An Important Message
The tragic killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in recent weeks have truly shaken our country.
The Missoula Children’s Theatre and Missoula Community Theatre hold up those who are grieving, angry, and in pain, and we stand with those who are fighting for justice: with every BIPOC student, colleague, artist, patron, donor, friend, and all who are hurting and demand progress. In particular, we hold close every BIPOC actor who has ever worked for us. We see you, we hear you and we stand with you.
MCT’s mission is to teach life skills to children through participation in the performing arts. What better life skills can we teach than encouraging children to work generously with each other, treat everyone with kindness and empathy and experience the success of working together to achieve a goal?
But we can’t teach and inspire children to create a better world if we’re not willing to identify and dismantle institutional systems built on a foundation of racism. MCT cannot be true to our core values, nor carry out our mission, if we’re indifferent to the heartbreaking, senseless and reprehensible damage that racism has caused in recent weeks and over hundreds of years. We embrace our commitment to learn, evolve, and openly confront oppression in all its forms so that we are an organization where all people thrive.
We are continually inspired by the courage and commitment of young people, their hope, their optimism and their sense of justice and fairness. Racism is taught, no one is born with it. MCT commits to using our platform and privilege to make sure that the lessons – and life skills – we teach are the right ones.
