MSIP: King Lear in Trafton Park

On Wednesday, June 29, the curtain went up for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MSIP) version of King Lear.

Before the show started, tour manager and actor Riley O'Toole, who has returned for his eighth tour with MSIP, greeted the crowd and thanked them for coming out to see the show and help MSIP celebrate its 50th year on tour. He thanked all of the sponsors and businesses that help make the tour possible and then thanked everyone in the crowd.

"It is because of people like all of you that this tour works," O'Toole said. "It is the people of Montana that make this tour possible."

O'Toole then introduced Mayor John Demarais who presented a plaque to Malta's local coordinator Anna LaBrie.

"On behalf of the City of Malta, we would like to thank Anna LaBrie and her Shrew Crew for all of their hard work year in and year out, to make this possible for our community," Demarais said. "It is a wonderful thing to be able to see something like this in our town every year."

A decent-sized crowd, sitting on lawn chairs and blankets, enjoyed a wonderful performance of one of William Shakespeare's great tragedies. King Lear is the story of broken families, broken minds, a broken country, and a broken future. Spoiler alert! Just about everyone dies in the end!

Those in attendance enjoyed the new spot for MSIP in Trafton Park this year. There was plenty of shade and a nice, sometimes strong breeze. Vince Mace had the Crossroads food truck there offering burgers and hot dogs along with their drinks.

"It was a great evening with the new location, the weather, and as always, the actors were great," said LaBrie. "I loved that Vince had his food truck there. We feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to bring the arts to our wonderful community. The MSIP crew makes Shakespeare accessible to all crowds and we would love to see more community members join us in the future. We want to thank our local businesses because, without them, this performance would not have been made possible."

The MSIP crew is just getting started on their tour this year. After eight shows over two weeks in Bozeman, the crew played in Hobson and Lewistown before getting to Malta. Overall, they will play 78 shows over 84 days, in five states.