about legacies.

Or grab Fariba Hachtroudi’s “The Man Who Snapped His Fingers” to read about a former colonel in a theological dictatorship seeking asylum. Through various voices and perspectives, she illuminates the lies and truths we tell ourselves and others and their potentially fatal consequences.

Dubravka Ugresic’s “Ministry of Pain” sears the brutally dehumanizing reality of the refugee experience into our consciousness as she describes the displacements of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s; or the events that lead to a decision to live as an illegal immigrant in Neel Mukherjee’s “A Life Apart.”

Patrick Chamoiseau’s hallucinatory prose in “Texaco” weaves the legacy of slavery on Martinique with a meditation about the clash of modernity with tradition.

Peter Nadas’s “Book of Memories” elucidates how memory functions in societies with dark pasts.

Not only do books in translation provide us with a glimpse into the foreign, the exotic, the other, through marvelous storytelling and often stylistic brilliance; they can also give us a different window from which to gaze at our own society; to see it strengths and weaknesses in a new light. We can begin to see how thinking in ways

not native to us may offer us solutions to seemingly insoluble problems.

That, however, is perhaps putting too much pressure on the authors and their readers.

Can any literature save the world from itself?

Regardless of its power, or lack thereof, it nonetheless can open worlds to readers who cast their nets wider, searching for, if not salvation, maybe a little understanding; perhaps a bit of form and beauty amid the chaos.

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Bitterroot Valley Chorus spans four generations, brings the gift of music to community

By Tricie Callaghan-Stover For

the

Ravalli Republic

The Bitterroot Valley Chorus is a multi-generational singing organization with a membership that spans four generations, ranging in age from 9 to 85.

The mission of the Bitterroot Valley Chorus is

to provide a free gift to our community through high-quality choral performances during the Christmas season. The Chorus also provides the opportunity for adult and young singers to improve their choral singing and performance skills by studying under a professional conductor.

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 15

provided photo

In the 1960s, some members of the Corvallis Grange formed a singing group. Under the direction of Cliff Jacks from Missoula, the group became the Corvallis Grange Chorus. This Chorus performed a variety of musical programs in the local area. The Chorus expanded their membership and invited singers from outside the Grange to join them. With that expansion,

the group changed its name to the Bitter Root Valley Chorus. In the early 1970s, some women from the Chorus approached Virginia Vinal, the director of the Hamilton High School Choir program, and asked her to become their conductor and help them learn Handel’s Messiah for Christmas performances in the community.

Initially, the Chorus learned a simplified version

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of the Messiah but within a few years, Vinal was able to introduce a more challenging version of the piece. For many years, the annual Christmas concert program included a variety of Christmas carol arrangements and the Messiah performance.

Mrs. Vinal conducted the Chorus for 23 years and was succeeded by current conductor, Peggy Bucheit. 2017 marks the 45th consecutive year for the Bitterroot Valley Chorus and the 22nd year under Mrs. Bucheit’s leadership. Over the years, the Chorus collaborative pianists have been Samira Yunker, Jeanne Hargett, Judy Paul, and Tricie Callaghan-Stover (current pianist.)

The Chorus also enjoys the periodic addition of other area instrumentalists, including Jack Barnings (percussion) and Ellen Holleman (flute).

In 2006, the Bitterroot Valley Chorus became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Chorus is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors and its funding comes from sponsors, donors, and audience donations at the annual concerts.

During its 45-year evolution, membership in the Chorus has grown to include singers from additional valley communities. The Chorus now has a vibrant Youth Choir that includes children from public, private, and non-traditional educational

settings. The Chorus has continued to expand its musical repertoire by performing other great choral masterworks and a variety of classical and modern Christmas music, both traditionally religious and secular.

“I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity – to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that“.

-- Paul McCartney, singer/songwriter The Bitterroot Valley Chorus offers an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate … as singers, as audience members, as sponsors and donors… and to build bonds when so many forces seek to divide us. This year’s performances are Saturday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. at the Hamilton Performing Arts Center at Hamilton High School, 327 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton.

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Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 17

Downtown Hamilton Culture Crawl returns

By Barbara Liss For

the

Ravalli Republic

The Culture Crawl is back in Downtown Hamilton. Reprised a year ago by new gallery owner Barbara Liss of Montana Bliss Artworks, the Crawl has been evolving and gathering steam throughout the year.

Held throughout the country and world, culture crawls are popular events providing opportunities for retail sales as well as community development. Goals include: introducing and promoting the arts and other creative economy participants to the community by showcasing artists and providing a creative space for community building all through a lively and enjoyable social event.

Hamilton’s Culture Crawl is held each second Friday, from 5 to 8 p.m., during the Hamilton photo courtesyof alissa durling Artist Alissa Durling painting during a Culture Crawl.

Downtown Association’s Hamilton Tonight. It provides the opportunity for galleries and other The next Culture Crawl is Nov. 10, so mark merchants as well to focus attention on the arts your calendars and plan to attend. Visit the and artists.

