As a part of the city’s Fourth of July celebration, the Theatre Guild once again performed a traditional melodrama during the weekend of the holiday.  This year’s entry, “The Veggie Villain” brought a hissable villain and cheerable hero to the proceedings, as well as the standard number of groan-worthy puns.

The tradition of the melodrama dates back at least to the nineteenth century in the history of Western entertainment, and encourages the interaction of the audience to loudly cheer on the heroes and heroines and boo the villains and henchmen.  

The “Veggie Villain” involves the scheming connivery of a typical moustache-twirler in the form of the no-good Artie Choke (played by Kris White) and his more nuanced henchman Barry Smelly (Connor Worrell) who overhear a conversation between dimple-cheeked heroine Mary Nated (Kaleigh Worrell) and her aunt Ida Wanna (Shannon Worrell).  Mary has recently inherited the “largest herd of cattle in Texas” and moved into town to take over the ranch.

As she enters town, she is welcomed to the Tee Bone, a restaurant featuring exclusively steak.  It just so happens that Mary Nated is a vegetarian, and makes other lunch plans as the town's locals Val Veeta (Sara Young), Mabel Syrup (Nicole White), Liz Onnia (Jaylyn Green), watch the event unfold between Mary and her crew, Patty Melt (Jade Charles), and Peppy Roni (Alison Jeppsen).

During the early scenes in the play, the audience is also introduced to our hero Chuck Roast (Steve Atkinson) and his companion Cole Kutz (Alex White).  

Artie Choke develops a plan to woo the out of sorts Mary Nated by taking over the restaurant through sabotaging the meal of regional food critic Bernadette Down (also played by Jade Charles).  After the implication that the review will ruin the restaurant, Ima D. Cook (Ada Campbell) agrees to sell the property cheap to Artie Choke, who converts it into a vegetarian café in the hopes of catching the attention of Mary Nated.

Chuck Roast is lured out of the picture by Choke’s nefarious girlfriend Lily Livered (Anneleise Atkinson) who calls in a false alarm out of the state.

As events progress, Choke is forced to force Mary Nated’s hand by kidnapping her aunt, and from there, shenanigans aplenty ensue.

Suffice it to say, by the time the play is over the characters are re-sorted, and both the good and the bad get what’s coming to them.  Our hero and heroine end up together, and everything falls into place.

The play, written by Craig Sodaro, was produced by arrangement with the Pioneer Drama Service, Inc in Englewood, Colorado.  Jeff Richins directed the play, and Laurie Richins engineered the light and sound for the event.

The crowd for the Tuesday production of the play was energetic and a provided a large amount of fanfare for the proceedings.

The Guild will be holding auditions for its fall play “The Music Man” starting soon.