Recently, the Montana Repertory Theatre produced Hip Strip Hijinks, a series of 10-minute plays that took place around Missoula’s Hip Strip—inside Ear Candy Music, Compass Barber Shop, Gild Brewing, Le Petit Outre, and Betty’s Divine. This kind of off-the-stage and into-the-streets theater has become par for the course for the Rep—which is the resident professional theater for the University of Montana—since its director, Michael Legg, took the helm six seasons ago.
“I’m all about site-based theater,” Legg says. “I mean, I’m not against doing a play in a theater. I like plays in theaters! But I think audiences have shifted since the pandemic, and to ask folks to make an appointment to sit in a dark space with each other and hear a story is not as easy as it used to be.”
The benefits of site-based theater were apparent, he notes, for Hip Strip Hijinks. For local businesses who participated, it was a chance to be a part of an artistic event, collaborate in ways they hadn’t before, and it brought new people into their space. For the Rep, it meant introducing new audiences to its productions.
“Our best guess is that at least 65 percent of the people [who came to Hip Strip Hijinks] had never been to a Montana Rep show before.”
The latest Rep production, What the Constitution Means to Me, takes place in the Elks ballroom, inside the three-story Neo-classical brick Elks Lodge downtown. The lodge serves as the home to the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, but it has been the setting for all kinds of performances, from dance to punk shows. Legg chose the Elks ballroom because it’s an apt location for this particular show, which is set inside an American Legion hall. It will only be performed Thursday and Friday nights.
“I went to the Elks Lodge to see a dance concert,” Legg says. “This was even before I knew that this show was available, that we could bring it here. And I stepped into the Elks Lodge for the very first time in the six years that I’ve lived here, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to do a play here.’ There’s something about being in that space and seeing all the names of the Lodge members, and the American flag, and the podiums. There’s something about immersing yourself in this space that does a lot of the storytelling and dramaturgical work for you.”
What the Constitution Means to Me is an autobiographical play by Heidi Schreck, based on her experience when she was 15 years old touring American Legion halls across the country giving speeches on “What the Constitution means to me.” The oratorical contest was established for young people to develop a deeper knowledge of the Constitution and win college scholarships.
“She always had this deep fascination with the Constitution since she was 15,” Legg says. “And then later in life, she started thinking, ‘Well, actually, what does the Constitution mean to me now that I’m an adult? And what does the Constitution mean to me as a woman, and what does the Constitution mean to me in light of four generations of women in my family? And is it a document that actually protects us?’
“You know, as flawed as it is, it’s the document that we have. It’s really important, I think, to understand the history of it and how it affects us as humans. And so the play sort of breathes into that in really funny and interesting and heartfelt ways.”
The play centers on a character—a 15-year-old named Heidi—and is told through the lens of four generations of women. It was first staged in 2019, starring Schreck, but this particular production was staged last year through Idaho Repertory Theatre. It stars Kelly Quinnett, professor and head of acting at the University of Idaho.
“I’ve been thinking about this play and wanting to do a production of it,” Legg says. “Especially this year, it felt really relevant with everything that’s happening in the world.”
The 90-minute play technically features three actors, but it’s mostly a solo show. At the end of the play there is an actual constitutional debate between the main actor and a local high school debate student. For the Missoula show, the Rep put out a call for a high school debate student and ended up casting Izzy Poteet, a junior at Loyola Sacred Heart. Poteet has three years of debate experience, was a Class B state champion as a freshman, and has competed in nationals.
“I texted Kelly and said, ‘OK, I found this young actor and here’s her resume.’ And Kelly just said, ‘Oh shit, she’s going to kick my ass.’”
Legg says Montana Rep has no current plans to return to an indoor stage environment, not when there are so many other places theater can be made. In his view, taking the theater experience and combining it with the kinds of events Missoula audiences are used to—festivals, live music, being out and about on the street—is a way to make sure theater survives and thrives.
“Because it’s not just about bringing audiences back who were already theater patrons,” he says. “It’s like, ‘How do we engage a new audience? How do we engage a younger audience? How do we grow?’ Because if we don’t grow our audience, then eventually our audience is going to go away.’”
Legg’s background is in new play development. Hip Strip Hijinks, for example, was written by five playwrights from around the country who were commissioned to write pieces for those specific Hip Strip business spaces. How Legg describes the impact of new commissioned, site-based plays is something akin to a ripple effect.
“It really lets us engage with playwrights, especially playwrights who weren’t represented on our stages before,” Legg says. “And it allows them to write material that engages actors here that were not engaged before, [which] allows folks in our community to see themselves on our stages and in our plays that hadn’t seen themselves there before. And that’s an important part of our mission.”
What the Constitution Means to Me is different from that part of the mission in some ways. It wasn’t produced specifically for Montana Rep, for instance. But it is fulfilling another part of Legg’s mission for the Rep: civic discourse.
“I’m interested in theater that can be fun, that can draw folks into that event atmosphere,” he says. “But I’m also interested in theater that is an act of civic engagement. And I think those two things are not mutually exclusive. So the nice thing about this show is that there are moments of hilarity but it asks us to actually sit down and take seriously some of the things that are happening in the world.”
What the Constitution Means to Me benefit performance is Thu., May 16, at 7:30 p.m. with VIP tables available as well as $35 general seating. The Fri., May 17, show is at 7:30 p.m. and is general seating and allows you to pick what you pay, between $5 and $50. Find tickets here.
