MADELINE FFITCH
The Missoula Oblongata:
"A night at the theater has never looked so delightfully weird…Bizarrely
frolicsome, cogently playful, sweetly surreal...Such is the genius of The
Missoula Oblongata--quirky, but also exquisitely made and elegantly
presented." –The Santa Fe Reporter
"The romance of vaudeville, the adrenaline of punk, and the playfulness of
the Children's Television Workshop...packing the house with theatre buffs as
well as with those who tend to fidget in velvet seats." –St. Louis Magazine
The Missoula Oblongata was an experimental theatre company dedicated to creating and touring original plays, collaboratively written by Madeline ffitch and Donna Sellinger. Its founding members were Madeline ffitch, Donna Sellinger, and Sarah Lowry. From 2005 – 2012, the company toured four months a year, and produced six full length productions, “The Wonders of the World: Recite”, “The Most Mysterious Day of the Year”, “The Last Hurrah of the Clementines”, “The Fifty Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen”, “The Daughter of the Father of Time Motion Study,” and “Clam Lump”.
The company also produced numerous community projects throughout the year, including House Theater events, Shakespeare nights, the absurd lecture series, and even a pie-baking contest.
The Missoula Oblongata was committed to being in lively collaboration with visual artists, musicians, writers, and performers outside of the regional theater system. While theater's mainstream bemoaned dwindling audiences, The Missoula Oblongata found the opposite to be true, meeting thriving and enthusiastic audiences in unlikely spaces. Tickets to every performance were on a sliding scale with no one turned away for lack of funds, and the company transformed ordinary spaces into theaters, touring to schools, barns, backyards, vacant lots, music venues, warehouses, and even a post office and a grocery store.
The Missoula Oblongata was invited to perform at the Bread and Puppet Theater, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Puppet Uprising, Bedlam Theater, The National Theater Institute, Dartmouth College, Hampshire College, SUNY Purchase, Artscape, Whartscape, Plan-It-X Fest, The Mutant Theater Caravan, The Baltimore Theater Project, The Suitcase Festival, the Working Theater Collective, and MiCasa Theatre in Ottawa, ON.
The Missoula Oblongata received grants from Turners Falls RiverCulture, The Leeway Foundation, Arts Midwest, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and was a finalist for a Creative Capital grant.