Tharrr be pirates in these waters

Ladies with gleeful grins were dressed in threadbare, ratty clothing.

They drew their swords as they entered the ship, and laughed and yelled as they clanked swords with the British crew.

“I want to be a pirate,” screamed Julia Prescot, played by Emma Christensen, one of the members of a well-to-do family on board.

“The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree” took the ship from its all-male crew on Friday night at the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre. It was the first of five shows over two weekends. The 2-hour play was written by Martin Follose and Bill Francoeur. The children’s theatre also performed the play in 2006.

“It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s raucous,” director Brach Thomson said. “It’s a good piece to showcase lots of kids,”

The six-person technical staff and 38-person cast are made up of seniors in high school all the way down to second-graders. A third of that crew travels to the theatre from beyond Bigfork, in the Flathead Valley. One comes from Polson.

They only practiced for two weeks before the show.

Thomson, who is in his 11th season with the children’s theatre, said two weeks is the best way to do it.

“You spend two months in most places, but you spend the first five weeks not putting any effort into it,” Thomson said.

It’s like a crash course in performing. The kids audition and then rehearse for 3 1/2 hours-a-day, Sunday through Thursday, for two weeks. The cast has to quickly learn their lines, dance moves and songs for a Friday opening night.

While it’s a tight schedule, it works and the kids don’t seem to mind because they keep coming back season after season.

Olivia Witt, who plays Captian Bree, is a junior this year. She has performed in Thomson’s plays since she was in second grade.

Laughter from the audience is audible throughout the play, especially when Samuel Prescot, played by Wyatt Dykhuizen, screams in a high-pitched girly voice while he runs off-stage in his aunt’s dress.

The casts’ smiles can be seen from the last row in the theater.

“You know, as adults we’re always telling them to quiet down,” Thomson said. “I would think the kids like the fact that it feels like they can unwind, they can yell, they can scream.”

The play will also be performed this Friday and Saturday night, March 30 and 31, at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $11 for adults, $9 for seniors, $8 for students and $7 for kids under 10.