Bozeman Magazine

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…

Theater Expert Tom Watson Takes Film School to New Heights

Cammie Reid

As the Resident Scene Designer for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MSIP) and an Associate Professor at the Montana State University School of Film, Tom Watson regularly finds himself at the helm of the vibrant and clamoring theater scene that…

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…

10 Best Things to Do in Bozeman During the Winter

Kate Hulbert

Whether you live in Bozeman or are visiting, you probably want to get out and experience the best of winter in Bozeman. Here is a list of the best things to do in Bozeman during the winter.  1. Skiing (of course) This one is a given…

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

Looking at the Anthropocene through Shakespeare

Kevin Brustuen

In 1877, a young man named William Clark acquired his first mine in the struggling mining camp of Butte in Montana Territory. Clark went on to become one of the three Copper Kings of Butte, thus one of the richest men in the world at the time. Yet…

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:…

Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts Focusing on the Music

Angie Ripple

It’s only July but it’s never too early to start thinking about the beauty and smell of Sweet Pea’s in August, not just the amazingly gorgeous flower, but also Bozeman’s most beloved festival of the arts and culture, the Sweet…

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…

Top 15 Bozeman Summer Events You Don’t Want to Miss

Kate Hulbert

Summer is, in our opinion, the best time of the year in Bozeman. There are so many community events going on like outdoor concerts, farmers markets, festivals and car shows. The only hard part is trying to do them all! Here are the summer events in…

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…

Walking On Egg Shells With Eddie Ifft

Angie Ripple

Eddie Ifft is an insanely busy comic coming back to Bozeman after an eighteen-year hiatus. We were pretty surprised to see an ad on Facebook for Eddie’s upcoming Bozeman show, since in the early 2000s I brought him to Montana State University…

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…

Greg Owens in Montana

Bozeman Magazine spoke with playwright Greg Owens, who has lived and written in Bozeman for nearly 20 years, about an upcoming milestone in his career and how he’s gathering with friends and family at Verge Theater to celebrate. Bozeman…

Let Slip the Dogs of War

Julius Caesar at the Ellen

Kevin Brustuen

"Beware the Ides of March!” Thus spoke the soothsayer to Julius Caesar a few days before he was murdered on March 15, 44 B.C. Shakespeare in the Schools now brings the history and the tragedy of Julius Caesar back to life for a brief moment…

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…

School of Film and Photography presents a staged reading of Anna Ziegler’s Actually

At a raucous party during their freshman year at Princeton, Tom and Amber connect in ways that seem innocent enough at first. But as the night heats up, they find themselves in murky territory with ramifications that could affect the rest of their…

Verge Theater’s The Gun Show asks...Can We Have a Conversation About: GUNS

Bozeman Magazine spoke with members of the production team behind The Gun Show, Verge Theater’s season opener. This show is sure to be fantastic, between the topical subject matter — the gun control debate in America — and the…

Sweet Pea & SLAM Festivals Rock

Get As Much Art & Culture As You Can

Angie Ripple

The Sweet Pea Festival isn’t just packed into the first weekend of August, it actually begins in July with the annual juried art show running from July 13-August 6 at ERA Landmark on Main Street, followed by Chalk on the Walk on July 31…

Locally Produced Theatre Happening Twelve Months A Year

Did you know Verge Theater is a 12 month theater? That’s right! We used to take some time off in the Summer for a deep breath, but we’re too excited about theater to think about breathing. Shakespeare once said, “Breathing is…

Top 10 BZN Places for People Watching

Sarah Cairoli

Watching other people is human nature. We can’t help it; we’re fascinated by each other. We learn a lot about each other through body language and visual cues, often inventing entire stories about people we have never met. Bozeman may be…

Log Jam to open State of the Art, 1,500 seat venue in Bozeman

Montana-Based Logjam Presents to Open New 1,500 Capacity Venue in Bozeman, Montana Missoula, Montana (Thursday, May 24, 2018) - Montana-based promoter Logjam Presents has announced plans to develop a new 1,500 capacity concert venue and…

Damn Dirty Hippies

Bryant Sterczala

Try not to Freak Out, but Bozeman’s award-winning musical is back. This May 18-19, see the hilarious giant puppet show returning for its  encore performance. Inside the Rialto Theatre audiences will be treated to a new kind of theatrical…

We Are Nothing Without Story

At Verge this month, we are celebrating the idea of STORY. What are we without the stories we tell ourselves, and each other? If it seems a ponderous question, then perhaps you need a reminder. Come out to Verge Theater in March to get some help with…

Collabortations and Improvisations

at the Verge Theatre

Those of us in Southwest Montana are fortunate to have so many opportunities to experience theatre. Bozeman alone has several theaters and acting companies, and we at Verge always find it a pleasure to co-produce plays with the multi-verse of talent…

Behind the Scenes of the Willson Auditorium

Katie McGunagle, photos by Zach Hoffman

When you go to a production at the Willson Auditorium, you may glimpse young people quietly running the light and sound control boards in the back of the hall. Others work back stage, assisting with set changes, costumes, and makeup. These stagehands…

Reinvented RIALTO Reopens for Business

Angie Ripple, photos by Zach Hoffman

With nearly a dozen events under its belt since opening night January 17, 2018, the newly renovated Rialto Theatre in downtown Bozeman is breaking its way as a new hub for culture and entertainment, as is their vision. From peanut stand to cultural…