Local actor comes home to screen feature film

A major studio film is getting its Montana premiere in Whitefish and Bigfork thanks to one of its stars, Casey Brown, a former Flathead student.

Brown has arranged for the Montana premiere screenings of “Copperhead,” a Civil War-era historical drama to benefit the Alpine Kids! Theatre Project and the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre, two programs he credits with inspiring him to become a professional actor.

“What arts education teaches children that they don’t get in regular curricula is the link between the imagined and the possible,” Brown said in a news release. “Growing up with two of the nation’s best children’s theaters in my backyard taught me that I could do anything I wanted with my life.”

Brown was raised in Bigfork and attended Flathead High School. He became involved in the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre program in junior high school, appearing in several productions. In high school, he became involved in the Alpine Kids! program and eventually became a summer intern in Alpine Theatre Project’s professional season, assisting Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis in 2008.

“Casey’s story is a testament to the power of arts education,” Alpine Theatre’s artistic director, Betsi Morrison, said in a news release. “He’s an amazing actor and an even more amazing person. These premiere screenings are a beautiful gesture. We’re very honored.”

Brown arranged to have these screenings held in the Flathead not only to help raise awareness and funds for the two educational programs, but to show local theater students that acting careers can happen if people are willing to work for them.

“I was in these programs just five years ago,” he said. “It’s all possible.”

“Copperhead” tells the story of the Civil War at home — of a family ripped apart by war, of fathers set against sons and daughters, of a community driven to an appalling act of vengeance against a man who insists on exercising his right to free speech during wartime.

A story of the violent passions and burning feuds that set ablaze the home front during the Civil War, “Copperhead” is also a timeless and deeply moving examination of the price of dissent, the place of the individual amidst the hysteria of wartime, and the terrible price of war — a cost measured not in dollars but in fractured families, broken loves and men dead before their time. It is directed by Ron Maxwell, director of the films “Gettysburg” and “Gods and Generals.”

Brown stars in the film alongside Peter Fonda and Billy Campbell.

“Copperhead” will be screened Friday at Mountain View Cinema in Whitefish and Monday at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts. Both shows start at 7 p.m.

Friday’s show benefits Alpine Kids! Theatre Project. Monday’s screening will benefit Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theater.

“Copperhead” will also be screened for a week at Mountain View Cinema.

Tickets are $20 and may be purchased in advance or at the door. In Bigfork, purchase tickets in advance at Electric Avenue Gifts, The Jug Tree or Merry Gems.

Call Alpine Theatre Project at 862-7469 or Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre at 837-4886 for more information or to buy tickets.