The Blue Slipper Theatre

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to entertain, educate, and enrich our community through the performing arts.

YOUR COMMUNITY THEATRE

The Blue Slipper Theatre continues its tradition of offering the best in community theatre as it has for over 62 years. The Blue Slipper, located in the heart of Livingston, Montana's historic downtown district, has historically produced three to five full-length productions each season, with a variety of comedic and dramatic theatre, live music performance, community presentations and educational workshops.

A VOLUNTEER EFFORT

The Blue Slipper has been a Livingston landmark for the last six decades. We're an all-volunteer, non-profit organization and we rely on season ticket sales, box office revenue, and donations to cover our production costs and operating expenses. Over the years, hundreds of people have volunteered their time both on stage and behind the scenes.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

The Park County Theatre Guild was organized and founded by Livingston native Don Johns. Under Johns' direction, the Guild presented its first play, "A Mighty Man is He," in March of 1964 at the Livingston Golf & Country Club. In August of 1964, the Guild moved into its first real home at 213 South Main Street. The Guild rented space and remodeled the old Browning Tool Company building into a theatre. In September of 1965, Guild board members chose the name "Blue Slipper Theatre." In 1966, the Guild received its biggest gift when contractor Jay McLaughlin gave the Guild a donation to purchase the Park County News building at 113 East Callender Street. Built in 1901 as the original home of the Livingston Post, the building had always housed either newspapers or printing shops. Work began in January of 1967, turning the old newspaper office into the Blue Slipper Theatre and it has been our home ever since.

ON TO THE FUTURE

After over sixty years of delightful productions in our intimate theatre, we look forward to what the future holds for us. We are dedicated to continue to present high quality, entertaining, and thought-provoking theatre productions to our community. We look forward to laughing, crying, and pondering the complexities of life together with you in that way that is only possible through interaction with living performers on a stage. In addition to the plays that have been our lifeblood through the years, we are excited about the other artistic offerings we have recently been able to host in our wonderful building. These opportunities to share music, poetry, discussions, and workshops focused on acting and other aspects of theatre all help us to fulfill our mission to entertain, educate, and enrich our community. It is our desire and responsibility to put our wonderful, old building to as much use as possible.

YOUR ROLE IN THAT FUTURE

This is where you come in. First and foremost, we thank you for literally coming in. It is only when you come in to form an audience that the magic truly happens. The actors, directors, and other crew members put in hours of work to prepare a show, but the process isn't complete until they have the opportunity to share their stories with you, the audience. Our dream is to fill our fifty-seven seats for every show. Your presence is the most important thing, but, of course, the ticket sales are extremely important also. Those sales, along with the generosity of our season and show sponsors, generally cover the costs of putting on our productions. So, we give our heartfelt thanks to you as ticket buyers and sponsors.

However, we have important work to do beyond putting on the shows. As was mentioned, our building is old and old buildings require tender, loving care! Your gifts to us through Give-a-Hoot will help us to give the building the care it needs. This will include mundane (but vital) things like making sure that the building's foundation, walls, and roof are adequately cared for to keep everyone safe and secure. But, it will also include projects that are much more fun, like giving the lobby, the upstairs gathering space and the bathrooms a much needed makeover while maintaining the charm that makes this place so special to all of us. Finally, since what happens in the theatre itself is the heart of what we are about, we will be continuing the work we have done over the past couple of years to ensure that the viewing experience is the best it can be. We have replaced about a third of our stage lighting with modern lights that are more efficient and versatile. We would like to complete that work in the coming year, while also upgrading the sound system. You can help make all of this possible! Thank you for considering a gift to the Blue Slipper Theatre!