Girl meets boy in a hallway at Grandstreet Theatre in Helena, circa 1979. He’s tall, lanky and from Montana; she’s petite, blond and hitchhiking across the state from Seattle with her dog attached to a clothesline.

They’re both headed across the prairie to the Fort Peck Theatre – the farthest outpost of musical theatre in Montana – to perform in “Oklahoma.” She’s Ado Annie, the girl who “Cain’t Say No,” and he’s Ali Hakim, The Peddler Man.

What sounds like the opening scene of a musical led to Karen and Neal Lewing’s real-life marriage a few months later, and the enduring partnership that’s at the heart of the Port Polson Players – now celebrating 50 seasons of summer theatre.

That intrepid two-person team is still going strong, having produced and performed in more than 400 shows over the years.

Back to the beginning

Larry Barsness (who also presided over the venerable Virginia City Players) and his wife, Pat, launched the Port Polson Players in 1976, offering performances in the old Lincoln School auditorium (now Linderman). Neal joined the company in 1978 and Karen came on board in 1980. Plays were held at the Ancient Mariner in the Salish Building and at the Wolf Den (now the Perfect Shot).

The Lewings spent three seasons touring with the Missoula Children’s Theatre during the school year and performing in Polson during the summer. They produced their first summer season in 1983 and purchased the business that September. They promptly added community theatre to their offerings with a musical adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” in December.

Leaning on their experience in Missoula, they launched a children’s theatre program in 1985.

A year later, in 1986, they moved the theatre into the original clubhouse on the Polson golf course, and have spent the four decades since adding amenities to the historic log structure, built in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

They’ve been helped along the way by the Mission Valley Friends of the Arts, a nonprofit established by banker and community booster John Dowdall to help the company and the theatre thrive. Over the years, the organization has raised close to $500,000 through memberships, grants and donations to maintain and upgrade the city-owned facility.

The Port Polson Players is now the fourth oldest year-around theatre company in Montana, and typically produces eight to 10 shows each season.

But they didn’t confine their venture to Polson. They launched the now defunct Old Prison Players, which staged more than 50 shows during its 13-year history, many of them in the Old Territorial Prison, and helped organize the Kalispell Theatre Guild. They’ve also taken plays on the road, performing to audiences in three states, and travelled to Ireland and Tasmania.

The couple received the Governor’s Arts Award in 2016 for their lifelong contributions to Montana’s performing arts.

A soft spot for “Oklahoma”

Still, after all these years and all those plays, their favorite show remains their first together, “Oklahoma,” which they’ve produced three times, including once with a cast of people all age 50 or older.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic remains at the top of their hit list because “it has such history with us,” says Neal.

As high school freshmen in Seattle, Karen and a friend managed to sneak into the musical’s chorus line as dancers, even though roles were reserved for upperclassmen. “We fibbed,” she said. “And I thought, ‘wow, this is what I want to do.’”

In addition to playing Ado Annie, her favorite roles include Meg in “Brigadoon,” and a host of comedic gems that have kept audiences chuckling for decades. More recently, she played the lead in “Driving Miss Daisy,” the powerful story of an aging Jewish woman and her Black chauffeur navigating the changing racial landscape of the South.

“It was such an honor to have the opportunity to do that script,” she said. “And we had a wonderful cast.”

Neal has performed in 10 productions of “Oklahoma” over the years and been cast in almost every male role. “The Fantastiks” is another favorite – “I just like the flavor of it, and how it flows” – as is Felix in “The Odd Couple,” and almost anything else by playwright Neil Simon.

Early in his career, he thought he was destined to be cast as the romantic lead.

“I didn't realize for a long time that my size indicates either old age or bad guys or goofy sidekicks,” he said. Along the way, he discovered those roles often offer “a lot more meat” than the romantic lead.

While they have an abiding affection for musicals and comedy, they're also not afraid to produce more serious works, including "Of Mice and Men," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "12 Angry Men." 

The 50th summer season

The company typically stages three shows each summer, spiced with professional talent from across Montana and beyond, and seasoned with the homegrown talent cultivated in community theatre productions.

