Montez said portraying Nancy Sketch’s youthful inquisitiveness in Mouse River Players’ upcoming production while maintaining the character’s self-awareness of having been around for decades has been a fun experience.

Though Montez has been acting on the Mouse River Players’ stage for around 20 years, the cast for “The House of Agatha Mystrie” is full of both new and returning actors with diverse backgrounds outside of the theater.

“The 10-member cast comes from a variety of backgrounds,” said production director Tim Knickerbocker.

Dorian Garland is an active-duty Air Force training manager. Nicole Swain is an occupational therapist and is married to an active-duty Air Force member. Montez is Knickerbocker’s daughter and teacher. Kaitlyn Plessas and Lauren Alexander are paraprofessionals with the Minot Public School District. The Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch is represented by Logan Longtin, an English teacher, and Bart Burns, groundskeeper at the ranch. DeAnnaHenderson is with SRT. Finally, we have cast members Andy Busch who works for the Minot Parks Department and John Simonson is a Lutheran pastor.

Montez said she has thoroughly enjoyed her time sharing the stage with her fellow castmates.

“We’re meeting each other, getting to know each other and having that opportunity to come together and really make a family out of this show. Everyone’s so supportive and willing to try different things, which is a lot of fun. In a show like this you have to have that trust and you have to build it. I think that was something we built really quickly, which was really fun to see. Overall, we just have such a great ensemble cast that I know that everyone else onstage knows what they’re supposed to do. Because of that, I can really focus in on what I’m supposed to do,” Montez said.