The Grand Encampment Opera Company is taking audiences on a trip to the stormy Caribbean Sea this year.
For 2014’s melodrama, held in conjunction with the Encampment/Riverside Woodchopper’s Jamboree, the opera company is showcasing a pirate-themed production titled “Pyro’s of the Caribbean or Our Ship Doesn’t Stink” by M.K. O’Roark. The company will kick off the performance at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and hold two more performances at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
All performances take place at the Grand Encampment Opera House, 622 Rankin Ave. in Encampment, and admission is by donation at the door. The show is directed by Mary Martin, and produced by special arrangement with Melodrama Mike’s Play Service in Wichita, Kan.
The melodrama takes place on the Caribbean Sea, as the Black Hurl ship sails in search of endless excitement, treasure and adventure. The leader, Captain Jack Robin, has found himself at odds with his mutinous quartermaster, the evil Bloody Ben Bolton, who is aided by his sexy paramour, the vivacious Barbie Coast. Bolton and Coast have hatched a plot to take over the Hurl and strand Robin on a desert island along with their recent prisoners, Eliza and Commodore Swoon.
The melodrama features an all-local cast. Stars are Becca Treat as Eliza Swoon; Gale Jackson as Captain Jack Robin; Lila Jackson as Commodore Swoon; Don Mollers as Bloody Ben Bolton; Hunter Hammer as Cap’n Flint; Kaylyn Wessel as Barbie Coast; Vicki Loftice as Scurvy Sam; and Harold Jackson as Peg-Leg Pete and Walawala Bingbang.
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 Mary Martin started directing the melodramas in 1992.
The 2014 Grand Encampment melodrama marks the third one to take place in the recently improved Grand Encampment Opera House, which was finished in 2010.
Reader Comments(0)