SANDPOINT — A little bit of London’s old Globe Theater will rub off on the fairgrounds this evening, as Montana Shakespeare in the Parks takes to the boards for a performance of the classic thriller, “Othello.”

And if the word thriller seems less than apropos, consider that the plot line builds — one jealousy fueled fantasy at a time — until tragedy occurs. You can push back against it, try to wish it away, but Shakespeare’s intoxicating prose acts as an immutable force that drags things forward and guarantees the inevitable.

It has always been Shakespeare’s genius that his words peer into the corners of humankind’s collective soul to winnow out and woo the romantic, dance blithely with the humorous and stare its darkness square in the eye.

For the fourth year in a row, a traveling troupe of actors will make Sandpoint a stop on its summer tour season to bring the Bard to life. Because young audience members might be new to this language, the actors also do outreach work with students starting as young as elementary school and going through high school to open the curtains to this Shakespearean world.

In the words of Kevin Asselin, executive artistic director for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, one primary goal is to “keep Shakespeare from becoming a museum piece.”

“You have to find ways to key a young person’s ear to Shakespeare to make it fun, interesting, interactive — even shocking — in order to bring those young ears to the stage,” he said.

Though fairly new on the roster of cities visited during the summer tour, Sandpoint now holds the distinction of drawing the largest audience each year. At least some of the credit goes to the volunteer effort that, in past years, has transformed the fairgrounds into something resembling an Elizabethan-era faire.

“The community involvement in Sandpoint is exciting,” Asselin said. “It becomes a festival experience for a day.”

Today’s entertainment will include dance performances, starting at 4:30 p.m. and running through the afternoon, by the Gypsy Divas Dance Troupe, as well as a pre-play concert by students from the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint.

Now in its 46th year of touring Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota and Washington, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks has never mounted “Othello” until this year. It is one of two shows the troupe has taken on the road, the second being the comedy, “Love’s Labours Lost.”

“Ideally, we’re trying to bounce them back and forth in repertory,” said Asselin. “And at this point in the tour, the actors are a well-oiled machine.”

In addition to acting, that goes for all the work that takes place before and after every play, he explained. Based out of Montana State University, the group holds national auditions before casting its summer participants and bringing them to Bozeman for pre-tour training in everything from stagecraft to a taste of the touring life.

“It’s a building process,” the executive artistic director said. “And it includes learning how to drive a 1-ton ‘dualie’ and haul a 24-foot trailer.”

The 10 actors in this summer’s cast are a one-stop shop for this rolling company of thespians, proving as athletic as they are aesthetic on a tour that includes 76 shows in 61 communities across five states.

“They build the stage, have lunch, do the show, tear it down, have dinner, get some sleep and, typically, drive to another town the next morning,” said Asselin.

That’s what the schedule looked like rolling into Sandpoint, with the actors having performed “Love’s Labours Lost” in Trout Creek on Friday, the same play in Liberty Lake on Saturday and switching over to “Othello” at the Bonner County Fairgrounds today.

By design, the tour is meant to take in a string of small communities along the way. According to Asselin, the smallest is tiny Birney, Mont., population 16.

“We bring the stage up to the top of a butte to perform and, somehow, a couple hundred people show up,” he said.

The actors, who are paid union scale for their work, are as interested in how the tour punches up their résumé as they are the paycheck.

“When an actor comes into an audition and they have Montana Shakespeare in the Parks on their résumé, the casting director knows they’ll bring something to the production,” Asselin said.

When yearly auditions take place in Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston and a handful of universities across the U.S., the artistic director is hunting for more than a background in Shakespearean acting.

“Most of these actors have chosen theater as a career,” he said. “What I’m looking for is not just an understanding of the classics, but of theater at large.”

Armed with acting ability and the technical skills needed to build a stage and run a show day after day, the troupe still needs one important ingredient to succeed.

“The only way we can do this is with the help of our community partners and volunteers,” said Asselin, listing local host Lost Horse Press and the team it puts together to handle the venue, marketing, meals and lodging as the catalyst for the Sandpoint show. “That’s the only way we can work out the logistics.”

But even with the best help, the road is hard, the season is hot and the Shakespearean costumes can be heavy. By the time the actors complete the tour on Sept. 5, their stage clothing can get pretty ripe.

“Yeah, some of the costumes come back at the end of the summer and they’re no longer usable,” the artistic director said. “Or they can walk on their own.”

The gates at the Bonner County Fairgrounds will open at 3 p.m., followed soon after by entertainment from the Gypsy Divas dancers and students from the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint. The performance of “Othello” will start at 6 p.m. People are encouraged to arrive early with chairs, blankets, and picnics.

The performance is free and open to the public, thanks in large part to a generous grant from the Bonner County Fund for Arts Enhancement in the Idaho Community Foundation.

As a bonus, a PBS film crew will shadow the acting troupe in Sandpoint as part of a feature on Montana Shakespeare in the Parks to be aired on national public television later this year.