(Riverton, WY) “Five exciting days” of team-building rehearsals are slated for next week as interest grows for Monday’s auditions of Arts in Action/Missoula Children’s Theatre production of “Aladdin” taking place at Willow Creek Elementary School.
After the auditions and roles are cast, after-school rehearsals will be conducted Monday through Friday from 3:30-8:00 p.m. with Friday’s rehearsal taking place at CWC.
MCT reaches out to Arts in Action annually to include them on their national and worldwide performance tour. Arts In Action members and volunteers will support and assist in the production that leads up to the final performance at CWC on Saturday, January 14.
With Arts in Action as MCT’s Presenting Organization, event organizer Sharon Dalton said they’ve had an association with the Missoula Children’s Theatre for several decades.
“The first photo that we have in the Arts In Action scrapbook for the Missoula Children’s Theatre was back in 1985,” she said, referring to a production of the Wizard of Oz. “We’ve had that working relationship (with MCT) at least since then, maybe prior to that date.”
Arts in Action regrouped after COVID restrictions had prevented them from participating in the tour. “This is one of the activities we wanted to be sure to continue,” Dalton said. “Other than what the schools provide, this is one [musical theater] opportunity that’s available for kids to be involved in.”
The MCT road tour consists of a two-person Actor-Director production team who travel in a “little red truck” filled with sets and costumes. MCT sets the dates for the shows in the towns where they will audition, teach and perform, and then includes those local productions in their performance tour schedule.
“We want to emphasize that this is not Disney’s Aladdin,” Dalton said.
The script and score are created by the company and taught by the touring staff.
Heading up the Aladdin production team are Actor/Directors Kamlin Cox and Emily Nachtigal. According to the MCT website, Cox is a graduate of the University of Montana with a degree in acting and has been with the MCT for the past three years. In addition to Aladdin, Cox has also coached and staged children’s theater productions of Rumplestiltskin and Pinocchio. Nachtigal graduated from the University of Montana with degrees in English, education, and theatre. She spent time in Italy teaching English and “environmental values through the magic of theatre.”
For Monday’s auditions, students should arrive at Willow Creek Elementary promptly at 3:30 p.m. “They don’t need to bring anything or be prepared with anything,” Cox said. “Although no one is guaranteed a role, there are plenty of parts to cast.”
The cast will be 50-60 school-age students.
Cox said they are looking for loud voices, charisma, expressive body movements and faces, and “those who can listen and follow directions,” he said. “Those who can illustrate and exercise those three things will likely be cast.”
For more information, visit the Arts in Action website at artsinactionwy.com, email [email protected], or contact Sharon Dalton at 307-851-2669. On Facebook @ArtsinActionWY