The Missoula Community Theatre Announces Cancellations for Current Season

The Missoula Community Theatre has released the following statement regarding the cancellation of their season's productions due to the ongoing health crisis.

The Missoula Community Theatre has come to a heartbreaking decision. We must take a longer than usual intermission from our regular programming. The unrelenting trajectory of COVID's rise in our community with its myriad of logistics, safety protocols and financial considerations, has forced us to come to terms with a harsh and painful reality; we simply cannot safely produce the Community Theatre season as planned.

Although we may revisit these titles in the future, the following shows are no longer on the docket for this season: Plaid Tidings: Forever Plaid (December 2020), A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder (January 2021), Working (March 2021) and Annie (April/May 2021) this season. We are working to find pandemic-friendly, micro-programming that is innovative, can adapt more smoothly to ever-changing protocols, and be produced safely in ways that larger shows with more extensive contact cannot. Small cast shows like the recently produced Souvenir are the path forward for the foreseeable future. How long this "intermission" of traditional programming will be, we do not know. But with supporters by our side, shows will go on.

This is MCT's 50th Anniversary year, and although not as celebratory as we would have hoped, we are cognizant that we would not have reached this milestone without the community's support, trust, and faith in our work. Now we ask the community to continue trusting MCT and take a leap of faith to help see us through to the other side. We are so grateful for our home community's generosity through financial support, patronage, volunteer time, and encouragement over the last 50 years, but most especially this year.

We are continuing with plans to present all upcoming children's programming through spring 2021, with vigilance and flexibility remaining key to this decision. Our successful track record beginning with the day camps in June through this fall are attributed to "highly structured" health procedures that have kept staff and students safe. All the productions have much lower overhead, shorter rehearsals, less contact, fewer performances, and can be streamed to the families. Those efforts have garnered positive comments from parents, thankful their children can still create live theatre together in a safe environment and the children have taken the safety protocols in stride. We are committed to complying with and exceeding required safety guidelines to keep our MCT families safe.

We know the path to recovery will be winding and long. We will be re-routed along the way and will hit some potholes. But MCT is optimistic that the new path is one that will be built along with our community, patience, faith, and trust which has allowed us to create live theatre for the last 50 years...and will allow us to continue creating for the next 50!

Understandably there will be questions to address; we will be reaching out directly to all our stakeholders with this information and more in the coming days and weeks. Updates will be also be posted at www.MCTinc.org, the MCT INK e-newsletter, Facebook and Instagram.

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