Bozeman Actors USO Tour of Asia

Kevin Brustuen

The Montana College Players, part of the theatre program at what is today’s MSU, were selected by the USO (United Service Organization) to be part of its 1962 Tour of Asia. This was a special honor and testament to the high-quality theatre in…

The Montana Mikado

Kevin Brustuen

Gilbert and Sullivan Revised

Shakespeare’s Complete Works 50 Years of MSIP

Kevin Brustuen

Last summer I drove into Fishtail, Montana, an unincorporated small town located in a wide spot in the road south of Columbus. On this sweltering hot afternoon, the tiny town was still and quiet, biding its time for the sun to go down and the heat to…

Montana's Last Best Comedy

Kevin Brustuen

This September, the former Colonel Blacks nightclub in downtown Bozeman became Last Best Comedy—the very first club devoted to comedy in Montana’s history. Comedians Molly Hannan, Annie O‘Connor, and Levin O’Connor felt it was…

The Piano Tuner

Kevin Brustuen

Pianos are usually taken for granted by most of us; they sit in the neglected corners of public rooms gathering dust or against the wall in Grandma’s house serving as a repository of family photos, the ivory keys faded and slow to return. Yet…

Bozeman Symphony 2021

Kevin Brustuen

On October 30 and 31 the Bozeman Symphony presents Symphonie Fantastique at the Willson Auditorium. Symphonie Fantastique, the symphony’s second performance of this season, includes Carl Maria von Weber’s “Overture to Der…

Tinworks Art Galleries

Kevin Brustuen

At a time when the Bozeman community is filled with one new development after another, leaving the citizens breathless at the pace of new buildings, roads, subdivisions, offices, condos and townhouses, one organization is actively seeking old unused…

Shakespeare in the Parks Summer 2021

Kevin Brustuen

For 48 years, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MSIP) has brought free productions of Shakespeare to rural and remote communities across Montana and surrounding states. This summer, MSIP brings two more plays to stages across a five-state area…

The Montana Book Award

Kevin Brustuen

Gretchen Minton, professor of English at Montana State University, won the 2020 Montana Book of the Year Award, for her book “Shakespeare in Montana: Big Sky Country’s Love Affair with the World’s Most Famous Writer.” Honor…

Sustainable Ranching in 2021

Kevin Brustuen

photo: Chris Boyer, Kestrel AerialOne year ago, the Covid pandemic shocked most of us when we suddenly were confronted with shortages in grocery stores, restaurants were shut down, and food became a source of concern. Faced with this sudden and…

Polaroid Stories

Kevin Brustuen

In January of 2020, Bozeman Actors Theatre (BAT) began rehearsing a production of Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories, intending to stage nine performances in April of 2020. Rehearsals were well underway when Covid-19 reached Gallatin County, and…

Sonnets in the Snow

Kevin Brustuen

The desire to create is something important to humanity—a fundamental part of our very existence. The Covid19 pandemic has limited the outlets for this creative urge in everyone around the world, leaving not only frustrated audiences, but even…

Warren Miller Performing Arts Center

Kevin Brustuen

About forty miles south of Bozeman is the town of Big Sky and the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center, which brings world-renowned performing artists to the people who live and travel to Southwestern Montana.For over seven years, John Zirkle…

Peaks, Peace and Poetry

Kevin Brustuen

“When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I…

Up The Theatrical Creek

Kevin Brustuen

In mid-June of this year, I was walking along the East Gallatin River one afternoon when I saw a fascinating sight:A young man named Jacques, dressed in white and holding his flute as he sat beside the East Gallatin River in Bozeman, looked up at a…

Baroque Music Montana

Kevin Brustuen

Alessandro Stradella was one of the 17th century’s finest Baroque composers—and one of its most threatened composers due to his passion for wine, women, and song. Stradella lived in Venice, played the lute, composed music, and performed…

Theatre Culture in Bozeman

Kevin Brustuen

Gary Cooper, Hollywood star of the 1940s and 50s born in Helena and former student at Montana State College (today’s MSU), is enshrined in Bozeman’s history with a star embedded in the sidewalk near the Rialto Theatre in downtown Bozeman…

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…