10 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2016
Local
Youth theater begins
BY SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
Oregon Heritage of Or-
egon Parks and Recreation
Department is offering
grants for the construction
or restoration of veterans
and war memorials.
Kuri Gill, coordinator for
the program, said, "Local
governments may apply to
build or repair monuments
on public land."
New monuments should
recognize veterans and
wars not already recog-
nized. Grants for restora-
tion could be used for bro-
Samantha@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Eastern Oregon Regional
Theater has started a youth
theater to welcome a new
generation of actors into
the theater.
Scot Violette, the Artistic
Director, explained that he
was contacted by Cross-
roads Carnegie Art Center
last summer.
“They do Missoula Chil-
dren’s Theater three times
a year and they said there’s
a lot of kids that are getting
older or a little less enthu-
siastic about it and they
wanted another avenue for
them,” explained Violette.
“So, we thought about that
and what we decided to do
is to start a youth theater
program here at Eastern
Oregon Regional Theater.
And most of the kids we
have are referred to us
from Crossroads as they
send an email out to all the
kids who were in Missoula
saying that we have this
opportunity here at Eastern
if they want to continue
their theatrical work. Mis-
soula is just one week a
year and here we are doing
it year round.”
The fi rst production with
the youth theater was in
the summer, “The Time
Machine” by H.G. Wells
and their recent production
they had this month “The
Bestest Christmas Present
Ever” was performed by
the youth theater members.
Leanne Hinkle, an EORT
board member and director
explained that her goal
with the youth theater is
to help them learn acting,
lights, and sound.
“I ran a youth theater
in Brooking, Oregon. I
not only had youth acting
classes, I had a youth
theater, so we had an adult
theater and a youth theater
but they were two differ-
ent theaters,” explained
Hinkle. “And so now most
of the adults go to the other
one and the youth the-
ater does youth and adult
shows, family shows. And
After the Bazaar on
Saturday evening starting
at 6 p.m, while families
gathered on the sidewalk
in their warm coats and
hats, was the Christmas
Light Parade, whose theme
ken monuments, missing
elements of monuments, or
the related design elements
of monuments for veter-
ans or earlier wars such
as World War I. Grants
may also fund additions to
existing monuments.
Details and the appli-
cation information are
available at www.oregon-
heritage.org.The applica-
tion deadline is February
17, 2017.
For more, contact Kuri
Gill at (503) 986-0685.
Wonderful Food and Good Spirits
7 a - 9 p Daily
Samantha O’Conner / The Baker County Press
Students get into costume for the new youth theater.
they started out young but
we had them doing cos-
tuming, backstage work,
props, lights, and sound
and also assistant direct-
ing and sometimes we had
them as a director. But
that’s the only way you can
make a theater grow in the
future, is to involve our
youth, so that was the goal
of EORT, is to start getting
our youth involved with
the theater.”
Among the youth theater
members, Isabella Evans
will be learning how to run
lights and sounds for the
play productions and to
direct performances from
Hinkle.
“That was more or less
because, she said the odd
couple play that is coming
up, and she decided I was
just a little too short for the
one that she said I would
be good for,” explained
Evans. “And then she calls
and she says ‘Well, you
can do assistant directing
and lights with me’ and I
fi gured that would be fun
to do.”
Evans started working
with EORT after working
with Missoula and plans
to continue working with
the theater. Evans isn’t the
only one who joined EORT
after Missoula. Emese
Marvin, Lincoln Nemec,
and Savannah Brown are a
few other members of the
youth theater.
“Missoula Children’s
theater, I started that when
I was super young, and I
kept doing plays and then
I heard about these plays
and I’ve been doing them
for a while now,” said
Nemec.
“He enjoys piano and the
theater from a very young
age,” explained Barry
Nemec, Lincoln Nemec’s
father. “Our other two kids
are involved in athletics
and he prefers the arts
over athletics at this point.
He does play soccer, but
he loves being here and
acting and being around
other actors and you can
see the twinkle in his eyes.
Luckily Scot has opened a
children’s theater to bridge
the gap between Missoula
Children’s Theater—who’s
only here once or twice
a year—and high school.
Lincoln’s at that age—
sixth grade—where there’s
nothing in middle school
really play related and
there’s nothing during the
school year at the elemen-
tary, so this is great, I’m
glad Scot has done this for
the community.”
“I have always been
interested in acting,” ex-
plained Savannah Brown.
“And my mom knew that.
And she read about the
theater and saw there was
a youth theater. I love
this place it’s awesome
because they treat us like
real people instead of at
school where we’re kids,
and I like how it’s not
like a regular school play
because we have numerous
rehearsals and there’s more
than one performance and
cool costumes.”
“It fi rst started when
my mom was looking up
theaters and things, she
wanted me to do a theater,”
explained Emese Marvin.
Her fi rst play with Mis-
soula Children’s Theater
was “Aladdin.”
She plans to continue
working with EORT’s
youth theater.
Christmas in Huntington
CONTINUED FROM
PAGE 9
Grants available
for memorials
this year was the “12 Days
of Christmas” and is spon-
sored by the Chamber of
Commerce.
Of course the highlight
of the parade was the fi nal
fl oat containing Santa and
his sleigh. Santa lit up
the town Christmas Tree,
donated by Burnt River
Farms, to the delight of
all the children watching,
before heading into the
Howell’s Cafe Banquet
room to hear what all the
good little boys and girls
of Huntington want for
Christmas.
While waiting in line
for their turn to sit on
Santa’s lap, young and old
alike feasted on cookies
and cocoa provided by
the Huntington Historical
Society.
Another great Christmas
season has begun with
smiles and good cheer.
Holiday Christmas Christmas
High Tea Musical
FEAST
Make memories
over a 3-course
luncheon.
December 17
2 p
Show
Incredible food
Music to celebrate served next to the
two-stories-tall
Christmas by.
sparkling tree.
December 20
6-8 p, no charge! December 25, 1-8 p
G EISER
G RAND
H O T E L
Standing proudly on Main
St. in Baker City since 1889
GeiserGrand.com
Facebook.com/GeiserGrand
• Reservations please •
541.523.1889