'Native Vision' pairs professional theater with film

The Whitefish Theatre Co. presents a professional theater performance of “Native Vision” by Living Voices at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at the O’Shaughnessy Center.

“Native Vision” is a unique pairing of professional theater with archival film with Montana’s own Blackfeet actress Lily Gladstone. This is a moving, personal story of a young Navajo girl who is taken from her home and placed in a government-run boarding school during the 1930s, as part of a government effort to “civilize” American Indian children into mainstream society.

The performance explores how the girl retains her heritage despite great obstacles.  It is appropriate for ages 10 and older.

Gladstone has been involved in the Montana Repertory Theatre and the Seattle-based company Living Voices. Most recently she played Marlene in “Winter in the Blood,” a film slated for release in 2012, produced by Sherman Alexie.

Popular storyteller and musician Jack Gladstone will open the stage with preshow music at the evening performance.

Gladstone, also Blackfeet, has been performing music concerts and making presentations about American Indian culture nationally and internationally since 1987. His “Native Anthropology” album recently won Gladstone’s first Native American Music Award for Best Historical Recording.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for seniors and $8 for students, with all seats reserved.

Pairing with Whitefish Theatre Co. and Flathead Electric Co-Op, “Native Vision” will also be presented to more than 1,000 local elementary and middle-school students from Olney-Bissell, Kalispell, Kila and Whitefish at the O’Shaughnessy Center on Oct. 27 and 28. Outreach performances for students aim to explore the issues and events of this production through a dynamic, hands-on approach that will help children understand this complex part of our nation’s history.

See www.livingvoices.org for more information.

Whitefish Theatre Co. will also offer opportunities to see community actors of all ages this weekend and next.

The theater group’s first Black Curtain event of the season opens Saturday.

What is Black Curtain theater? Contemporary, edgy and intelligent writing acted out with minimal set, props and costumes with opportunity to have post-performance discussions with the actors and director after.

“Faith Healer,” by celebrated Irish playwright Brian Friel, is about the life of a faith healer, his wife, his Cockney manager and the people they impact on the backroads of Scotland and Wales. The messy, backroad story of these three people unravels amid shifting memories and differing recollections of the same events. Though each of the narrators tells essentially the same tale in four soliloquies, their accounts disagree in ways that linger as a good book can, prodding at readers after its closing page.

The story takes on the complexities of faith, but it is more about the life of a narcissistic artist.

“The faith healer, Frank Hardy, is like the artist wondering if his next painting will be as skilled as his first, or like the writer worried if his next book will be as profound as his last,” says Director Nancy Nei.

An Irishman in self-imposed exile, Frank worries if the next person to be healed will ever come. He is an egocentric, hard-drinking, irresistible man who is so suspicious of his talent and so afraid of losing it that he makes everyone around him suffer.

Frank and Grace, his wife, are played by Columbia Falls couple Don and Libby Torgerson, who have been extensively involved in the Montana Repertory Theatre. Teddy, the manager, is played by Whitefish local Jim Meecham, a regular set-building volunteer and actor at Whitefish Theatre Co.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. There will be a talk-back with the actors and director after the Saturday performance.

Tickets are $8, sold only at the door. The play is suitable for older students and adults.

On Saturday, Oct. 29, the timeless, warm-hearted Peanuts comics are coming to life in Whitefish for local kids this Halloween season.

The Whitefish Theatre Co. Young Actors’ Performance Troupe would like to remind their community of the good-natured humor of Charles Schulz and his Peanuts characters. In “It’s Pumpkin Time, Charlie Brown!” Linus believes that the month of October brings the season of Pumpkin Caroling and Decking the Halls with orange and black.

This is a delightful show for all ages, with opportunities for young children in the audience to sit in the pumpkin patch on stage. The show is sure to be an afternoon of delight and belly laughs for the whole family as the troupe delivers sound advice from Schulz such as, “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.”

The play is directed by April Vogel and features the talent of local youths in grades six through 10, including Katie Blankenship, Brynna Finn, Grayson Gorian, Makkie Haller, Elleanor Taylor and Blaine Thew. Pianist Jessica Wambeke is the accompanist; Spenser Eaton is the technician.

Performances are at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Oct. 29. General seating, with a suggested donation of $5 at the door, will go toward scholarships for Whitefish Theatre Co. Young Actor Education.

For more information about theater classes or any of the shows, visit www.whitefishtheatreco.org or call the box office at the O’Shaughnessy Center at 862-5371 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.