By Alan Sorensen
PEO Chapter V and Jay Pyette are putting on a two-week children's theater workshop beginning Monday. The program is offered to area children at no charge.
Pyette will be assisted by troupers from Pyette's Montana Actors Theatre, the group putting on a production of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" throughout this month.
Any children who finished first through eighth grade this spring are invited to show up at Havre High School at 9 a.m. Monday.
PEO member Karen Myers said children will be split into appropriate age-group divisions, depending on the number of students who show up.
Pyette will teach students how to audition, articulate and emote, follow stage directions, or work with sets, costumes or lighting. Myers said the schedule will vary daily and that no children will be cut.
PEO, which has sponsored Missoula Children's Theatre in Havre for several years, opted to put on the summer workshop to give more children the chance to get involved with drama and stage productions.
Myers said the group is planning to put on one evening presentation sometime between the beginning of the workshop and its conclusion June 30. The evening event expected to be held at a city park pavilion will be announced later, Myers said.
At the conclusion of the workshops, the students will put on two performances. The stage productions will be selected based on the number and age levels of participants.
"Everybody will work on the play," Myers said.
The curtain will rise on the first production, Myers said, at 7 p.m. Friday, June 30. A Saturday matinee is planned for 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 1. Admission will be charged for each performance.
