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Stacker compiled a list of the best four-year colleges in Montana using rankings from Niche. Tuition, student-to-faculty ratio, acceptance rate, and graduation rate are among the factors considered in deciding these rankings.
The following is a list of 2025 Montana Playwright Network Winter Classes offered at the Helena Avenue Theatre, 1319 Helena Ave.
To register, go to https://go.helenair.com/by74ea or call 406-235-0353.
The Actor In Character with Bruce Hall
Jan. 21 to March 4: 6-8:30 p.m.
Helena Avenue Theatre
Acting is fun, and it’s also serious business. Through monologues, scene work and emotion-driven improv, this class explores how to personalize and commit to character as a way of becoming a more honest actor. (course fee: $150).
Hall is a theater director and educator with an MFA in acting from Yale University, a BA in drama from the University of Montana, and an MA in psychology from Antioch. He has taught drama and music in Seattle schools for 20 years and has produced works as a director, writer and composer for regional theaters and Broadway.
Improv Foundations with LeAnn Books
Jan. 27 to March 17: 6:30-8:30 p.m. (no class: 2/17)
Learn fundamentals of improv in a fun, energetic, low-stakes environment! No improv background or experience required. This course will help improve listening and communication skills as we dive into uncertainty and uncover the humor. (course fee: $150)
Next Level Improv with LeAnn Books
March 31 to April 21: 6-8:30 p.m.
(Prerequisite Improv Foundations or prior experience required.) Build on skills learned in Improv Foundations and explore long-form improvisation techniques in preparation for public improv and comedy performance. Students are eligible for participation in the new Comedy Club appearing this spring at the HAT. (course fee: $135)
Books believes that laughing together is powerful medicine, and that improv is a compelling personal growth experience.
Playwriting Basics with Pamela Jamruszka Mencher
Jan. 27 to March 17: 6:30-8:30 p.m. (no class: 2/17)
Write compelling short plays and scripts. Classes explore techniques for writing plays and screenplays, as well as staging and production mechanics for live theatre and film. (course fee: $150)
As a playwright, actor, director, producer, designer and college professor, Jamruszka Mencher has received honors and awards in her playwriting, teaching and professional theater careers. She now serves as the Montana Playwrights Network president and executive director of the Helena Avenue Theatre.
Montana State University has launched a fundraising campaign to offset costs for the Spirit of the West Marching Band to accompany the Bobcats as they play for the FCS national football championship between MSU and North Dakota State in Frisco, Texas, on Jan. 6.
Montana State’s Spirit of the West Marching Band waits for half to take the field on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, at Bobcat Stadium.
To guarantee the timely arrival of the student band members, their equipment and their instruments, a chartered flight is needed, as well as lodging, meals and ground transportation. In total, the band’s travel costs to get to and from Frisco are expected to total about $300,000.
The marching band forms an M on the football field during a pregame performance.
For more on how to support the Spirit of the West band or to make a donation for travel costs, visit https://www.montana.edu/sotw/.
The Montana Historical Society welcomes the public to its lecture series with presentations on powerhouse 20th-century politician Burton K. Wheeler and the archaeology of the first people to inhabit what is now Montana.
On Jan. 8, at 1 p.m. at Touchmark, University of Montana Mansfield Fellow Marc Johnson will discuss his new book, “Political Hell-Raiser: The Life and Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana.”
A New Deal Democrat and lifelong opponent of concentrated power, Wheeler was one of the most powerful politicians Montana ever produced. He came of political age amid antiwar and labor unrest in Butte, during World War I, battling Montana’s powerful economic interests and championing farmers and miners as a crusading U.S. attorney. Wheeler became one of the most influential, and controversial, members of the U.S. Senate during three of the most eventful decades in American history.
On Jan. 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Library, Douglas H. MacDonald, professor of archaeology at the University of Montana, will delve into the history of Montana in his book talk on “Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples.”
While researchers have learned a great deal about the origins of the first people to call this region home, questions remain about which route or routes they took and when they made this journey.
Thursday lectures held at the Lewis and Clark Library will be recorded and posted on the MTHS YouTube channel.
Free tours of the Original Governor’s Mansion are offered every Saturday at noon, 1, 2, and 3 p.m.
For more information about MTHS’s community events, visit https://mths.mt.gov/ or email laura.marsh@mt.gov.
Tickets are on sale for two evenings of entertainment at the Last Chance Stampede and Fair in Helena.
Rodney Atkins and Ian Munsick will co-headline the night show on July 23, and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham takes the stage on July 24.
Atkins, an ACM Award-winning artist, has one of the most recognized voices in country music with six No. 1 radio singles and over 4 billion global streams.
He shares the night of entertainment with Munsick, whose music speaks to the cowboy way of life, ranching, roping, riding and rodeoing.
For the second night, Dunham, a ventriloquist, stand-up comedian and actor, brings his multiple personality disorders to the Stampede. Called “America’s Favorite Comedian” by Slate magazine, Dunham’s characters are politically incorrect and ill-tempered and bring laughs to adult crowds around the nation.
Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his puppet character Walter.
General admission tickets for the night show on July 23 are $55-$75. For the Jeff Dunham show, tickets range in price from $40-$70. No refunds or exchanges will be made.
Tickets are on sale at LCCFairgrounds.com. They can also be purchased at the fairgrounds box office during office hours.
For more information, visit the website at LCCFairgrounds.com or call 406-457-8516.
Registration is underway for Adult Continuing Education Classes in the spring at the Bray.
The Bray Gallery
The Bray offers adult (16-plus) continuing education classes for all abilities and backgrounds.
Continuing Education Classes are now 10 weeks long and meet for three hours once a week. Students, taught by professional artists, have access to open studio time seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (outside of other scheduled classes) to practice what they’re learning.
Classes include:
Read about each class and register at https://archiebray.org/education/adult-continuing-education/
Submissions to the Around the Town calendar should be emailed to irarts@helenair.com and should be 200 words or fewer. Submissions should be written in story form, no flyers please. Please write “Around the Town” in the subject line. Call Phil Drake at 406-447-4086 if you have questions.
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Stacker compiled a list of the best four-year colleges in Montana using rankings from Niche. Tuition, student-to-faculty ratio, acceptance rat…
Montana State’s Spirit of the West Marching Band waits for half to take the field on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, at Bobcat Stadium.
Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his puppet character Walter.
The marching band forms an M on the football field during a pregame performance.
Helena Avenue Theatre
The Bray Gallery
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