photo via The Missoulian
By Cory Walsh
For the general public, the draw to next week’s Colony is the staged readings of new works from the guest artists.
The first one on Thursday comes from Sam Hunter, a native of northern Idaho.
Hunter, who studied at New York University and Juilliard School, joined an exclusive club in 2014: the MacArthur Grant, awarded by the foundation to provide more than $100,000 a year for five years to fund the projects of their choosing.
Hunter, now a resident of New York City, works off-Broadway, but his work has filtered back across the country, including his play “The Whale,” which has become popular with regional theaters.
In awarding him the MacArthur, the organization said “he sets much of his work in his native region, within the nondescript confines of staff break rooms, cramped apartments, and retirement homes inhabited by ordinary people in search of more meaningful human connections.”
For the Colony, Hunter brings a new script called “The Harvest,” which Johnson said has a cult-related theme.
The next night’s reading also touches on religion.
Chelsea Marcantel’s “Everything is Wonderful” is set in an Amish community.
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“It’s in the air: What is our relationship to the spiritual at this point in time?” said Greg Johnson the director of the Colony and the Montana Repertory Theatre. He’ll step in to direct that play.
An Amish family takes in the driver who killed their sons in an accident, and their excommunicated daughter returns and questions of family, faith and the past arise.
On Saturday, Heather Benton and Molly Rice are presenting their collaboration, “Dark Matter,” which relates to the deep web, technological anxiety, and mythology. The work will rely heavily on development work here in Missoula with the actors.
Benton, who’s toured with the Montana Rep and numerous other theaters, is known for a “physically vigorous” style of playwriting. Rice has had works produced and developed by the Rep and with numerous outfits in New York.
The Sunday closing day features two plays by Missoula writers.
Laramie Dean’s “Brontë to the Future!” melds Emily Brontë and Jane Austen in a science-fiction setting. John DeBoer of the University of Montana theater faculty will direct the script, which Johnson said has a delightful “Fractured Fairytales” vibe.
Kevin Kicking Woman will direct and perform in “The Sun As My Witness,” which Johnson said is a contemporary look at Native American culture. Kicking Woman is a Blackfeet veteran and writer.
The staged readings will be enacted by actors from Missoula, New York and Whitefish, including David Ackroyd of the Whitefish-based Alpine Theatre Project, who has credits on Broadway; Mark Metcalf, a Missoula transplant perhaps best known as the Maestro from “Seinfeld”; Anna Stone of Seattle, a returning Colony actor; plus Kendra Mylnechuk, a UM graduate who worked professionally in New York before moving to Missoula; Tyler D. Nielsen, who directed “Leveling Up” for the Montana Rep, and local theater fixture Jeff Medley.
