Over the years, the Missoula Children's Theater (MCT) has been coming to Carlyle to help young performers discover their dreams. Travelling across both Canada and the United States they help showcase talents of youth. In addition to offering workshops MCT also offers performance camps, which a young girl from Carlyle was only one in two Canadians asked to attend.
Sydney Flynn (11) loves to perform and this passion at such a young age showed through during last year's MCT performance in Carlyle as she was recommended by the instructors for the performance camp at Seeley Lake, Montana this past summer.
"[T]hey sent Sydney a package, and it's not just sign your name and go... she had to do a two-minute monologue, she had to do a song, and she also had to have two letters of recommendation," Vicki Flynn, Sydney's mother, explained of the application process even after receiving a recommendation.
On pins and needles waiting for her acceptance letter Sydney said her excitement was uncontainable when it finally arrived.
"It took awhile for us to get the letter back [over a month] and I'd ask, 'Mom, has anything came?' And she was like, 'You might want to start thinking you didn't get in,'" Sydney explained. "Then she came back and was like, 'Sydney you have a letter.' And I was like, 'Really?!' I ran up here and it was really thick and fat..."
Sydney's application had made the cut and she would be off to camp alongside youth from California, Washington, Nebraska, and many more states.
When The Observer inquired how it felt to be accepted, Sydney responded: "Exciting! ...I was the only one from my class and the only one from Carlyle that's gone to the camp."
Another girl from Carlyle had been given a recommendation, but chose not to apply for the camp.
While at the camp, Sydney was taught a number of different songs, dances, and participated in acting exercises. All of which were intended to help the young performers grow while having fun. This all coalesced in a final performance of a portion of Shakespeare's, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Though loving every minute of camp, this was the young performer's favourite part.
"I liked everything," Sydney said. "I liked the performance the best, when we were getting everything together and we got to see everybody else's part because we didn't see anybody else's part until we started piecing it together. So, to see that was one of my favourite parts, and also the food."
All the first years who attended camp this past summer were asked to return the next year without having to reapply, which the Flynn's are happy to oblige.
"If anyone gets the opportunity it is so worth the trip down," Vicki said. "It was good just to see the excitement when you picked her up and the excitement, nonstop, for an hour of what she did."
Now Sydney is looking forward to auditioning for the play "Rapunzel," which will be put on by the Missoula Children's Theatre here in Carlyle for Oct. 26. She is also auditioning for the Dickens Festival play with Linda Coffey, who has been instrumental in helping Sydney's love of performance develop as Coffey and Margaret Bell's children's theatre in town was Sydney's first real experience of performing. She is also singing in church now at Coffey's encouragement.
