BUTTE — The Orphan Girl Children’s Theatre (OGT) in Butte is getting ready to host its first show before a live, in-person audience after weathering the COVID-19 pandemic for more than 18 months,
“All the artists in this show spent time in workshops, spent time in most of our productions digitally and they have grown 10-fold as actors, because when you’re performing on a screen or in front of a camera, it’s way different than being in-person, so you have to push harder stretch all your actor muscles,” said Orphan Girl Children’s Theatre Artistic Director Jackie Freeman Vetter.
The theater held its last live show in February of 2020 before the pandemic ended live shows. OGT is now doing a play called "Bitterroot" by James Venhaus, which the actors have spent a fast two weeks rehearsing.
“I’ve just been so impressed with how this group of 14 people have been gracious with their time and giving each other space and making sure everyone stays safe during this rehearsal process,” said Vetter.
The theater held several productions online during the pandemic, but the young actors say nothing beats a live performance.
“It’s just always so real, you can mess up at any moment, it’s just really fun and you get live reactions,” said actor Derek Jollie.
Now the actors will be wearing masks, but they’ll be wearing these special masks right here where you can actually see through them and see their lips moving, so you the young actors will be protected, but also the audience can read their facial expressions.
“Being able to see someone’s lips and their smile or how their facial expression is is really super important and since safety was so important for us, finding these masks we a huge thing for us,” said Vetter.
The shows run Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.
