Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND - Washakie Museum and Cultural Center's Sherryl Ferguson of Worland and Margaret "Muffie" Shaw of Thermopolis have teamed up to organize and direct "Heroes and Villains" a production that includes a 30-minute melodrama.

This is Shaw's second production she has helped director for the museum, while Ferguson has handled director duties for the museum's musicals for several years.

This year's Heroes and Villains was performed Friday night for the Patron Appreciation Dinner Theater. Ferguson said the museum provides a special patron appreciation event about every 18 months, starting in 2010 with a Shaw and Maxine Watson original production. The first year for the patron appreciation event they did not offer a public performance. They have for every one since.

This year's public performance of Heroes and Villains will be today at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the door.

Rehearsals for the production started six weeks ago, practicing Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and occasionally a Saturday to accommodate everyone's schedules, Ferguson said. While rehearsals started six weeks ago, work on the production started about a year ago when they began discussing ideas for a patron appreciation production.

The idea to include a melodrama came from brainstorming ideas among Ferguson, Shaw and Museum Executive Director Cheryl Riechelt.

When developing the program, they first came up with the Heroes and Villains theme. They began looking for Broadway songs to go with the theme. Ferguson said the three decided on adding a melodrama. While melodramas, which Ferguson described as a play with exaggerated cartoonish characters, are typically over an hour, they were able to find one that fit their theme and was 30 minutes long, fitting into their 90-minute production. The melodrama is "The Old Cookie Shop (Nellie Was a Baker 'Cause She Kneaded the Dough)."

There is hero and villain music for 30 minutes, followed by the melodrama and then finishes with 30 minutes of music. The music are songs of damsels, vixens, heroes and heroines from a variety of Broadway shows such as "Footloose," "Wicked," "Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde," "Camelot," "Les Miserables," and "Annie."

There is a total of 17 songs, including two instrumental solos, a saxophone solo and a cello solo. Shaw said they listened to, or looked at music from more than 100 songs before settling on the final 17.

The cast

As for the cast in the melodrama and performing the music, Ferguson and Shaw opted to select the cast rather than have auditions.

Ferguson said, "My goal as a director is to always try and introduce new faces with every production." The new faces in Heroes and Villains are the instrumentalists - Chad Rose and Jessica Hoopes.

Shaw said it was a "great dance" in trying to find the right songs with the right voices, or the right voice for the right song.

Ferguson said they work with the volunteer actors/singers in regard to rehearsal times and dates. And, they'll allow parents to bring children to rehearsals if needed.

"We try and work rehearsal schedules around their needs," Ferguson said. "They are not professionals. They are performing simply because they are people who enjoy performing."

The cast, not only volunteer time for rehearsals but also work at home. Shaw said, "Just rehearsing here is never enough time to do justice to the production." She said the cast will spend a lot of time on their own memorizing songs, memorizing lines, and working with accompanist Bryony Wilde. Wilde is playing the piano for every song and in the melodrama.

The six weeks leading up to this weekend's performances, Shaw said, "has been a rollercoaster ride, but it's all part of putting together a production."

Shaw's goal for Heroes and Villains? "We want to evoke the audience's emotions, to bring them great joy and some sadness," through the music.

The melodrama also provides a perfect opportunity to involve the audience, through prompts to boo, hiss or cheer.

There are seven actors in the melodrama and 11 total cast members in the production, including Shaw herself, and a former director Lew Markley.

Setting the stage

Along with getting the songs, getting the cast and rehearsing, Ferguson, Shaw and museum employees have to work to make the museum's events center/multi-purpose room into an auditorium with a stage.

Due to the area being rented out last week, work on the room couldn't occur until last Thursday, which included putting up the 24-inch tall stage, perfect for this production, hanging lights and putting up additional speakers.

Ferguson noted that the sound system installed in the events center is great for speakers but not designed for playing music at a high quality.

She said the stage itself presents unique challenges. There are a couple of steps that actors must go up or down when entering or exiting the stage. They don't have the luxury of just appearing from behind the curtain at stage left or stage right.

The back curtain is used more to hide the back wall than it is for allowing actors to exit from the back.

The end

When it comes down to it, the production, through all the hard work, "is a lot of fun," Shaw said, adding that they get to work with some very "talented individuals in the community."

Tickets are available at the door this afternoon for anyone wanting to attend "Heroes and Villains."