Anytime a drama teacher gets the chance to get out from behind the director’s chair and work as an actor, it only makes her a better director.  As directors we soon forget what it is like to be an actor, and being reminded every so often is very helpful—if nothing else to learn what not to do or say to one’s cast! When our summer high school theatre program ended, I got a chance to work with summer theatre in the tent.  Yes, you heard right, under a circus tent.

We have a wonderful walk by the Clark Fork River and along the shore was a great piece of land that was perfect for pitching a large circus tent and doing summer theatre. The University of Montana and the city made an agreement that the city would rent the tent and the university would provide the platforms, chairs, lighting, and the plays. A bar was commissioned to serve wine, beer, and appetizers. It was a great way to spend an evening; however, there were several drawbacks. One was that the tent was placed right next to our main bridge, so every Saturday night we had additional sounds effects of cars speeding and  backfiring while motor cycles zoomed by at the most inappropriate times. It was also hot, or rainy, or cold—the temp was never quite right—but we loved it!

The troupe of actors was recruited from the U, given a small stipend and credit. Three shows were produced each summer.  I became involved the third summer playing Aunt Eller in Oklahoma.  It was a very hot summer, so the ironic thing was when Curley started to sing, ”Oh what a beautiful morning,” it was sooo hot that no one believed it was morning (and it got a laugh every night), but the corn being as high as an elephant’s eye was extremely believable.

We ended the season with Guys and Dolls. The night we opened, we had just finished the opening number when smoke filled the tent. The audience and actors were herded out the various exits, firemen were called, and it was discovered that the cables used for lighting, housed in a trench, had caught fire.  The stage/lighting/set crew stayed up all night and we opened the following day.  That was just one of many interesting experiences we had under the tent.  

On July 4^th, 1976, a group of very hard working students performed an old fashioned melodrama on a flatbed truck for our Bi-Centennial celebration out at the original Fort Missoula. It was 110 degrees, bugs were running rampant, and the stage was a bit wobbly, but it was a great way to remember our country’s birthday.  And … it was only a part of a perfect summer job.   

Directing a summer theatre program took center stage in the 1970s.  This time the students were from both of our local high schools and our private Catholic high school.  The school offered credit (English, practical and/or fine arts); the class was 4 hours long, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. The vocal music teacher and I teamed up to produce a musical every summer for eleven years.

Every student who signed up was cast, whether they could sing or not.  Many times we would find a "diamond in the rough," someone who needed credit and found out that they could sing/act and loved it. They became a great addition to the music and drama departments citywide. It was wonderful to work with other kids and it fostered a great cross-town audience because the kids then went to one another’s plays and were very supportive. There was a strong rivalry among our various sports teams, so this was a welcome change. 

The students did all the technical work. Often when we were rehearsing one scene, those not involved would be drawing, painting, sewing, or typing. Our bargain with the school district was that if they paid for our salary, the scripts, and the royalty, we would not ask for any other monies — we would make up the cost on the 2 nights' run of the show.  It worked like a charm, and we got a wonderful summer following.

It was also a time to try new and inventive things:                                                               

• Using a rear-screen projection for the basic set.                                                                                                           
• Learning tap dancing to 3 major numbers in No No Nanette, which we later produced as our fall show.
• Involving the band as our “orchestra.”
• Working on costuming a chorus in one basic outfit (see The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide p. 165) and perfecting the schlepitchka texture (p. 224-225).
• Building a set using periaktois for scene changes. A periaktoi is usually a triangular unit with 3 equal sides. Each side can have a different scene painted on it. When using more than one in a row, it can look like a solid wall. When all the units are rotated to the second or third side, it reveals another scene. See our two indoor sets for No No Nannette: set one, set two. That fall, we used the exact same set for The Unsinkable Molly Brown. (One of the most well known shows to currently use Periaktoi is A Chorus Line.)
• Building parallels for levels.  These are folding fames that support a platform top. They are hinged so they will collapse onto their sides.  They lay flat with the top removed, but become stable when they are open and the top is in place.  We used them for at least 5 of our shows, and during the school year they resided in my classroom.

In 1985 we had 3 public schools and the administration felt we should share the wealth, so another school took on the summer program.  That was its last year. I was very sorry to see the program end, but it allowed for a new chapter in my summer adventures, which I'll discuss next time.