Join us on Wednesday, May 15!
Come to the Silent Auction before the show—6 pm in the Missoula Children Theatre Foyer. Refreshments will be served.
Admission is free and donations are much appreciated.
Thank you to The Max and Betty Swanson Foundation!
Synopsis
Kody the Kodiak Bear feels sad as the seasons change and the long nights of winter descend upon his arctic home. Fortunately, he meets Bobbi the Blue Footed Boobie who has been blown off course from the Galapagos Islands. She tells Kody about her home at the equator where the days never get shorter. They decide to take a journey. Rather than go on foot as their friends the caribou suggest, they find a school bus and gather up more friends to come along. When pulled over by the police, they are informed that they cannot drive to an island. But they don’t despair, they are introduced to Sergeant Marge and her large garbage barge. Sadly they get stuck in their bus on the barge in the great garbage patch. But Don Basura, a dealer of detritus, for a small fee offers them a way to escape. With the help of Pat the whale and the pirate crabs they inflate a crashed spy balloon and float up into the clouds. An in-flight meal delivered by Pelican Pizza is served before they arrive at their destination. After many weeks of enjoying sunshine every day and playing on the beach everyday and the sun setting at the same time every day, Kody becomes restless with equatorial equanimity. He glimpses the north star on the far horizon and a longing for his home in the north awakens within him.
Director’s notes
The Sunshine Bear is based on the fascinations and fixations of Dick Swanson who has been part of the group since its founding in 1998. Alayne Dolson and I sat with Dick in June of 2023 and took some notes on the things that he thinks about and the things that make him happy. Sunshine makes him happy. He’s fixated on the length of days, he’s fascinated by minor keys and how they express sadness, his favorite thing to wear is a swimsuit, and his favorite food is pizza. He’s never had - but always wanted - a driver’s license. He’s always dreamed of driving a school bus and he loves policemen. With those anchor points I began to write a show.
It is both rewarding and challenging to write for the specific abilities and limitations of the members of our crew. It must be fun and inclusive for the singers, but we must tell a story that can be understood by the audience. The songs are repetitive both for ease of memorization and to give a few passes at intelligibility. A single voice often introduces the lyric echoed by the choir. Mobility issues limit how much staging we can achieve, and limited rehearsal time means complex dialog is unachievable. For The Sunshine Bear I have chosen to have a narrator advance the story for the audience. We have tried to give everyone who wants it some sort of solo or feature.
We have worked hard to create a safe space where we all check our ego at the door. We celebrate the fundamental why of making art: it feels good and it unites us to express feelings together. We can do things, say things, write things, express ourselves just for the love of it without the notion that critics will be evaluating it. If we do it right, the audience experiences an expression inexplicably greater than the sum of its parts.
