Missoula Children’s Theatre brings children’s theater to millions – Thank you Don Collins

Every year a fleet of red trucks leaves Missoula packed with costumes, props, lights, sound kits and makeup to bring live theater to children in 50 states and 17 countries.

"Missoula has become an all-functioning grammatical form. We become Missoula. For instance, children will refer to their performance experience as ‘doing Missoula’ or people will say ‘Missoula is coming to town.’ A lot of kids don’t even realize Missoula is a place." MCT Co-founder Don Collins

The Missoula Children’s Theatre http://www.mctinc.org/ , founded in 1970, has reached an estimated 65,000 kids a year for the past 10 years. Don Collins, the Missoula born-and-bred co-founder of MCT, said that his organization has engaged more than a million children with the arts. MCT is the largest touring children’s theater in the world and its effect is much larger than the town it comes from.

Collins, a University of Montana grad with a degree in musical education, along with co-founder Jim Caron, had the idea to form a children’s theater in 1970 when they both auditioned for "Man of La Mancha." Caron was traveling through Montana from Chicago on his way to a wedding. His van broke down outside of Missoula, so he decided to stop over and saw signs for the casting of "La Mancha." Caron got the part of Sancho and Collins played Don Quixote. A lifelong friendship and partnership was formed.

Don Collins retired on Thursday from his role at MCT and plans to return to Seattle to pursue more performance opportunities. He’s a local boy that made good, but the depth of his success is hard to quantify.

"When we use theater it awakens our imagination, which allows us to dream," Collins said. "Using theater we begin to talk about our dreams, and when we talk about our dreams we can begin to implement them."

by Riley Pavelich

Full Story: http://www.montanakaimin.com/arts_and_culture/article_1d206038-983a-11e2-9dac-0019bb30f31a.html