First Reads with Montana Repertory Theatre

Missoula Public Library is proud to host the Montana Repertory Theatre for First Reads, a staged reading series featuring local actors reading three contemporary plays the Rep is considering for full productions. Staged readings test stories in the community before sets, costumes, or other theatrical elements are added, allowing the audience and the actors to envision a future production. If you’re a theatre lover, if you want to be the first to hear the plays the Rep is considering, or even if you just enjoy audiobooks or radio plays, you don’t want to miss Montana Repertory Theatre’s First Reads!

Clarkston, by Samuel D. Hunter

Saturday, March 29, 2 PM, Cooper Room

Jake meets Chris when they are assigned to the same night shift at Costco in Clarkston, Washington. Chris has a hard life, and living in Clarkston has forced him down a dead-end road. Jake went to a liberal arts school, but fled his Connecticut town when he was diagnosed with a fatal illness. He and Chris form an awkward bond: both are gay, but have led completely different lives. Can they learn to help each other?

Cry It Out, by Molly Smith Metzler

Saturday, April 12, 2 PM, Cooper Room

Four months ago, Jessie was a corporate lawyer with a glamorous Manhattan life. Today, she is in dirty yoga pants, covered in breast milk, trying to comfort a screaming newborn. So when she spies a fellow new mom and neighbor, Lina, at the local Stop & Shop, she vaults over the cantaloupe to introduce herself. The two moms agree to meet for coffee during naptime in the sweet spot behind their adjoining yards where both their baby monitors get reception, and a fast friendship is born.

A comedy with dark edges, Cry It Out takes an honest look at the absurdities of being home with a baby, the power of female friendship, the dilemma of going back to work, and the effect class has on parenthood in America.

Eelpout, by Paul W. Kruse

Saturday, May 3, 2 PM, Cooper Room

Eelpout is a fast-paced, surreal farce, where friends are lovers, fish can talk, and life’s mysteries beckon from the bottom of a frozen lake. Sven Svensen and Ole Olsen have been best buds since kindergarten, but all that changes on the morning of Ole’s ice-fishing bachelor party. Could they be something more than friends, or is Sven destined for something even more wild and strange. This fantasia on Midwestern masculinity invites us to consider the limits of Queerness. Naturally, this includes a dream ballet Eelpout Orgy!