Bowdle Community Theatre melodrama starts Thursday

Beginning Thursday night (June 27), Bowdle Community Theatre will present “The Treasure of Shiver River or . . . It’s Hard to Drive the Cattle When Their Horns Are Frozen.”

The show is a “mellerdrama” in which the audience is encouraged to cheer, clap, boo and hiss.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and June 30 at the Bowdle Legion Hall.

“The Treasure of Shiver River” is being presented in conjunction with the annual Bowdle Tower Days celebration on Saturday.

The Bowdle Healthcare Foundation will sell refreshments before and after the play as a fundraiser for the remodeling at the Bowdle Hospital.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students, available only at the door.

Stan Zimmer plays the nasty scoundrel, Rod Enreel, who plans to take over the Shiver River Ranch and find the hidden treasure if Colonel Sanders (Jon Brockel) can’t sell his cattle to come up with the mortgage money.

Alex Weiszhaar plays the hero, Marshal Marshall Law, who would love to propose to the heroine, Heidi Claire Sanders (Missy Thomas), but alas he cannot.

Heidi is also presented with the vile option of marrying the black-hearted villain, though he plans only to do her in and abscond with the treasure.

His partners-in-crime include the romance novel-loving Paige Turner (Michelle Kessel), and the good German doctor, Ophelia Payne (Catherine Blumhardt). Also trying to steal the show are the pirate queen, Burlap Bonnie (Hope Larson), the grizzled old prospector, Orin Gold (Jason Bishop), the eager newspaper woman, Scoop O’Mally (Miranda Sonsteby), a semi-reformed female gambler, Lotta Luck (Glenda Eisenbeisz), and the auctioneer, Rusty Nail (Phillip Peterman) and his wife, Gail Nail (Jeanne Bieber).

The show is directed by Cheryl Dewald.