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Performing Arts

Unmasking the dame of Durango

Durango Melodrama & Vaudeville summer show kicks off today at Strater Theatre

Melodrama and vaudeville is a summertime theater tradition in Durango that stretches back more than 45 years. Through the decades, these performances have featured all manner of felonious villains, fragile maidens, dopey heroes, sly vixens and shady sidekicks.

But one character that hasn’t appeared much on the melodrama stage is the town of Durango itself.

Until this year.

Durango’s storied people, places and events play prominently into the 2014 Durango Melodrama & Vaudeville production, “The Dame of Durango,” which was written and directed by local thespian Jenny Fitts Reynolds.

“There’s a lot of fact woven into it, real historical Durango characters, real newspaper articles. We touch a lot on Henry Strater, the train,” Fitts Reynolds said.

Of course, being melodrama and vaudeville, there also is plenty of absurdist humor, fourth-wall breaking, silly swooning, wicked scheming, singing, dancing and hamming for the audience.

“The Dame of Durango,” which opens its summer season today, is a rollicking tale of mystery, revenge, love and justice that never takes itself seriously. Allowed to address the audience and get a little ridiculous, actors flex their funny muscles with spot-on timing and wit, and though the performance runs long at two hours, their on-stage energy doesn’t flag.

The story opens in Durango shortly after its founding with the dame of Durango (Caitlin Cannon), a masked chanteuse who has been drawing crowds to a bar of ill repute with her stunning performances. Enter the odious Judge Lou Natick (Gabriel Tate), who wants to lure her to work at the hotel he has recently (and illegally) obtained, The Claremont.

Back at the Claremont, we meet heroine Miss Jenna Rossity, who bears a striking resemblance to the dame and who, we discover, is taking on more than one false identity in an attempt to salvage her family name and win back the hotel that is rightfully theirs.

She has some hurdles, however, namely the vile judge, a pompous peacock of a society woman, Miss Bea Haven, and jealous barmaid Robin Banks. Miss Rossity’s faithful maid, Sadie Word, meanwhile, is mixed up in her own drama with her secret lover Avery, who is betrothed to another woman thanks to the deceit of the judge. A mysterious lawman, Will E. Duett, rides into town, setting off a chain of events that ultimately exposes a criminal plot and rights wrongs.

The cast of “The Dame of Durango” brings both professionalism and fun to the stage, lending high energy to the performance and keeping the audience involved. Tate is fantastically wicked as the baddie, relishing in his black-heartedness even as his character makes dim-witted maneuvers.

Alyse Neubert embodies a self-important twit as Miss Bea Haven, local songstress Cannon gets to showcase her impressive vocal talents as the dame, and Leslie Hoxworth keeps the performance moving with piano accompaniment, amusing commentary and audience prompts. Song and dance numbers are pulled off deftly. And local touches give “The Dame of Durango” a fresh appeal.

With melodrama, the audience’s buy-in and participation is vital to the performance’s success. If a dress rehearsal Wednesday in front of Strater staff is any indication, “The Dame of Durango” will keep the hoorays and hisses coming through clever asides, adept physical comedy and shameless plugs.

The vaudeville component, meanwhile, is incorporated into “The Dame of Durango” through three 10-minute sets of skits between acts. Though there are some brilliant moments here – an opening song pokes fun at Durangoans’ tendency to work four jobs to finance their lifestyle, and a mock Strater hiring interview is hilarious – the combination of vaudeville and melodrama stacks up for a lengthy show that may have some audience members growing antsy.

Durango Melodrama & Vaudeville has been a theater staple in town for decades, running uninterrupted for more than 45 years, according to The Strater. (The historic hotel acquired the Melodrama in 2008 and renamed the theater the Henry Strater.)

Fitts Reynolds, who first got involved with Durango Melodrama in 2010 as an actor, said that in the past, the company mainly has performed classic melodramas from 1800s playwrights like Dion Boucicault.

“What we found was that although the audiences loved them, you get caught up in the Irish brogue, the English dialects. ... It takes awhile to attune to that,” she said. “We wanted to better connect with them.”

So Fitts Reynolds decided to take a stab at writing an original play set in Durango for this year’s show. She started by coming up with character names and built the story from there, incorporating the conventions, plot devices and stage tricks she has learned from her time in melodrama into the piece and weaving in tidbits from Durango. Fitts Reynolds worked on the play for the better part of a year before refining the scenes with her actors.

The challenge of melodrama, she said, is going big on stage without going too far over the top, connecting with audiences in a way that doesn’t insult their intelligence.

“We’re larger than life, but we have to remain true to the characters,” she said. “We try to find these beats, these moments we can give to the audience of ‘we get it, you get it.’”

And the hope, she said, is to both entertain and transport crowds. Durango Melodrama & Vaudeville is special, she said – it’s one of just a handful of melodrama theaters that remain in the country.

“It’s part of the whole experience of coming to Durango,” she said. “You get to live in the past for two hours while you are at the Henry Strater.”

kklingsporn@durangoherald.com

If you go

“The Dame of Durango” will open its summer season with a show at 7:45 p.m. today in the Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. The performances will continue at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday through Aug. 30. The show is appropriate for all ages. Tickets start at $19 for children and $24 for adults and are available at www.henrystratertheatre.com, by calling 375-7160 or at the box office.



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