A carousel, museums and galleries, Missoula is an artsy town - but don't miss the ghost town that's just a stone's throw away.
In a new play, "End of Shift," five teenagers' night out the weekend before they start their senior year of high school takes an unpredicted turn, with revelations about their friendships and family rather than a night of partying.
With scenes that veer from humor and anticipatory optimism to out-and-out arguments, Jenny Connell Davis' script has been popular enough for scene work with acting classes at the University of Montana that Pamyla Stiehl, a theater professor, proposed a full show.
"Why don't we just produce this? The students love the scenes from it so much," said Stiehl, the show's director.
While the topics include sexual assault, listening to survivors and related issues that are complicated to talk about and dramatize, Stiehl said the students "were ready and everybody wanted to do it."
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The script has been performed at staged readings and workshops, the UM School of Theatre and Dance version opening this week is the first full production ever, with Davis herself planning to attend.
To cast member Audrey Stenhouse, aspects of the small-town setting and social group pulled her into the role of Heidi, who sometimes rages against the constraints and gossip that surround her.
"The text really reflects this, obviously, but the way we're all so different in our own ways and yet we've been together so long ... in a small town, that's what happens," she said.
The story is a period piece, set in rural Maine circa 2006, on one long night. While its tone is distinct, the cast members, all undergraduates, watched Richard Linklater's 1970s high-school party odyssey "Dazed and Confused" as research.
The first characters you meet are three friends whose connection seems strained as they've grown up. Jesse (Aiden Kelly) is an arrogant clean-cut upper-class kid, complete with period-perfect boat shoes, no socks. His odd-couple friends are Max (Seth Campbell), a smart but depressed underachiever who works at a diner with Ben (Morgan Davis), a Phish-shirt clad working-class kid who deals with family trouble and has recently broken up with Heidi, his longtime girlfriend.
The three friends have been planning to sneak out with cans of spray paint to create a memorial to Max's older brother, a trophy-laden athlete, star student and all-around local celebrity who died three years ago. This dudes' night out gets complicated when Amanda (Celeste Raynaud), the socially isolated valedictorian daughter of the police chief, asks to tag along to a party (her first ever) and Jesse eagerly agrees.
Another wild card in their plan is Stenhouse's character, Heidi. Her supposed "cheating" triggered a fight and a breakup but as the night drags onward more information comes to light.
The Masquer Theatre has been set up in the three-quarter round with seating arranged on three sides (show up early if you want a head-on view). Scenic designer Mike Monsos' set is compact: the backroom of a diner in where Ben and Max work, a greasy spoon complete with a worn-out "Hang in there!" kitten poster. The other "place" is the stoop out back. There is no wall, though, just a screen door that allows viewers to observe when some characters are eavesdropping on one another. Like the story itself, the set implies there's no cover left.
If you go
The University of Montana School of Theatre and Dance is presenting "End of Shift" by Jenny Connell Davis is running Oct. 2-12 in the Masquer Theatre, PARTV Center. Go to griztix.com. Contains adult language and themes, including discussion of sexual assault.
Preparation
At the suggestion of Michael Legg, the artistic director of the Montana Repertory Theatre, the acting classes have been using scenes from "End of Shift" and students responded to it and were eager to audition for a full production.
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Since the story involves themes of coercion, sexual assault and heated arguments about listening to survivors, Stiehl said they consulted with the Student Advocacy Resource Center for guidance and support.
Additionally, in the acting classes at UM, they focus on the craft of acting rather than romantic notions of it, Stiehl said.
"It's not therapy, it should never go into that. It's a craft that you put on, you take it off at the end of the night," she said.
"De-roling" is part of a wellness-focused approach to acting so students don't try to live in trauma. While common now, it stands in contrast to the old-school ideas about method acting that pop up in media profiles, such as the extremes that actors like Jeremy Strong or Daniel Day-Lewis go to to inhabit a role.
After a rehearsal, the students seemed very much themselves while talking about the show in the green room, cheerfully bantering only about a half-hour after they'd all been having it out in the back of a diner.
Campbell, who plays the troubled but on-edge Max, said before a show, they'll "step into character" as a group.
"But once it's over, it's very physical, shutting it off. It's like shaking out of your body," he said. They'll even go around the room and call each other by their real names. A senior pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting, the Helena product said he's glad he's tackling a show like this at this phase in his college career. He memorably played Ichabod Crane's braying horse in an original adaptation of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in 2023, and toured with the Montana Repertory Theatre's educational play last year.
Raynaud, a sophomore BFA in acting, plays a misunderstood, isolated star student who must sidestep boys' come-ons, often uninvited, and outbursts. She said a role can get into your head quickly given the heavy situations and subject matter.
"A lot of it is locking in as an actor before the show, and then you're done -- it's like, 'Okay, we're not these people anymore,' " she said.
They worked to make all the characters complicated rather than archetypes. Kelly, a senior pursuing a BA in media arts and minor in theater, has to play Jesse in a way that proves he's more complex than he appears at first.
Stenhouse's character, Heidi, is a high-intensity part that calls for her to ramp up into what they've nicknamed "Heidi storms." Stenhouse, a junior BFA in musical theater and BA in pre-dance therapy, said one way to think about it is to "see yourself physically stepping into the skins of the character. So you're still there, but you're in the skin of the other person, seeing things from their point of view."
Davis, who's pursuing a BA in theater and minor in Japanese, said the small-town setting and its effect on the characters was a draw to someone who grew up in Ulm, a small community outside Great Falls.
As Ben, Davis slouches into the part of a sulky teenager whose struggles are gradually revealed without ever excusing his actions. It's very different from, say, the hoity-toity role of Ichabod Crane played in "Sleepy Hollow." Part of the appeal of the show was the prevalence of secrets among close friends.
"There are moments in this show where a character is deliberately hiding something, and saying something, other than what they mean," Davis said.
Cory Walsh is the arts and entertainment reporter for the Missoulian.
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