Facebook page “Culture Crawl Hamilton” On the Second Fridays, a variety of venues to learn which artists will be where. Find the feature art in diverse forms from the written Culture Crawl on the arts calendar at http:// word, to visual, performing, and culinary art, www.bitterrootarts.org/events, or call Barbara generally including Art City, Art Focus, Artfully Repurposed, Chapter One Bookstore, Mikesell’s Liss at 406 351-0073.

Jewelry, Montana Bliss Artworks, and Robbins Hallmark, among others — there’s always something new. Most venues offer appetizers and artists are often on hand to interact with the public, answering questions and demonstrating their techniques.

A Culture Crawl Punch Card can be found at any participating venues. Visit at least five venues to get your card punched and be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card a participating venues.

Page 18 - Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017

Empty Bowls Lunch November 11, 11 .a.m. – 2 p.m.

St. Francis Pastoral Life Center, 511 South Fifth Street, Hamilton Tickets are $20, available at the door and at Chapter One Book Store, Art City, Art Focus, the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce, and from ClayWorks! board members.

ClayWorks! is grateful to the Town Pump Charitable Foundation for the generous sponsorship 20152017. Thank you!

Empty Bowls event feeds the hungry MICHELLE MCCONNAHA michelle.mcconnaha@ravallirepublic.com

Empty Bowls is a simple meal where diners buy a beautiful handmade bowl, filled with soup, as part of a fundraiser to help fill the many “empty bowls” in the Bitterroot Valley.

Clay Works! in the Bitterroot, a pottery cooperative in Hamilton, is sponsoring the Empty Bowls project in the Bitterroot Valley with a soup and bread lunch on Nov. 11. The funds raised during the event will benefit two local groups that are trying to feed the hungry and educate them to feed themselves.

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 19

Pottery artists Kim Milstead, Robin Ireland, Sidney Mehlschmidt, Eve Meng and Vevan Yang are coordinating the Empty Bowls event. Milstead is the program director for Empty Bowls.

“I like the idea that it’s bowls and pottery,” Milstead said. “We all love to create; the title of it ties us to the bowls and it is good to be thinking of people other than ourselves.”

Ireland said feeding the hungry is the goal of Empty Bowls.

“It originated in 1990 to advocate arts and education as well as feed the hungry or raise awareness of food insecurity,” Ireland said. “It started as a project in an art class years ago.”

Milstead said that originally, art students came up with the idea to make bowls in pottery class and sell them to raise money to donate to the food bank.

“This started in Michigan but now is worldwide,” she said. “It is an international movement with local details. You can have any kind of meal, any kind of bowls, however you want to do it. It is often picked up by arts organizations to fight hunger and advocate the Arts and art education.”

Mehlschmidt said he was involved in the Empty Bowl efforts in Anchorage, Alaska, for 25 years before moving to MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic Montana.

Corvallis High School sophomore Rebecca Boaz learned about clay at the “It involved the high schools pottery wheel in Kevin Silkwood’s class. and universities,” he said. “It was a huge event for a large population that raised over $1 million in 25 years.”

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MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic

Corvallis High School art students are learning the art of pottery and will make bowls for the Empty Bowls event under the tutelage of eduator Kevin Silkwood. Image Reesman, Sammy Shergrud, Meagan McCluskey, Connor Harris, and Carter Jessop worked at potter wheels in class on Wednesday.

Ireland said the Empty Bowl program has been held in the Bitterroot Valley for years “but needed a new impetus and since we have this new co-op, we’re only a year and a half old, we thought it would be a good project for us to do that would benefit the community,” Ireland said.

“It’s a win-win - good for us and good for the community.”

Proceeds from the luncheon will be divided three ways.

Forty percent will benefit the Community Meals program that serves free meals five different nights of the week, Labor Day through Memorial Day, at several different churches.

“It’s awesome and we appreciate them recognizing us and making the recipients of their

efforts,” said Cheryl Calvert, community meals coordinator.

Forty percent will benefit the MSU Extension SNAP Education Program that teaches nutrition classes to first-, third- and fifth-grade classes at Hamilton, Darby, Victor and Stevensville schools.

SNAP coordinator Rachel Ariaz also teaches an adult nutrition class five to 10 times a year. The eight-week long classes teach healthy strategies and practice skills for cooking, buying and planning meals.

Twenty percent of donations will be kept by Empty Bowls/Clay Works! as seed money for future programs.

Bread will be made by Red Rooster and Alpenstuble Inc. Soups will be made by Bouilla,

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 21

Spice of Life, Taste of Paris, Bitter Root Brewing, and the Trapper Creek Job Corps culinary arts department.

Soups will be served in a handmade bowls crafted by local potters.

“Clay Works! potters are hard at work making hundreds of bowls to be donated for the event,” Milstead said. “Some potters work in their own studios and some work at the co-op.

The bowls take weeks, even months, to finish.”

Milstead said there will be more than 200 bowls and she hopes to sell that many (or more) tickets to the luncheon.

