MAT actors dont shy from challenge

Actress Pam Veis had to dig deep to capture the persona of Claire Zachanassian, a cruel European billionaire and the central character in the Montana Actors Theatre's upcoming play, "The Visit," starting Thursday.

The ever-cheerful Veis, a psychiatric nurse at Havre's Golden Triangle Community Mental Health Center, transformed herself into a vengeful elderly woman who employs two servants to transport her around the stage on a sedan chair. She's been married nine times, and is missing her right hand and left leg.

"She's kind of the flip side to how I generally get up and face life every day,"...