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Daniel puts on one-woman show with 'Bad Dates'

The local acting troupe is presenting an extra show this season, with tonight scheduled as the first show of a one-woman, light-hearted comedy about getting back into the dating scene, business — and crime.

Montana Actors’ Theatre veteran Andi Daniel stars in “Bad Dates” by Theresa Rebeck, with Jay Pyette the lead director and directing assistance from Bethany Mason, Audrey Barger, Kristiny Lorett and Jessa Pyette.

Jay Pyette said MAT usually doesn’t produce a play in September, wrapping up from its summer youth and children’s programs and setting up its regular season, but this production seemed to fit in nicely.

“It’s a pretty real comedy,” he said. “I think most of us can look at this woman and identify with what she’s been through.”

The play tells the story, through the words of the main character, of a woman who has put her romantic life on hold to pursue her career, Pyette said. Now that the restaurant she manages is doing well, she decides to go back to the world of dating — but it doesn’t go very well.

That is especially true when the true nature of her successful restaurant — it is a front for the Romanian mafia — gets tied up into her dating efforts, Pyette said.

“It’s going to be a fun show,” he added. “I think people are going to enjoy it.”

The show runs for an hour and 15 minutes, with two intermissions. The doors and backstage lounge open at 7:30 each night, with the play starting at 8 p.m. in the Little Theatre in Cowan Hall on the Montana State University-Northern campus. It runs tonight and Saturday, with following productions next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19-21.

The play contains mature themes and content. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors with free admission for Montana State University-Northern students with a valid student ID. Advance tickets are available online via PayPal at http://mtactors.com/.

The rest of the full season for MAT continues with the annual fundraiser Death by Chocolate Sept. 28 at the Northern Student Union Building Ballroom, with the “The Little Shop of Horrors” following with its first production Oct. 25.

The next play is “Still Life with Iris,” scheduled to open Dec. 13, then “Barefoot in the Park” is slated to start Jan. 31.

“Ruined” opens March 7, followed by the first production of “Chicago” set for April 25 and of “Baby with the Bathwater” May 23.

 

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