MATTAWA - About 50 youngsters, maybe more, from Wahluke Schools are learning this week how intense theatrical work can be.

Missoula Children's Theatre will be here all week preparing students for the play "Rapunzel". Performances will be offered this Friday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 13, at 1 p.m.

"If you have not been to one of the MCT's plays, they are amazing," Wahluke Schools Activities Director Cody Marlow said. "They are able to prepare all of these kids in four and a half days to have an amazing performance."

The performances will be held in the Wahluke High School Auditorium. There are only 400 seats. Early arrival may be a wise choice.

The production process began last week. Each of the elementary buildings received a flyer for each student to take home. Teachers were asked to hand them out and talk a little about the production.

The Junior High and High School had flyers in their offices for those students that might be interested.

"I know we have older students who really enjoy performing," Marlow said.

The production really puts pressure on the selected students. They will be at school all week from the starting hour until 7:30 p.m.

Auditions were held Monday at Mattawa Elementary Gym from 3:15-5:30. Those who were chosen stayed for practice directly after the auditions, from 5:30 - 7:30

Practice today is at the MES Gym from 3:15 - 7:30. There will be a 15 minute break in the middle for dinner

Practice tomorrow and Thursday will be the same but at the WHS Auditorium from 3:15-7:30.

There will be a dress rehearsal at the WHS Auditorium from 3:15 - 6:30 on Friday. The performance will start at 7 p.m.

Saturday's dress rehearsal at the WHS Auditorium will go from 11:30 - 12:30. The performance will start at 1 p.m.

MCT Inc. is headquartered in Missoula, Mont. and is home to the Missoula Children's Theatre and Missoula Community Theatre.

For more than 40 years, the Missoula Children's Theatre has opened the hearts and minds of children to the possibility of achievement through creativity and teamwork.

This year alone, more than 65,000 youths will be cast in one of the many MCT International Tour shows. In Missoula, performing arts camps, classes, and performances for children ages K-12 are held several times a year.

"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale in a collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales.

A lonely couple, which wants a child, lives next to a walled garden belonging to a witch. The wife, experiencing the cravings associated with pregnancy, notices a rapunzel plant growing in the garden and longs for it.

One night, her husband breaks into the garden to gather some for her. On a second night, as he scales the wall to return home, an evil witch named Dame Gothel catches him and accuses him of theft.

He begs for mercy, and she agrees to be lenient, on condition that the then-unborn child be given to her at birth. Desperate, he agrees. When the baby is born, Dame Gothel takes her to raise as her own, and names her Rapunzel, after the plant her mother craved.

Rapunzel grows up to be the most beautiful child in the world with long golden hair. When she reaches her twelfth year, Dame Gothel shuts her away in a tower in the middle of the woods, with neither stairs nor a door, and only one room and one window.

When she visits her, she stands beneath the tower and calls out the now famous request:

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair."

Later, the king's son rides through the forest and passes by the tower. He hears a song so enchanting that he stands still and listens.

It's Rapunzel who, in her solitude, passes her time by singing. The prince wants to climb up to her, but he can't find the door. He rides home, but every day he goes back to the forest and listens.

Once when he is standing behind a tree, he sees a witch come the tower, and he hears her cry: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair..."