With bright smiles and bold actions, the Missoula Children’s Theatre worked with Manhattan High’s special education department to present an acting workshop for students. Last Thursday, the travelling group presented “Acting in Oz,” a program that leads participants through a series of activities highlighting focus, emotions and courage.

“My favorite thing about [Acting in Oz] is that we don’t just teach them these skills, we teach them that they already had these skills,” tour actor and director Lindsay Riddle said. “Once you have the confidence to use your skills like focus and expressing your emotions and having courage, it makes everything in your life easier.”

“Acting in Oz” is a program made possible by a grant to MCT from the Kennedy Center’s VSA Performing Arts program in an effort to provide workshops to children of all abilities. This includes a focus on not only performing, but also building skills that will be vitally important in their adult lives.

“The fact that they are the show, the kids are the show, is so cool and I think it’s awesome that we get to help develop life skills in children through participation in the performing arts,” tour actor and director Carlysle Garland said. “That’s our mission, and we go for it every week because we do believe that the arts are very, very important.”

In addition to “Acting in Oz,” MCT also put on a production of “The Little Mermaid” at the Manhattan Arts Center. Working with children from across the community, they had a week to prepare before opening night. Within that week, participants are encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones in order to put on the best show possible.

“Each student has their own journey, whether they started out shy or nervous, or really excited and goes to even more super excited,” MCT tour actor and director Sadie Lockhart said. “It’s really amazing to watch that transformation and the transformation within myself as I watch them do it and learn from them as well.”

While MCT benefits many people in the community, it also aids employees as they have the opportunity to express themselves in new ways through their work.

“I wasn’t interested in theatre,” Garland said. “I was actually in a really bad place in my life, and Missoula Children’s Theatre gave me an outlet to explore different ways of being. It helps you create. You get to create somebody that you’ve never been, that you’ve never seen, and it’s okay.”

MCT actors and directors maintain that the support of others is what makes their program so successful.

“We’re really grateful the town is doing this for their young people,” Riddle said. “We couldn’t do this without them.”

Whether they are presenting a workshop to a handful of kids or directing a 60-person cast, the MCT tour actors and directors retain their sense of enthusiasm for their work and look forward to every performance they get to help children put on.

“This job is one of the best jobs in probably the world,” Garland said. “I use the word unique because it is. It’s unlike any other children’s theatre I’ve ever heard of.”