MAT looking for plays and directors

Montana Actors’ Theatre wants anyone who has ever dreamed of directing their favorite play to come forward and give it a try.

Jay Pyette, MAT’s artistic director, said every year they look to get a new crop of directors.

“We do this every year. We are starting the process of building our next season,” he said.

Pyette said the number of interested candidates varies from year to year, but typically they get about twice the number of submissions they can use.

MAT has an artistic council assigned with ferreting through the proposals, and ensuring the play chosen make for what he describes as “a balanced but varied season” when it comes to script selection.

Occasionally, the group does put on an original play, such as in October when they did several showings of “Everybody Loves Zombies, (Except Ashley),” a horror-themed musical-comedy penned by Martin Holt, a Havre accountant.

However, Pyette said, MAT’s lineup each season is largely composed of already-published works.

This season’s shows will include an adaption of “Mary Poppins” and “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s classic novel about children growing up in the racially segregated South as their attorney father defends an African-American man wrongly accused of rape.

Other shows the group will be putting on include “Equivocation,” a historical drama in which William Shakespeare is a central character, that will open in May, and “Gods of Carnage,” a dark comedy is scheduled to open Friday.

Pyette said auditions for the youth roles in “To Kill A Mockingbird” will take place tonight at the Little Theatre at the Montana State University-Northern.

Next Wednesday, tryouts will be held for adult roles in both “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “Equivocation.”

Those interested in directing a play can contact Pyette for additional information at 945-0272 or [email protected]. The due date for submissions is Feb. 15.