Same horse, different color: Opera Company promises vibrant performances in annual Encampment melodrama

Don’t expect to see the same play twice if you are planning to sit in on all three showings of the Grand Encampment Opera Company’s traditional melodrama.

“Come every night because it is always new and different,” said Mary Martin, director of the play and president of the Grand Encampment Opera Company.

This year, the opera company is showcasing “Peril in the Paddock or A Horse of a Different Mother” by M.K. O’Roark. The Grand Emncampment Opera Company will kick off performances during a dress rehearsal starting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and hold two regular performances Thursday and Friday, both starting at 7 p.m. All performances will be held at the Grand Encampment Opera House, 622 Rankin Ave., in Encampment.

“I’m looking forward to the laughter of everyone that is going to come,” said Harold Jackson who is playing the role of Lance Charger. “It’s going to be a really good play this year.”

Martin urges all to attend every performance of the melodrama because the experience is always different due to “pranks” the actors play on each other, she said. But if you can’t make it to all of them, at least try to make one of the shows.

The Grand Encampment melodrama has been around since the early 1900s, making it one of Encampment’s oldest traditions. The Grand Encampment Opera Company started organizing the plays in the 1960s, and Martin started directing the melodramas in 1992. Martin hopes, even when she decides to give up directing the melodramas, someone comes to continue the tradition.

“It will get handed down,” Martin said. “Someone will do it, or I will haunt them.”

The 2013 Grand Encampment melodrama marks the second to be held in the improved Grand Encampment Opera House, which was finished in 2010.

Martin said the Grand Encampment Opera Company is still working out some kinks with the new building, but is glad to have the venue back.

The melodrama, as always, features an all-local cast. The stars are Becca Treat as Patricia Woodburn, Harold Jackson as Lance Charger and Gale Jackson as Nasty Ned Nantura.

This is Gale Jackson’s second year being involved in the melodrama, and already has a star role as the villain, Martin said.

The melodrama takes place in the stables of Woodburn Farm, Ky., where after the death of Patricia Woodburn’s father, she tries to stay financially afloat. However, unknown to Patricia, the villain Nasty Ned Nantura has discovered a rich gold vein beneath the fields of Woodburn Farms who, with the help of his female accomplice Cyanna Stunnington (Kaylyn Wessel), plans to reap the gold for himself.

Martin encourages all to come and find out what happens.