Get ready for a Halloween eve show sure to inspire and make your whole family laugh. Chouteau County Performing Arts, in partnership with Benton Pharmacy, Big Sandy Pharmacy and The Governor’s Keep, are pleased to present a performance of The Great Pretender, starring Trent Arterberry. The show starts at 7 PM at the fort Benton Elementary School Auditorium, on Monday, October 30th

If you think that mimes are just silent white-faced fellows in striped shirts, stuck inside invisible boxes, prepare to have your ideas of the art form challenged. Blending spoken word and movement, The Great Pretender is the funny and touching tale of Trent’s multi-decade career as a full-time mime, a delightful and personal account of overcoming the obstacles that life throws up. Arterberry is a globe-trotting mime artist who has given over six-thousand performances over the past forty years. In this show, the audience will hear and see the odd turns of Trent’s career: the shark attack at the New England Aquarium; entertaining four thousand drunks at a Kinks concert; the fateful audition with Saturday Night Live; and the expedition to the Great White North that changed his life.

Arterberry’s earliest performances in Harvard Square, as a silent white-faced mime, earned him hundreds of fans and hats full of change. Spicing up his act with sound, music and special effects enabled him to open for rock bands on college campuses, and, in 1983, he was named College Campus Performing Artist of the Year. He eventually toured with major recording stars to iconic theatres such as New York’s Radio City Music Hall, on luxury ocean liners like the QE2, and to vast sporting arenas including Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. In recent years, Arterberry has created shows that blend his trademark physical expressiveness with spoken stories.

The Great Pretender was created by Trent Arterberry and directed by Gregg Goldston. The show debuted at the Victoria (Canada) Fringe Festival in August of 2017, where it received critical praise, treating the audience to major points of his life, from the womb to his decision to move to British Columbia. For more information on Trent Arterberry, visit http://trentshow.com .

Admission is by CCPA season ticket or $15 at the door the night of the show. Students currently enrolled in school in Chouteau County get free admission. For more information, please call 750-291 or 622-5677. CCPA concerts are presented in part by grants from The Montana Cultural Trust, The Montana Arts Council, WESTAF, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Montana Performing Arts Consortium, The Lippard-Clawiter Foundation and the Leroy and Claris Strand Foundation.