Mission Statement
To imagine without boundaries, to create vibrant professional entertainment and transformative arts education, to inspire the audience, artists, and next generation.
Founded in 2004 by three Broadway veterans, Alpine Theatre Project brings Broadway talent, production, and education to the Flathead Valley. Its artists have performed in over 190 Broadway productions, won 4 Tony Awards, 7 Emmy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, and 1 Academy Award. Since its founding, ATP has become one of the most talked-about and unique cultural institutions in the Inland Northwest, with notices in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, American Theatre Magazine, and Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine, which named ATP as one of the attractions that make Whitefish, Montana "One of the Top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America."
Board & Staff
Honorary Board
Upon its founding, ATP convened an Honorary Board of theatre luminaries to lend their support, talent, and advice.
Dawn Didawick
Olympia Dukakis
Harry Groener
Robert Goulet
Arthur Kopit
John Lithgow
Rebecca Luker
Jim Nabors
James Naughton
Henry Winkler
Louis Zorich
ATP Board of Directors
Elizabeth Bergeron, President - CEO, Clean Slate Maids
Jerrie Boksich, Secretary - Retired Educator
Sharon Morrison, Treasurer - Retired Attorney
Joel Welle - Whitefish Credit Union
Leah Lindsay - Nurse Practitioner & Owner, Whitefish Creative Aesthetics
Tracy McDowell - Actor / Educator
Dr. Marcus Wheeler - Pediatric Neurologist
Marshall Friedman, Founding Board President
ATP Staff
Cynthia Benkelman, Executive Director
Tracy McDowell, Artistic Director
Founding Artists
Betsi Morrison - Artistic Director
Betsi Morrison has been seen on the stages of Broadway as well as the nation's leading regional theatres. She has performed in the Broadway productions of The Sound of Music opposite Richard Chamberlain, South Pacific opposite Robert Goulet, and The Royal National Theatre's critically acclaimed revival of Carousel. She starred in the Manhattan Theatre Club's new production of Time and Again, based on the popular Jack Finney novel, and was seen performing with Broadway's most legendary leading ladies at Carnegie Hall in My Favorite Broadway for PBS's Great Performances with Julie Andrews . Regionally, she has been nominated for two "Philly" Awards by the Philadelphia Inquirer for her performances in Rags and A Chorus Line at the Walnut Street Theatre. She won a "Tennie" Award given by the Nashville Tennessean for her starring role in West Side Story at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre. She can currently be heard singing the role of Maria on the recording of West Side Story with the Nashville Symphony on the Naxos Classical label. Betsi founded Alpine Theatre Project in 2004 with a mission to bring the Broadway community to the Flathead Valley. She serves as ATP's Artistic Director, overseeing programming and production, as well as directing and acting in various productions. In 2008, she founded ATP Kids, an educational outreach program for local students. Over 1000 students in grades 1-12 have participated in the program. As Artistic Director, she oversees all artistic and educational programming.
Luke Walrath
Luke Walrath moved to Whitefish, Montana from New York City in 2002. For the year and a half prior to the move, the Milwaukee native had been performing in the Tony Award-winning revival of 42nd Street on Broadway. He has performed on three continents as a singer, dancer, and actor, doing anything from playing Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream in Kiev & Odessa, Ukraine, to singing for US soldiers across Europe with the USO, to playing Rolf in the Broadway National Tour of The Sound of Music starring Richard Chamberlain. He has made numerous appearances on television and film, including the 2001 Tony Awards, Late Night with David Letterman, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He founded Alpine Theatre Project in 2004 with Broadway veterans, Betsi Morrison & David Ackroyd. He oversaw ATP's Marketing & Fund Development programs from 2004-2022.
David Ackroyd
David Ackroyd is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and was a charter member of the Yale Repertory Theatre where he played more than 25 roles in three seasons in plays ranging from those of William Shakespeare to Terence McNally. He made his Broadway debut in Phillip Roth's Unlikely Heroes, and followed with Full Circle directed by Otto Preminger, Hide and Seek opposite Elizabeth Ashley and the Tony-Award winning production of Children of a Lesser God. His many other theatre appearances include six seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, in Hamlet at the New York Shakespeare Festival, A Soldier's Play at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite Sally Kellerman and the American Repertory Theatre's Six Characters in Search of an Author, which he most recently performed at Russia's Moscow Art Theatre. He starred in the off-Broadway production of It Just Catches based on the writings of Ernest Hemingway at New York's historic Cherry Lane Theatre. He has directed off-Broadway, in regional theatre, and at Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) and has taught acting at Yale University, the University of Nebraska, and FVCC. He is also the recipient of the William and Eva Fox Fellowship for Advanced Study in Acting.