Arts in the Time of Plague

Kevin Brustuen

This time of the pandemic and stay-at-home orders is a time of catching up on things, right? I’ve always wanted to sleep in, deep-clean the house, read that pile of books, fix that door latch so it closes properly, clean the garage, write…

Life on the Streets: Polaroid Stories

Kevin Brustuen

Polaroid Stories, a play about homeless youth living on inner-city streets, tells the story of young people searching for self-identity in the face of powerlessness. Ovid’s Metamorphosesis is the…

Cyrano de Bergerac

Kevin Brustuen

Written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand, a French writer from Marseilles, Cyrano de Bergerac is a play set in France in 1640 during the Thirty Years’ war, one of the most destructive wars ever. After the Siege of Arras, the bloody war was brought to…

Intermountain Opera: Kiss Me Kate

Kevin Brustuen

Anyone who grew up in the 1960s-70s likely remembers the famous stormy relationship of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. These internationally famous Hollywood stars argued and fought with each other in public and private, yet loved each other dearly…

Verge Theatre: 25 Years In Bozeman

Kevin Brustuen

Bozeman was a quiet sleepy little mountain town of about 23,000 people in 1990. Bozemanites would hike empty trails, go out to eat at Black Angus, have a couple drinks and maybe dance at the Cat’s Paw, and sometimes go see a play at the…

Bah Humbug! A Christmas Carol 2019

Kevin Brustuen

A Christmas Carol, the famous story by Charles Dickens, comes to The Ellen Theatre December 6 through December 22. Dickens first conceived of this story as a pamphlet meant to speak out against the conditions that led to poor children being forced…

Howl! A Montana Love Story

Kevin Brustuen

In 1995, wolves were successfully reintroduced into the Yellowstone National Park region after an absence of 70 years. Before long, the wolves formed into several viable packs, expanding their ranges to create their own territories. Introducing…

Theater at the Museum of the Rockies

Kevin Brustuen

People don’t generally think of a museum as a venue for live theater. In the case of the Museum of the Rockies, for instance, people usually think of dinosaurs, Native American artifacts, and some pioneer-era exhibit pieces. However, this fall…

Timon of Anaconda

Kevin Brustuen

Looking at the Anthropocene through Shakespeare

Bozeman’s 2019-2020 Theater Season

Kevin Brustuen

Bozeman is growing quickly, and the Bozeman-area theater scene is growing dramatically (pun intended) as well. As recently as ten years ago, people would scan bulletin boards, magazines and newspapers eagerly looking for things to do each weekend:…

Shakespeare in the Parks 2019: Merry Wives & Henry IV

Kevin Brustuen

In 1905, the Shakespeare Women’s Club of Great Falls staged an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, sheltered from the elements only by a small grove of trees outside of town. It seemed natural to stage…

Art in Park County

Kevin Brustuen

In 1864, a young William Alderson left his home in Virginia and headed west, joining a growing rush to the latest gold strikes, namely a little-known town nestled in the mountains, called “Virginia City” in Montana Territory. Stopping off…

A Streetcar Named Desire

Kevin Brustuen

Big Sky Community Theater is offering a production of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Streetcar will be performed for one day only, May 16, at the Warren Miller Center for the Performing Arts in Big Sky.  Directed by Mark…

Company: 1970s Musical at The Ellen

Kevin Brustuen

The Golden Age of Broadway musicals began with the well-known musical Oklahoma! in 1943 and flourished with hits such as South Pacific, Camelot, My Fair Lady, and Singing in the Rain. The 1960s and 1970s were a revolutionary time in art, culture, and…

Children’s Theater in Bozeman

Kevin Brustuen

Montana has a long history with drama, live theater, and child actors. Mary Ronan, a child who lived in Virginia City and Helena during the gold rush days of the 1860s and 1870s, was chosen to play the character of Lady Anne in a performance of…

Open Door Theatre: “Community Theater at its Best”

Kevin Brustuen

Several years ago Mary Orr left Topeka, Kansas, and moved to Bozeman.  She left behind 20 years of work in the Topeka theater community. Acting and helping produce live theater was her passion. Arriving in Bozeman on a cold winter day, she…

A More Congenial Spot: Camelot

Kevin Brustuen

“Don’t let it be forgot That once upon a spot,For one brief, shining moment That was known as Camelot.” These immortal words, penned by Alan Lerner and Moss Hart for the Broadway performance of the musical Camelot, were…

History of Theater in Gallatin County

Kevin Brustuen

In 1885, the Bozeman Weekly Chronicle reported that the Mountain Pink itinerant acting company gave it as their opinion that Bozeman was behind in its appreciation of theatrical talent, by reason of the lukewarm reception the company had received…

Let Slip the Dogs of War

Kevin Brustuen

Julius Caesar at the Ellen

Life of Galileo Comes To Museum Of The Rockies

Kevin Brustuen

Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo is coming to the Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies in October. This pièce de résistance by one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th Century opens on October 12. Produced by…