Playmill Theater going strong despite pandemic
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. (KIFI) - Theater is alive and well in West Yellowstone Montana, as crowds flock to see one of three shows at the Playmill.
Actor Zac Greenwell says, "People are just so excited to finally be able to have a night out and you know come and eat popcorn and have root beer floats and stuff and watch people that love what they’re doing.
One of the songs in the production of Newsies has the line, "Now is the time to seize the day."
And the cast of the Playmill theater is doing just that by seizing this opportunity to get on stage despite the pandemic.
Zac is playing his dream role of Jack Kelly in Disney’s Newsies this summer at the Playmill Theater, he says.
"Just being able to have the audience come into theater sit down and forget about what’s happening in the world for little bit and just have fun let all that go and do a show it’s just it’s real the special able to do this right now and so we all feel just so grateful to be able to to give that back to audiences."
The pandemic has forced them to make a few changes but audiences are jumping at the chance to experience live theater again.
"To come here and play that part and have all these people coming to the shows and having live theater open again it’s meant so so much to me to be able to just be able to do it finally," Greenwell said.
Keeping a show up and running during a pandemic has created all kinds of challenges
Playmill Theater owner and director Roger Merrill says, like the newsies nothing can break them
"We Live in such a very close environment they rehearse together, they spend 12 to 14 hrs. a day together and so one of the biggest challenges is been that we keep our people healthy we do have a policy at the end of the show, we don’t mingle with the audience as much as we used to keep germs from either direction and so far we’ve been very lucky."
The crowds of theater goers are just as eager to dive into getting back to doing what they love.
This year the Playmill is running 3 shows, Disney's Newsies, Cinderella and Peter and the Starcatchers.
There are two shows per day Monday through Saturday through Labor Day. You can get more information by going to www.playmill.com.
