Distinctly Montana Magazine

78 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 3 L ET'S BE HONEST, THE FIRST THING PEOPLE THINK ABOUT WHEN THEY THINK OF MONTANA ISN'T GREAT THEATRE. More likely it's our mountains and rivers, Gla- cier or Yellowstone National Park, our copious fish, bison, and bears, our elk, and of course all that famous sky—but theatre? East of the Rocky Mountains, 40 miles below Canada and 100 miles out on the prairie, Havre, Montana, (pop 10,000) might just be changing all that. One of the best community theatre companies in the country—no joke—Montana Actors' Theatre was founded in 1992, incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2001, and is putting the Hill County seat on the map for more than its Am- track stop and university. Housed in the Montana State University northern campus's theater, MAT is without doubt the artistic and cultural engine of the region, providing much-needed quality live entertainment to the agriculturally-based community. The stats alone are astounding. Since its inception, MAT has put on a whopping 231 shows totaling over 1,407 individual per- formances while annually casting over 100 community members and racking up what might well be 100,000 volunteer hours. MAT has gone on the road to dozens of rural communities across Montana, like faraway metropolis Shelby and Lewistown, and believe it or not, London, England—truth. Three times, Ed Asner of Mary Tyler Moore fame acted with the group, including his last-ever stage appearance before passing away in 2021. Last year, MAT's production of Macbeth, performed outside in Bea- ver Creek Park, saw well over 1,300 people in attendance. Mar- ty Roche, who came across the divide from Alberton, said the opening battle scene with half a dozen horses charging up the creek, riders wielding battle axes, multiple simultaneous sword fights going on surrounding the audience, was, in his words, "the most thrilling theatre I've ever seen. The hair on the back of my neck was standing up." • • • Jay Pyette is founder and executive director of MAT. Pyette grew up in Chinook, the next town east of Havre (pop. 900) and earned his master's in theatre arts with a concentration in Shakespeare at the University of Oregon in Eugene. With MAT, he's played 45 different roles, directed over 70 more, yet most easily defines himself as a playwright. Last year MAT performed his play The Harvest, a contemporary drama about a Montana ranch family, and this year Pyette is writing the annual traveling dinner-theatre show. Soft-spoken with a self-deprecating sense of humor, Pyette is rightfully proud of what MAT means for the windblown communities straddling the Hi-Line. "We help pro- vide a better life in Havre," he says. "We enrich the quality of life by providing something that wasn't here before." Grant Olson is the artistic director for MAT and agrees. Like Pyette, Olson grew up in the area, in this case just 30 minutes to

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