By Michael Heins
The Friends of the Library present a one act play titled Bully,' an adventure with Teddy Roosevelt written by Jerome Alden and starring Republican Sen. Mike Taylor as Roosevelt.
The Havre-Hill County Library and D.A. Davidson & Co. will sponsor this Broadway play by James Whitmore at Van Orsdel Methodist Church Sunday, April 2 at 7 p.m.
"Anybody from 8 to 80 will enjoy this play," Taylor said.
This one-act play consist of a talk or dialogue made by Taylor.
"The play is not what you think," Taylor said. "Everyone has a perception of a talk. This is a Broadway play. It's an action-packed theater production. Its a moving play. The play starts out with the Grizzly Story and ends with the Battle of San Juan. We have explosions and bombs going off."
Teddy Roosevelt came to Montana often to hunt in the Selway Bitterroot and Bears Paw Mountains, Taylor said.
Neil Lewing directs it and begins the play by coming out and talking about Teddy Roosevelt.
"We focus on who and what he was," Taylor said. "The director holds a photo of the former president while he speaks and tells about him. He was quite a president. You talk about Mount Rushmore there's only four people up there. He set a lot of standards."
The director gets the audience to become the critics.
"We always ask the audience to participate in the play such as clapping when Teddy Roosevelt makes a speech," he said. "We throw a teddy bear into the audience and whoever catches it, it is theirs to keep. The teddy bear was named after Roosevelt."
Taylor has put a lot of work into this play to develop his character.
"The script is, I don't know how many thousands of words, but I am on the stage for an hour and forty five minutes and it is a dialogue, so consequently, you really have to study hard to put the character together and get the accent and motion right," he said. "It has taken me a year to get comfortable with the character. I still have other things to do. Being a state Senator requires my time as well."
Taylor said he has had a passion for theater most of his life and started at a young age. He talked about one awkward moment in his beginning years in theater.
"I got involved in theater as a high school sophomore with a one act play called Just Ducky,'" he said. "We went to state with it. I was the lead and when the curtain opened I could not remember my line. They could not decide who would speak first until someone cued me off."
During the years, he has participated in theater throughout the United States.
"I wanted to be a professional actor but I always had to work for a living," he said. "I have always enjoyed theater. I always tried to participate in community, semi-professional or college theater on a part-time basis, being a state senator takes up a lot of my spare time."
Tickets start at $5 and seniors and students get in for $4. Tickets can be bought at the Havre-Hill County Library or D.A. Davidson.
For more information call the Havre-Hill County Library at 265-5781
