Open that calendar and get out those pens! You’re going to want to write this down.

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Youth Theatre, the George Daily Auditorium is looking for performers to cast in its upcoming production of The Hobbit.

We will need to fill the following types of roles:

1. Live performers – These are the traditional performers. You get a script, memorize your lines, and rehearse the part.
2. Action performers – These performers might have a few lines, but their main job is learning stunts, combat, or any other action in the script.
3. Puppeteers – These performers manipulate different-sized puppets for some of the other creatures in Middle Earth (trolls, spiders, dragons, etc.)
4. Live voice performer – Some puppets may be voiced live, but the voice performer won’t necessarily be moving the puppet.
5. Recorded voice performer – We may have some parts of the show pre-recorded and edited for use during the performance.
6. Stagehands and technicians – These parts are going to be what makes the magic happen. We need various dedicated stagehands and technicians to aid our design team in bringing the world of Middle Earth to Life.

You’ve had plenty of time to get that calendar out! Here are the deets…

Auditions are open to all ages on Saturday, March 23, from 2 pm to 5 pm and Monday, March 25, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

You don’t need to be there the whole time, and we’ll create audition slots for available people in 10-20-minute chunks. Just be there some time between 2 pm and 5 pm or 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm, respectfully.

If you can’t make either day, we’ll be accepting individual appointments until the end of Thursday, March 28.

I think the stickiest part of a production is pre-production. At its best, it is the time when we throw all the creative spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

We can ask, “What if goblins carried swords that look like stalagmites?” or “Could our dwarves wear mushroom armor?” or “Have you seen this coral reef made out of yarn? Are there enough fiber artists in town to make a cave made out yarn?”

As fun as this stage is, ultimately we need to stop asking “What if?” and make decisions so we can move into actual production. Once decisions are made, we must figure out how to make these astounding things we’ve been dreaming up. For me, it’s always hard to leave the dreaming stage and move to the making stage.

While we deal with the end of our “What if-ing” process, we have also been thinking about a few other bells and whistles we normally don’t have around for shows.

Case in point: these awesome mugs that we printed locally, thanks to the Makerspace at the Oskaloosa Public Library, and their sublimation printer.

It’s incredible that our community has a resource like the Kim “Gigi” Blackwell Makerspace Lab. It is a great creative place to make fantastic things!

I designed the mug in Adobe Illustrator, and the library printed out the graphic and transferred it to the mugs. The staff at the library were awesome and went through every step of the process with me.

Before you start putting coins in the piggy banks, these mugs are test projects, and we don’t have a plan for Hobbit merchandise for our production. However, you may see more new graphic design elements rising to the top in promotional material.

BUT… we are nearing the end of our creative spaghetti-throwing journey. It’s time to make some decisions and get our heads out of the clouds, so we will start sharing more concrete… pointier things shortly ;). Until then, head over to the Oskaloosa Public Library and make some cool stuff at the Makerspace!

January 9, 2024 – We’re up to our elf ears in snow as the 2024 Missoula Winter Storm does its dastardly deeds to our Jack and the Beanstalk rehearsal schedule.

School and rehearsals are canceled, and while we work to keep families in the loop, we’ve got a few fun pieces of art that Brant Bollman has been working on for The Hobbit.

It’s super-exciting to consider our own designs for these characters. Can you spot the blobfish inspiration in the trolls?

One of the things that sets live performances apart from movies or TV is that when a story is adapted into a play, the expectation is that each production will have an original interpretation of the script. It is super-thrilling to take a swing at bringing these classic characters to life.

We’ve also been talking a lot about how we will need a variety of on-stage presences for this production. We will need puppeteers, voice-over performers (possibly live and pre-recorded), and performers of all ages. It’s also been fun to consider that since this isn’t just for Youth Theatre students, we could have families auditioning to participate as a family unit. What better activity than to get in a sword fight with your siblings, parents, or grandparents?

If you’re trying to figure out your summer vacation plans and how you could possibly fit performing in The Hobbit into an already very busy summer – never fear! We plan to hold auditions in late March and start rehearsals in early May. So theoretically, if you know when you’ll be out of town and can tell us that when you audition, we should be able to accommodate you. However, the closer your vacation gets to the last two weeks of July, the harder that might be. We’ll be well into tech week and dress rehearsals and will need all hands on deck. So this might be the year for a trip in early June? 

Over the next few weeks, look out for more Hobblog entries and some fun new things on this page as we get more designs from the production team (although remember that they are all conceptual work and may not appear the same way for the production).

Finally, suppose you’re searching for some of the music we use to inspire the feel of the play. In that case, you can check out this Spotify playlist collected by our composer and sound designer, Aleksandra Nagorna, “GDA Hobbit Vibes.”

Stay warm and dry! And don’t forget to catch the Missoula Children’s Theatre production of  Jack and the Beanstalk this Saturday (January 13 at 3 and 7 pm).

The design team met for the first time this week! We’re a mix of Auditorium staff, community colleagues, previous Youth Theatre students (now graduated and out in the world), and current William Penn students.

Did you know that to acquire the production rights from the Playwrights Guild of Canada, we had to be considered a professional theatre?

Since we’ve got a full-time staff, all members of the production team are getting paid, and each element of production has its budget line, we were able to qualify and gain rights to the production.

Getting that right mouthfeel…

With the Youth Theatre, we teach that originality should be valued over replication. Wanting to produce The Hobbit comes from a long love and passion for J.R.R Tolkien’s works. That said, we aren’t out to remake anything you’ve seen on screen or stage before. We’ve developed a sacred text to guide us to something that feels like it belongs to Tolkien’s world but will only ever be seen on our stage, with this cast and crew. Everything we’re working on is starting at three main elements:

1. We are not replicating Peter Jackson’s works.
2. We are not beholden to Tolkien purists but do take into account his original inspirations and reference points.
3. We subscribe to Tolkien’s idea of a Faerie Story.

Finally, we developed an intention of mouthfeel. When you take this show in, we want you to feel something tangible.

This will be a Tolkien Faerie story with bioluminescent abyssal thrills.