Lights, Camera, Action! On Thursday, November 9th, and Saturday November 11th, the Southeast of Saline Music Department performed Way Out West in a Dress under the direction of Mrs. Keri Boley.
The musical is set in Lucky Lady, Nevada and follows the story of Clarence Rawlins (Alex Christensen) and his acting troupe consisting of: Roger Gains (Adam Thiel), Heidi Gray (Ava Rupert), Bobbie Pinz (Micah Willis), and Nell Clipper (Elliana Smith).
Clarence and his troupe have been traveling actors for years, constantly on the go, until the day Clarence receives a letter from his late great aunt. In the letter, Clarence is left with everything from his great aunt’s will, including the Lucky Lady Saloon. The only stipulation to the will is that Clarence must keep the saloon for one year before either selling it, or continuing to run it himself. Although Clarence doesn’t want to run the saloon, he does want the fortune, so he and the troupe head West to Lucky Lady.
When the troupe arrives at the Lucky Lady Saloon, they are introduced to the townspeople while they wait for Will Reader (Isaiah Sanchez) to present to them the official will. Here, Clarence and Roger are introduced to Melody Plunkett (Sherida Johnson), the saloon piano player, and Carrie O’Key (Kipra Reed), one of the saloon singers, and they instantly fall in love with the two ladies. After talking to the girls for a while, Will Reader arrives and reveals to the troupe that they have not been left the Lucky Lady Saloon, but instead the Lucky Lady Salon, located right next door to the saloon. Knowing that they can’t sell the salon for at least a year, the troupe is greatly disappointed. In Lucky Lady, it’s seen as unmanly for a man to do womens hair, so Clarence and Roger try to think of alternative business ideas for the salon. Eventually, they decide that changing the business now would be too arduous of a task, so the troupe opens the hair salon. To avoid shame from the rest of the town, Clarence and Roger come up with the brilliant idea of disguising themselves as women while doing other womens’ hair. Clarence becomes Lady Claire Rawl, and Roger becomes Madame Rogaine.
Meanwhile, the real owner of the Lucky Lady Saloon, Colt Revolver (James Friesen) and his hostess, Jessica James (Haley Thiel) are plotting a bank heist, and to do this they have to blow up the floor of the bank. They have one problem though: the bank is on the other side of the Lucky Lady Saloon, so in order to avoid anyone discovering them, they need to extend the saloon into the salon. Colt and Jessica don’t know that Roger is the real owner of the salon, nor do they know that he is not allowed to sell the salon for at least one year. Because of this, they invite Lady Claire, who they believe to be the real owner of the salon, to a welcoming party.
Clarence and Roger attend the party as Lady Claire and Madma Rogaine, but quickly want to change after seeing their girls dancing alone. Clarence and Roger change and leave the party. While leaving the party, Clarence and Roger reveal their true identities to Melody and Carrie. Because of their leaving, Colt doesn’t get the chance to ask Lady Claire about buying the salon, and he must come up with another scheme. Colt then tries to propose to Lady Claire. Lady Claire, who of course is Clarence, freaks out and rejects his proposal. After this, Colt and Jessica have no choice but to rob the bank without owning the salon. They come up with their most devious scheme of kidnapping Lady Claire and hiding her in the mines, so the townspeople will be looking for Lady Claire and will not be in the salon when Colt and Jessica blow up the floor to the bank.
Melody, Clarence’s girlfriend, has the misfortune of overhearing Colt and Jessica’s plan to kidnap Lady Claire. Knowing Melody will rat them out, Colt and Jessica take Melody to the mines. They know that Lady Claire will come after Melody, so Colt and Jessica plan to blow up both Melody and Lady Claire in the mines so that no one else will discover their plan. Colt and Jessica are proven right when Lady Claire shows up in the mines, but what they didn’t realize is that she would bring back up. Madame Rogaine, Heidi, Bobbie, Nell, and Carrie all come to the rescue disguised as bank robbers to scare Colt and Jessica away. After fighting in the mines and trying to escape, Colt and Jessica are finally caught and sent to jail. The play concludes with Clarence finding his great aunt’s real fortune hidden in the salon. With this fortune, Clarence and the acting troupe decide that they will extend the salon into the saloon and turn the whole place into a stage where they can act without traveling.
Overall, lots of hard work and dedication went into the production of Way Out West in a Dress, and the play came together nicely.