Libby's Halloween Has a Second Shift, and Two Teenagers Built It

Most of Libby's Halloween happens between 4 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31. Kids trick-or-treat store to store on Mineral Avenue. The Rotary Club of the Kootenai Valley runs a Trunk or Treat at the old high school on the corner of Mineral and East Lincoln. Libby Christian Church holds its Truck or Treat out on Kootenai River Road. Then at 7 p.m. the curtain goes up on "The Addams Family Musical" at the Libby Memorial Center, on the same street as the Rotary event. The show is the third production from Voices Unfolding, a youth theater company two teenagers started a little over a year ago.

This is the second year in a row the troupe has opened on Halloween weekend, and the first time it has done so at the Memorial Center. Here is where it came from, and where it fits in the rest of the week.

How Halloween Saturday lays out

The trick-or-treat dates below come from the Lincoln County Connections event calendar. Organizers post any changes on their own pages. The show times come from The Western News.

The calendar describes the Mineral Avenue walk simply: "Dress creatively and bring a treat bag!" The Rotary listing promises candy, games, food and drinks. Libby Christian Church adds "autumn family fun." All three run the same two hours, so families pick one or move between them.

The theater sits on both sides of those two hours. The matinee starts at 2 p.m., two hours before trick-or-treating begins, and the evening show starts an hour after it wraps. The published schedule gives start times only, not running time. Parents should know the show is rated PG-13.

Two 15-year-olds and a year of planning

According to The Montanian's August 2025 profile, Voices Unfolding was started by Atticus Lande of Troy and Vivian Cole of Libby. Both were 15 and had spent a year planning it. They set it up as a musical theater troupe where young people direct the shows as well as star in them. Both already had stage experience in the area. Cole started at Libby's Old Town Opera House and won the lead in the Kootenai Karacters' "Annie." Lande had acted with The Pitiful Players and the Kootenai Karacters.

Cole told The Montanian the reason was simple:

"We can only participate in about two shows a year which is really hard... We just want to do this year-round because it's our happy thing. It's a 'for-fun' thing, but also a 'we're-taking-it-seriously' kind of thing."

Their first show was "Little Shop of Horrors," which both had worked on at a Washington State University theater camp that summer. They held auditions at the Lincoln Theater in Troy. The Montanian's opening-week preview reported 11 cast members, three of them in their first production. The cast ranged from 12 to 18, mostly 14 to 16. The one adult was 26-year-old Evan Carpenter, who voiced the plant, Audrey II. The show opened on Halloween night 2025 at 6 p.m. at the Maki Theater, with entry by donation that night only. More shows ran Nov. 1, 7 and 8.

So the Addams Family run is their second opening on Halloween weekend in two years.

The move to East Lincoln Boulevard

Last fall the troupe used the Maki Theater. This fall it moves to the Libby Memorial Center, and the move came with money. The LOR Foundation lists a $7,700 grant, dated April 9, 2026, to two Libby locals. The grant helped them set up Voices Unfolding Theater as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It also helped pay for venue rentals at the Memorial Center, costumes, and promotion to recruit actors and sell tickets. Libby Area Community Advancement is the project's fiscal sponsor.

In about eight months, then, an idea announced at an audition in Troy had become an incorporated nonprofit with a funded venue rental. The Western News reports that Atticus Lande and Vivian Cole are directing "The Addams Family Musical" themselves.

Ticket details from The Western News:

• Thursday, Oct. 29: 7 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 30: 7 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 31: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 1: noon and 5 p.m.
• Advance tickets: $15 adults, $10 students, sold at Kaiju Bar and Grill
• At the door: $20 adults, $15 students

Buying ahead saves $5 a seat for adults and students alike. For a family of two adults and two students, that comes to $50 in advance against $70 at the door.

A building that runs on bookings like this one

The Memorial Center is a fitting home for this show. Its own history page says the idea for a performing arts center took shape in the late 1990s, when the old Memorial Gym was where the town held community performances. The Kootenai Heritage Council chose the gym for its location, ownership and historical value. The council negotiated a 40-year lease with the school district and secured $2.1 million in grants, and a local contractor won the bid. The building opened in 2002.

Since 2010 it has run without a paid director, on volunteers. The space is 16,000 square feet with 30-foot ceilings and fuel-oil heat. The page puts the annual budget at $50,000 to $60,000, paid for through rentals, live performances, memberships, grants and community donations. A four-day musical with six shows is the kind of booking those figures depend on. The grant that covered the troupe's rental also brings in some of the money that keeps the building open.

Libby already had a stage. Now it has more shows.

Voices Unfolding is one of several theater groups in town. The Kootenai Karacters just finished a four-day run of "Never Ever Happily" at the Maki Theater. The Western News reported that 19 actors aged 14 to 79 played 41 characters for crowds averaging 160 people. Director Brian Bell credited a long list of local help. Libby Public Schools let the group use the Maki Theater, Jim May and the Kootenai Heritage Council put the show on their marquee, and Safe Secured Storage and Kaiju Bar and Grill sponsored it.

Bell talked about the younger company in the same article. "I'm very much impressed with the work that Voices Unfolding is doing under the direction of Atticus Lande and Vivian Cole," he told The Western News. "Anyone who thinks that young people lack motivation should come see what a group of them can achieve."

Some names show up in both companies. Cole, Lande, Maizy Orr, Jacob Stanton and Evan Carpenter were all in the Karacters' September cast list, a few weeks before rehearsals for the Halloween show. That overlap is the gap Cole described in 2025. Two companies on different schedules mean more chances on stage in a year than one could offer.

The rest of the week

Halloween Saturday is the busiest day, but the week starts earlier. These listings also come from the Lincoln County Connections calendar:

The library's pumpkin painting is Thursday afternoon, Oct. 22. The Troy Harvest Festival lists costume contests, carnival games, a petting zoo and its own Trunk or Treat, starting an hour before the Libby events. Families with ties to both towns have choices. Voices Unfolding draws from both towns too, with one founder from each.

Intuitive Real Estate keeps up with what is happening in Libby and around Lincoln County, from what is on the calendar to which buildings are busy and who is filling them. If you have a question about a home, a cabin or land around Libby, we are glad to talk it through on your schedule, even after the matinee. Contact Us.