“In the future, the group plans to offer a bowl-making workshop where people could come, and learn, and contribute,” Milstead

said. “Making bowls are one of the first thing everyone makes because the clay throws itself outward. We try to get younger people who are interested in art to also be interested in this project.”

In fact, Corvallis Art teacher Kevin Silkwood, president of the Clay Works! Co-op, is donating bowls he crafted;. He’s teaching his students the art of pottery, and hopes to have 20 student-made bowls completed in time for the November luncheon.

“It is good to have kids learning skills to help others beyond the classroom,” Silkwood said.

“It is good for them to help the community.”

The Bitter Root Empty Bowls is under The Bitter Root Resource Conservation and

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic

Corvallis art educator Kevin Silkwood stacks formed but unfired bowls for the Empty Bowls event..

Page 22 - Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic

Sidney Mehlschmidt, Robin Ireland, and Kim Milstead are the organizers behind the Empty Bowls event set for noon on Nov. 11 in Hamilton. Local handmade pottery, soup and bread will raise funds to benefit two local groups that are trying to feed the hungry and educate them to feed themselves.

Development Area, Inc. (Bitter Root RC&D) as the 501C3 fiduciary agent.

“We’re working with them, with Trapper Creek Job Corps, and the O’Hara Sustainability Center,” Milstead said. “The Knights of Columbus will be serving the soup and the St. Francis Pastoral Life Center is giving us the use of their building.”

The Empty Bowl luncheon will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 11 at the St. Francis Pastoral Life center, 511 So. Fifth St. in Hamilton. Tickets cost $20 and will be available starting on Oct. 1 at Chapter One Book Store, Art City, Art Focus, the Bitterroot Valley Chamber PHOTO PROVIDED of Commerce, and from Clay Works!

Robin Ireland shows a few of the artistic bowls that were created by Board members.

Clay Works! in the Bitterroot potters for the Empty Bowl luncheon, Nov. 11.

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 23

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic

The Stevensville playhouse has recently been remodeled.

Stevensville Playhouse begins new season

By James McCauley For

the

Ravalli Republic

The 2017-2018 season a t the Stevensville Playhouse began Oct. 13 with “Annabelle Broom, The Unhappy Witch” which ends with a matinee on Oct. 29. This enchanting musical revolves around a young witch whose love of fashion and children lands her in hot water with her elders. Annabelle finds herself in a pickle when her heartstrings are tugged by two lost kids in need of a grownup’s assistance. Since she’s already at odds with her pointy-hatted superiors, Annabelle could lose her haunting

card if she doesn’t frighten the youngsters.

Placing its protagonist at a crossroads, Eleanor and Ray Harder’s musical explores what happens when doing your job means ignoring your conscience.

“Annie”, a musical based upon the popular Little Orphan Annie comic strip with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan, will run from Dec. 1 through Dec. 17. The original Broadway production opened in 1977. It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

The musical’s songs “Tomorrow” and “It’s the

Page 24 - Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic

The Stevensville Playhouse runs an after-school program teaching performance and backstage skills.

Hard Knock Life” are among its most popular musical numbers.

On Jan 27, 2018, the “Accousticals”, three of Montana’s premier musicians playing original material in the Bluegrass/Americana style, will perform at the Playhouse. Featuring on guitar/ vocals Richie Reinholdt, on mandolin Chad Fadely, and on bass Britt Arnesen.

From Feb 23 through March 4 “James and The Giant Peach” will delight audiences. The plot centers on a young English orphan boy who enters a gigantic, magical peach, and has a wild

MICHELLE MCCONNAHA-Ravalli Republic

The new costume and fabric room at the Stevensville Playhouse.

Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017 - Page 25

PHOTO PROVIDED by brittany mclaughlin

Kirk Crews as a Jewish father struggling with culture and traditions in the classic musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”

and surreal cross-world adventure with seven magically-altered garden bugs he meets. Roald Dahl was originally going to write about a giant cherry, but changed it to James and the Giant Peach because a peach is “prettier, bigger and squishier than a cherry.”

The season will finish with the popular murder/mystery “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christie. “The Mousetrap” which opened in London in 1952, is by far the longest running play in history, with its 25,000th performance in 2012. The play is known for its twisted ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal. In the unique style of director Dean Diers, this show will be set in a Montana hunting lodge.

The Stevensville Playhouse is celebrating the completion of its backstage expansion project.

It provides new space for actors and crew with a “green room,” workshop, bathrooms, set and prop storage, dressing rooms and costume space. This project was possible due to the generous support of local businesses, patrons, and several grant foundations.

It’s easy to become involved as a volunteer.

Just talk to our staff at intermission or after a show, visit our office M, W, F between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m. or call (406) 777-2722. Auditions for “James and the Giant Peach” will be held Jan 9, 2018. Auditions for “The Mousetrap” will be on March 26 and 27, 2018. Join us on Facebook or visit www.stevensvilleplayhouse.org.

Page 26 - Arts in the Bitterroot, October 29, 2017

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