PROJECT KNOWLEDGE- Day 56

Day 56: Missoula Children's Theatre and on the road to Seattle

Today we had an inspiring visit with Jim Caron, the CEO and founder of Missoula Children's Theatre (MCT) at his beautiful theatre in Missoula, Montana. Jim has an amazing story about how his theatre began… he was traveling from Chicago to Oregon for a wedding when his car broke down just short of Missoula. While he was getting his car fixed by a local mechanic he happened to see an audition posting for a local production of "Man of La Mancha", so while waiting for his car he auditioned. He ended up getting cast as Sancho in the production, becoming close friends with Don Collins who was playing Don Quixote, and when the show closed the two of them decided to start a theatre of their own in town (you can read about it here on their website).

What started as a children’s theatre company, evolved into a company that goes to towns and casts local kids in their show, rehearses for a week, and then puts on a performance for the local community. It took them a while to grow in size (after doing 1 town the first year, and 3 the second, they gradually began to build), but since they have a staggering rate of retention (98% of their towns ask them back), this year they are performing in over 1,500 towns in the US and around the world (which will be putting over 70,000 kids on stage!). One of the most amazing things about MCT is that they are able to derive 90% of their yearly operating budget from their initiatives, so that only around 10% of their budget comes from donations, foundations, and grants (which is an astonishing accomplishment in the non-profit theatre world).

Along with their children's shows MTC also hosts 3 summer camps (for 3 different age groups), produces community theatre productions every year, and in the last couple years they launched Next Step Prep which is a summer training school for high school musical theatre actors. Last year was the first year for Next Step and they managed to bring some respectable musical theatre names in to teach classes and workshops (including Jason Robert Brown, Alan Campbell, & Alex Gemignani). It will be fun to follow how their programs continue to grow and succeed.

It just so happens that today was Jim's birthday! We had a fantastic conversation with Jim about the challenges and experiences he's had in his years with MCT, we met a bunch of the staff, and he gave us a tour of their beautiful theatre and office spaces. He also gave us some great advice as we start building the infrastructure of our company and he was very excited to throw out quite a number of potential cities for us! He's excited to see where we will end up... and so are we!!!!

After grabbing a bite to eat, we hopped back in the RVs and got on the road out of Montana, through Idaho, and into Washington to get close for our meeting tomorrow with ACT in Seattle.