Rob from the rich. Give to the poor. Rehearse for less than a week.
That’s how you do “Robin Hood,” Missoula-style.
Sherwood Forest’s most famous outlaw takes center stage this week for the Missoula Children’s Theatre, a traveling production team based out of Missoula, Mont. The troupe casts local children at each stop, rehearses them for five days and then performs.
It’s a high-energy, high-intensity process that doesn’t allow for a lot of downtime. Rehearsals can and do run to four hours a night for the older kids, often with lots of movement and changes of pace to keep things from getting stale. But for all the work, it never fails to draw a cast. This year, 58 kids from the Emporia area are part of the “Robin Hood” company.
“We got a notice about it from the (Emporia) Arts Council in the mail,” said Toni Riggs, whose 8-year-old son Skylar plays a forester. “My son remembered it and kept counting down the days to try out. ‘Five days, Mom! Four days!’”
“When they announced the cast, he didn’t hear his name at first, so he was real disappointed,” she added. “But then I told him ‘You’re in! You got a part!’”
The show follows the familiar story in an unfamiliar way. Robin Hood (Christina Wilson) still robs from the rich and gives to the poor, still loves Maid Marian (Kayla Smith) and still is on the run from Prince John (Tagan Trahoon) and the Sheriff of Nottingham (Oasis Hernandez). But this is no Errol Flynn-type hero. This Robin has a gift for making poor decisions because he doesn’t take the time to think first.
“It focuses a bit more on comedic timing and depth of character than some of the other shows,” said co-director Erika Anderson. “This one doesn’t necessarily have as much music, but it gives the older kids a chance to come through a little more.”
Anderson grew up in Missoula, Mont. and in Missoula Children’s Theatre. She started performing with the troupe at the age of 5 and never looked back. At age 9, she was the first girl to play Gretel in the company’s “Hansel and Gretel.”
“That was a big deal,” she said with a broad smile. “It still is!”
Going on to direct was a natural move. And having seen the process from both sides, Anderson knows the key: keep things moving.
“If you slow down, you lose,” she said.
It really does come down to the kids, Anderson said, who tend to learn a lot about responsibility and effort in the process.
“They know nobody’s coming to see us,” she said, indicating herself and co-director J.P. Dooley of Massachusetts. “They’re coming to see them. And they know that if they work hard, they can succeed. That can become ‘If I work hard, maybe I can pass that math test. If I work hard, maybe I can make the basketball team.”
Some of it’s already hitting home.
“It’s really cool how we learn so fast,” said 11-year-old Char Fleming, part of the comically inept castle guard. “I never expected that.”
Was it hard?
“Not at all.”
The show opens Friday at Lowther South Intermediate School. The auditorium there is nicer than many spaces they’ve performed at, Dooley said, but it has its own challenges. With a wide but shallow stage, movements had to be carefully orchestrated to stay away from the stage’s edge.
Still, that’s par for the course.
“This was made for anyone and everyone,” Dooley said. “If they say, ‘All we have is a big classroom you can use,’ we can do it.”
The show runs at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at Lowther South. Tickets are $7.50 for adults and $1 for students.