The MCT Center for the Performing Arts is bursting at the seams the week of June 20-25! Blackbeard the Pirate, the first summer day camp will feature more than 100 children in performances Saturday, June 25 and Sunday, June 26 at 3 & 5pm each day. MCT’s Next Step Prep, a 6-week summer intensive program for high school students, welcomes 23 teens from across the region and overseas, as well as Broadway guest artists presenting master classes throughout the summer.
MCT’s collaboration with the China National Theatre for Children (CNTC) continues with another unique project in conjunction with the UM Confucius Institute (CI). Nine of the Missoula high school students who study Mandarin at school were selected to put their language skills to the test in a new way: as stage actors. They have worked diligently to memorize their lines in three Chinese Idiom plays, roughly translated as Seek a Sword from a Notch on Boat, Offer to Teach Fish to Swim, and Be There Just to Make up the Number. Mr. Yang Cheng from CNTC is an award-winning director and stage, film and television actor who arrived in Missoula June 11th to direct the plays and prepare the students for performances in Beijing next month during the opening weekend of the 6th China Children’s Theatre Festival. The Missoula students will perform the plays to hundreds of theatre-goers on July 9th and 10th…completely in Mandarin!
On Friday, June 24 at 6PM there will be a free showcase performance at MCT, lasting approximately one hour. Whether or not you know a word of the Mandarin language, it is sure to be an entertaining, interesting and exciting presentation, as well as a celebration of what the teens have accomplished as they tackled a new challenge!
