The next generation of Alpine Theatre Project begins

For the last 20 years, co-founders of the Alpine Theatre Project Betsi Morrison and Luke Walrath have seen through 77 productions and brought countless artists to the valley. Since the launch of educational programming in 2008, the nonprofit has offered inclusive educational theater opportunities to children of all ages. 

Now, in 2024, Morrison and Walrath are passing the torch to the next generation of ATP’s leaders. 

Tracy McDowell will fill Morrison’s role as artistic director and Cynthia Benkelman will take over Luke Walrath’s developmental responsibilities as executive director. 

McDowell has been a performer with ATP since 2010. She has performance experience from across the world, including two Broadway stints. She has worked closely with ATP Kids as an instructor and assistant director to Morrison since moving to Whitefish full-time in 2020.

Benkelman has been a part of ATP as a dedicated parent and involved community member for years, having had three “ATP kids.” 

Benkelman and her family have attended ATP performances since 2005. She recalls the very moment when her son Sam turned to her while watching ATP’s “High School Musical” in the spring of 2009, and said, “I want to do that.” 

Since then, Benkelman has been a part of ATP as a dedicated parent of three actors and an involved community member. 

As executive director, she will manage operations and finances. Benkelman has decades of nonprofit management and fundraising experience and holds an MBA from the University of Colorado.

“I am so passionate about this program because it has done so much for our family and other families in town. From the moment my daughter Katie got to be a teacup in “Beauty in the Beast,” theater has changed our lives,” Benkelman said. 

Through teaching, McDowell has a similar passion for how kids grow as actors. 

“The kids get to belong here. They get to be whoever they want to be in both themselves and in their characters,” McDowell said. 

REFLECTING ON ATP’s foundation, there were first “serendipitous beginnings, which began when we moved here from New York in 2004,” Walrath said. 

“Then, when Whitefish Theatre Company approached us, wanting us to start something for that summer, we took the opportunity.” 

It was a matter of the right place, right time — ATP only became a lasting project overtime when the community embraced them. With reciprocity, “there’s longevity,” Walrath said.

From the beginning, through the transitions, until now, the team emphasized that none of it was planned. 

“The formation of the company was not planned. The evolution was not planned. And this transition into new leadership was not originally planned,” Walrath said. 

When ATP had over 120 kids audition in 2008 for their first ever kids production “The Jungle Book” — every single one was accepted. 

According to Walrath, they still hold auditions because “it’s an important part of the process to learn. If a kid has the guts to get up there and put themselves out there like that, who are you to say that they’re not good enough?”

Inclusivity is a pillar of ATP that Benkelman and McDowell plan to uphold. 

“It gives them such a great sense of responsibility,” McDowell said. 

ATP IS committed to remaining an evolving project. 

“For years, people have suggested that ATP change the ‘project’ part of their name because it sounds temporary. But we are committed to ‘project’ because It goes hand in hand with our fearlessness to take risks and to always want change,” Morrison said. 

According to Walrath, this same fearlessness helped them make the decision to hand over their roles.

“We had to consider what was best for ATP,” Morrison said. 

Walrath said he also asked himself: “Who are you holding on for? For you or for your community?” 

With that, the decision was clear. 

“We want the company to live on without us, but we were too embedded,” Morrison said. 

“We can only see what we know. And that just isn’t what’s best for ATP right now,” Morrison said. 

Walrath refers to the  pandemic as a time when they also had to ask, “What now?”

It was a pivotal time of evolution for ATP. It showed all involved the importance of creativity and persistence.

“We were one rehearsal into “Young Frankenstein” when the world shut down,” Walrath recalled. 

“But we kept going,” Morrison said. “We had shows in the snow, online, you name it.”

The team said the persistence and creativity that they learned during the pandemic will help them transition into a new era. 

They also say they will remain committed to excellent, quality theater. 

McDowell has what Walrath calls “gravity.” She helps draw in other artists from around the world, who each bring their own connections to the valley’s collective arts and culture. 

“We don’t just recreate or compliment art,” McDowell said. “We challenge and collaborate with other artists in the valley.”

This gravity will help ATP be inclusive into the future. 

“We still don’t have a lot of diversity,” McDowell said. 

But when visiting artists of all backgrounds come to ATP, “kids get a chance to work with people that represent their own identities. And many kids have said that it’s been wonderful to learn with somebody who looks like them. That cultural impact is huge,” McDowell said. 

McDowell’s visions, paired with more stability through what the team describes as Benkelman “seatbelts,” will help ATP continue to grow as a true project.