Balloons to Paris take flight

An audience of 50 people filed into the Malta High School Auditorium on Thursday night to watch the cast and crew from Kids Mat Summer Theatre Camp perform Balloons to Paris in cooperation with the Montana Arts Theatre from Havre.

"The Kids Mat program has been running for 20 years in Havre and this is the first year they have decided to branch out to other communities," said Malta ArtSpot's Kathy Bagley. "In the past weeks they have been in Chinook and Hayes and here in Malta.

A total of seven Malta thespians helped write, produce, create the sets and then perform the play. Emma Ereaux and Makayla Bachmeier portrayed cowgirls, Gunner Cilz was a cowboy, Bella Rich played a cow, Miah Huffman was the rock monster, Waylon Padgett was a Transformer and Danny Smith played a horse.

"We asked (the children) what they liked and what they wanted to do a show about and make a play from," said Cat Hubin from the Montana Arts Theatre. "We took all their ideas, wrote a story and put a script together."

The young actors acted out the show together and learned their lines for three days last week before the final performance on Thursday night in Malta.

"We took games that kids already know and then put a little theater twist on them," said Amanda Bohn from the Montana Arts Theatre. Hubin said that Simon Says was played to teach the children stage directions and a projection game in which the children shouted out their lines.

"So hopefully you will be able to hear their lines today," Bohn said.

Padgett, as a Transfomer, said that his favorite part of the week was the acting aspect during the camp and Rich, as the cow, agreed with her cohorts opinion but told the audience that learning all the lines was the most challenging part of the production.

"Watching them this week has been a joy," Bagley said. "We are very grateful to all the sponsors who helped bring this to our community."