They launch this season July 5 with the bittersweet classic “On Golden Pond,” made famous by the film starring Henry and Jane Fonda as an estranged father and daughter, and Katherine Hepburn as the gentile mother.

In the Players version, Neal and Karen take centerstage as the aging parents, Norman and Ethel Thayer, returning to their summer cottage for perhaps the last time, while the couple’s real-life daughter, Anna Loehrke, flies in from Cleveland to play the Thayers' daughter, Chelsea. The cast also includes community theatre veterans Mike Gillpatrick, Lucas Stanley and Jim Siragusa.

The 50th season continues with “Always, Patsy Cline,” opening July 25, and “Who Gets the Lake Place,” written by former legislator and current District Court Judge John Mercer, opening Aug. 7.

The great equalizer

“Community theater by nature is community,” Neal says. “It’s not a building, it's not an activity – it's people who come together and share their talents.”

It’s the art form that’s been at the center of the couple’s career. Karen, who once sold advertising for the Leader, and its precursor, the Flathead Courier, would use her ad calls to coax local businesspeople – bankers, attorneys, bar owners, pharmacists, doctors, newspaper editors and publishers – to traipse across the stage.

A chief of police took a turn in several as a distraction from the stress of his day job. Likewise, ministers were often part of the cast. 

“They're counselors, and they get people coming to them with all kinds of problems and they like to use it as an escape,” Neal says. “Plus, it’s fun. That’s why they call it play!”

Over the years, they’ve worked with thousands of people, from infants (think baby Jesus) to octogenarians, of all walks of life. Entire families have participated in performances, taking a role on stage or helping out behind the scenes. One staging of “Fiddler on the Roof” boasted three generations of the same family.

“We call it the great equalizer,” says Neal. “You can walk in that door and whatever your religion, your social status, your political leanings, you just leave that at the door and we're all part of the same team.”

The rewards are evergreen. The children’s theatre performances sometimes feature “kids of kids of kids,” Karen says. “And the mom will say, ‘oh, I think I wore that bird costume.’” That phenomenon includes their own family, with children of the Lewing’s son, David, now appearing in their grandparents’ shows.

In a production of “Heidi” a few years ago, the custodian would take a break from sweeping and gleefully join the kids in singing tunes he remembered from his own part in the show a few decades before.

The Lewings also get help from local musicians and retired high school choir and music directors, including Cathy Gillhouse and Bob Mazurek, who have been “invaluable,” they say.

Over the years, the Lewings have witnessed a declining interest in live theatre. Several factors contribute, including cuts to performing arts programs in the schools, and what they describe as “fast talk” – a rapid fire delivery popular with young people that doesn’t translate well on stage. Social media and the omnipresence of cell phones are an issue too.

“We have second graders that we have to tell, ‘no cell phones on stage,’” says Karen.

Making plays is still fun

As to how they’ve managed to stay married 45 years in a profession that’s famously large on egos, they say their talents are complimentary instead of competitive. 

“Whatever she's good at, I'm not and whatever I'm not good at, she is,” says Neal.

Karen, who has a degree in directing and worked in Seattle as a professional Equity actor before that fateful trip to Montana, directs most shows, while Neal (an accomplished singer/songwriter) typically handles music direction. Karen can sew and design costumes and sets, while Neal has the carpentry skills to put those sets together. She handles publicity, drawing on her years in the newspaper business.  

“I bet that's why a lot of marriages kind of go belly up, because one of the parties doesn't understand who the other person is,” Karen says. “We’re very fortunate that the two of us found each other.”

Together, they’ve authored more than 30 original plays, including the epic musical about the life of Thomas Francis Meagher titled “No Coward’s Epitaph.”

As to being directed in countless roles by his wife, Neal clearly respects her talent. 

“Even after all those many, many years and all that experience, I don't care who you are, you're not going to do it 100% right every time,” he said. “There's somebody out there watching, and she's the one.”

Among the other blessings they count as a half-century rolls around is the decision made long ago “to live in a place like this where you're not a star, you just do what you do,” says Neal.

Another, adds Karen, is the opportunity “to watch somebody discover their talent – that they had it in them and they want to develop it.”

Plus, plays are still play. 

“We always said we get tired from it, we don’t get tired of it.”