For nearly twenty years, professionals from the internationally known Missoula Children’s Theatre (MCT) have brought a full stage production with sets, makeup and costumes to Naval Support Activity South Potomac (NSASP) delighting audiences as they create a stellar troupe of actors with children from the Youth Activity Center and Naval Support Facility (NSF) Dahlgren community. This year was no different with a fresh spin on old Aesop’s Fable “ The Tortoise and the Hare” with “The Tortoise Versus the Hare — The Greatest Race”.
Throughout last week, beginning with auditions kicking off on the morning of Monday, July 10 and culminating with a full production, children from the Youth Activity Center and the community brought their best thespian abilities to bring the tale to life. Around 60 children of all ages auditioned and 43 roles were cast. Those cast were asked for a weeklong commitment to the performance. During the week, the children worked with Topher Warren and Alyssa Cooper from MCT to polish their acting chops by rehearsing, learning lines, marks, songs and timing to present the production on Friday, July 21, for their friends and family members.
The play was set in the imaginary town of “West Sandy Bottoms” where an annual race between Mammals and Reptiles is portrayed with fan clubs, spectators, racer Curly Hare and Coach Shelly Bowlback Tortoise along with a T.V. news team covering the event. Throughout the production, it’s soon discovered that there is more at stake than simple a race between species. Through “hare-raising” trials and with wisdom from the tortoise and lessons learned by the hare, the two species come to realize it’s easy to find common ground if everyone tries.
In addition to their annual trip to NSF Dahlgren, MCT will work with 65,000 children in more than 1,200 communities in all 50 states and 17 countries this year. The company has been sharing the love of theater and foster life skills with more than a million children over the last 45 years and the NSASP community thoroughly enjoyed the performance this year and looks forward to next year’s theater production.