page 6
daily nebraskan
Wednesday, april 15, 1981
Campus hit inspires student to write more plays
By Mary Louise Knapp
Dastardly villains, sweet heroines, and
brave heroes inhabit the world of Kathy
Herrin, a 21 -year-old broadcasting and
theater student who has written, directed,
and produced a melodrama entitled "The
Saga of the Good Gunfighter," or "How
Goldfish Won the West."
The melodrama recently was performed
by the Neihardt Residential Center staff
and student assistants as part of Neihardt's
50th anniversary celebration.
The play involves a reformed gunfighter,
Will E. Mishem (played by John Thomas)
who gave up gunfighting to come to the
Nebraska Territory to open a fish store.
In his desire to acquaint people of the
territory with the delights of a peaceful
existence, he inadvertently stocks the vil
lain's pond and water supply with fish.
The villian, Frank Lee Nasty, played
by David Chester, and his evil sister.
May-Bee Badnuez, played by Shirley
Dunham, have come to the territory
to open a gambling casino and to make
Frank the governor.
Frank falls in love with the heroine,
Isabelle Ringin, played by Theresa Schck
irke, a poor orphaned seamstress. He forces
her to accept his hand by threatening to
ruin Will's fish business. Will and Isabelle
have fallen in love, and Isabelle, knowing
how much Will's store means to him,
reluctantly agrees to marry Frank.
In the meantime, May-Bee entices
Juan Ekstrahace, an unscrupulous gambler
(played by Louis Alioto), to enter the
casino business with her.
Will soon realizes why Isabelle accepted
Frank, and takes care of Frank and May
Bee with several swift blows, reclaims
his siore and proposes to Isabelle.
Good attendance
The plot is enhanced by the antics of
Elwood Sap, a lumberjack, played by
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Don Blankenau,his fiancee, Learna Lesson,
the town schoolteacher, played by Beth
Griffin, and Ima Bratt, an unruly pupil
played by by Myra Palmer.
Mianitiv, an Indian guide (played by
Carol Nodgaard), Dr. 0. G. Blood played
by Jim Reilly, Yul. B. Dead, the under
taker, played by Rob MacTier, Wanda
Belt, the proprietor of the Chug and Slug
Saloon, played by Liz Willbom, and the
dance-hall girls Constance Distraction
played by Peg Miller Yvonne TaDanse
played by Mary Uruska, added excitement
to the melodrama.
Herrin said about 125 people attended
the performance, which vastly exceeded
her expectations.
"We expected about 60 or 70 people,"
she said, and some expected only 10
people to attend. However, the play was
such a success that it was videotaped
and shown again on Saturday.
"We never expected such a turnout
and such enthusiasm," she said.
Herrin said the Neihardt student assist
ants had discussed presenting a melodrama
as part of the anniversary celebration
last year.
"I thought it would be a challenge for
me to do it," she said.
Herrin wrote the original script for
the melodrama while she was home for
Christmas vacation this year.
"I started typing, and the ideas just
kept coming," she said.
Herrin said she first thought of the char
acters' strange names, and then tried to fit
her characters to the personalities of the
members of the cast, who were Neihardt
student assistants.
The goldfish entered the picture because
many members of the Neihardt staff own
fish, she said.
"Nobody else writes tisli into a melo
drama," she said, laughing.
Novice actors
Herrin said that some of the cast had
had previous acting experience, but a few
had never acted before. To prepare them
for their roles, she used a variety of meth
ods. "I asked them to do a character anal
ysis," she said, "for example, to imagine
how Isabelle became an orphan. . .to say
'I am this character, "
Another directing technique was to have
the cast deliver their lines in the style op
posite to that in which they were supposed
to be delivered. The villain, instead of
speaking in sinister tones, would recite
his lines as if he were a perfect gentleman,
and the heroine would try to sound like
a villainess. This helped give the cast a ful
ler understanding of the play as well as
being a fun exercise, she said.
1 did get a little discouraged at times,"
Herrin said.
"I had to yell at the cast sometimes,
and that's hard because they arc my peers
and I worked with them, but they under
stood." she said.
Herrin, the only theater major in the
group, said that the respect among cast
members was one of the main reasons
for the melodrama's success.
"We're a close staff," she said. "The
Neihardt S.A.s (student assistants) do ;t
lot together and we care about each
other."
Time conflicts and line memorization
were two of the biggest problems, she
said.
"We had about 15 rehearsals, and that
was not enough, but we pulled it off,"
she said. "Not everyone was there for
the first nine or 10 rehearsals, but toward
the end they made it a point to be there.
"We didn't have our costumes and
sets until almost the last minute," she said.
The Neihardt staff provided some
of the costumes and props, and others
were borrowed from Nebraska Wesleyan
University, she said.
"As the producer. I footed most of the
bill," she said. "It cost me $75. and with
the other people's expenses added in.
it cost at least $125. 1 had no idea I'd
be paying so much," she said.
More melodramas
Herrin said that she will continue
to write melodramas.
"I've gotten the bug now." she said.
"People have told me they'd like to see
two or three performed a year. I hope we
can do it again ."
"I still do not feel it is a complete
script." she said. "We made a lot of
changes as we went along. Sometimes
some of the people's ad-libs worked as
well as the original lines."
During the melodrama, the audience
was continually reminded, either by the
signs to boo for the villain and sigh for
the heroine or by actual lines in the per
formance, that what they were seeing was
a farce.
Herrin explained that this technique
is necessary to keep the audience in the
right frame of mind.
"The minute they start to take it
seriously . it's lost." she said.
"I am writing down ideas," she said.
"I want to develop a style all writers
have their own style and I think I want
mine to be those God-awful names."
Herrin said she has many ideas for her
next melodrama.
"What I'm thinking of right now is a
novice cowboy being abducted -by a
group ot outlaw women." she said.
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Thursday, April 16, 9 pjn. to midnight
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on the parking lot just north of the East Union.
In case of bad weather, it will be held in the
Great Plains Room.