Montana’s Ambassadors to the World – The Little Red Trucks of the Missoula Children’s Theater

Merlo is one of 94 tour directors who will travel across the United States and overseas, as far away as U.S. military bases in South Korea and Turkey, this summer on Missoula Children’s Theatre’s http://www.mctinc.org/ international tour. After two weeks of training, pairs of tour directors embark on a three-month journey over mountains, plains and seas to communities filled with children eager to learn the art of stage performance in a single fast-paced week.

"We grew out of rural Montana, so certainly the appeal is to provide performing arts to communities who have had that cut out of their schools or have small performing arts centers," said Jonna Michelson, MCT tour marketing director, adding that some larger cities also pay for the program to come to town.

Between this summer’s 47 teams, tour directors will hold more than 400 residency weeks. Terri Elander, MCT international and public relations director, said 80 percent of the communities MCT visits ask the organization to return the following year.

When they do, children greet the familiar red trucks and enthusiastic tour directors with giant grins. But sometimes the adults are left a little puzzled when they walk into the local laundry.

"The tour directors pull out all these pig heads and flamingo feet," Elander said. "Everybody is like, ‘What is that?’ "

by AMY SISK Photographed by MICHAEL GALLACHER of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/lifestyles/territory/directors-earn-role-to-represent-mct-around-u-s-world/article_10a00272-ac2d-11e1-b5a1-001a4bcf887a.html