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BOZEMAN – Montana Shakespeare in the Schools enters its 25th season in 2017 with a tour of “Twelfth Night” to regional middle and high schools. Several public performances will also be offered.

MSIS will perform the comedy to nearly 12,000 students in communities throughout Montana and Wyoming as a part of its annual fall tour, which begins Oct. 6.

The 10-week tour is the first of two educational outreach programs offered during the academic year by Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, which is based at Montana State University. The fall tour will conclude in mid-December. Montana Shakes!, a tour designed specifically for elementary school children, will tour from late February to mid-May

To accommodate schools’ scheduling needs, productions are trimmed to 80 minutes. Tailor-made workshops that relate back to the play accompany the production.

Kevin Asselin, executive artistic director of Montana Shakespeare in the Schools, said the goal of the troupe is to bring live, professional performances of Shakespeare’s plays to middle and high schools across Montana and Wyoming, emphasizing rural, underserved areas.

“Shakespeare in the Schools is one of the only programs in the country to reach as extensively into rural areas, bringing Shakespeare the way it was meant to be experienced, in a live performance,” Asselin said.

Chicago-based Marti Lyons will direct the production. Lyons has directed for Actors Theatre of Louisville, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theatre Company and Writers’ Theatre, among others.

“‘Twelfth Night’ is a comedy, but a comedy that bursts forth from a deep sadness,” Lyons said. “In this world, like in our world, love and joy can grow in the midst of sorrow and longing.”

The professional eight-member cast who make up the touring company have been chosen from national auditions. They will rehearse for three weeks in Bozeman before presenting the play to 49 middle and high schools in Montana and Wyoming.

The company will be in Worland Oct. 16, Cody on Oct. 17, Powell on Oct. 18 and Meeteetse on Oct. 19. They will be in Buffalo on Oct. 24 and that will include a special public performance.

Montana Shakespeare in the Schools began in 1993 with two professional actors performing scenes from Shakespeare’s plays with minimal costumes and scenery. It has grown to include an eight-member professional company that offers a full Shakespearean production complete with rich, originally designed costumes and scenery, as well as a talk back session and a full complement of workshops.

Montana Shakespeare in the Schools is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare in American Communities. Additional support comes from the Montana Arts Council: Artists in Schools and Communities and Montana Cultural Trust; the Homer A. and Mildred S. Scott Foundation; the Sidney E. Frank Foundation; the First Interstate Bank Foundation; the First Security Bank Foundation; and the Applied Materials Foundation, along with generous individual donors.

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is an outreach program of The MSU College of Arts and Architecture.

For more information about Shakespeare in the Schools, visit the website at shakespeareintheparks.org or call 406-994-3303.