Over 30 years ago, when Gene and Kay Caldwell moved back to their hometown after Gene retired as a civil engineer, they soon realized that there was no community theater in Malad. Even opportunities for young people were limited after the drama program at Malad High School ended when the drama teacher left a few years later.

While living in Whittier, California, and then Tacoma, Washington, Gene and Kay worked with Road Shows in their church wards and learned about amateur theater.  With their amazing knack for getting things done once they were back in Malad, they soon worked with Malad City and Oneida County to purchase the former J.C. Penney/Malad Department Store building in downtown Malad and proceeded to turn it into the Iron Door Playhouse. While bringing together many community members also interested in theater, Gene’s talent for designing and building coupled with Kay’s creativity resulted in a theater where plays, musicals, youth productions, and melodramas were soon entertaining hundreds of residents and guests.  In addition, community theater provided opportunities for adults and youth to act, direct, build sets, design costumes, and learn about sound and light technology.

The first production was “Oliver” with Mike Hess, Jr., in the title role. The Theater Guild soon was entertaining Malad with 3-5 community and youth productions every year. Gene sometimes appeared on stage in various roles, and Kay was always behind the scenes, putting together scenery, props, and costumes. When a set was needed, Gene was the one to design and help build it. 

Finances have always been tight for the Theater Guild, and Gene and Kay contributed money, furniture, costumes, decorations, and everything needed to keep the fledgling community theater going. To honor the Caldwells for their time, talents, money, and donations, Iron Door Arts and Theatre named the auditorium part of the Iron Door Playhouse for Gene and Kay. A plaque hangs in the lobby of the auditorium to remind theater goers that community theater would not exist in Malad without Gene and Kay Caldwell.

The Play’s the Thing—
Melodrama performed over holiday weekend

It’s early July, and that means that the Iron Door Playhouse just wrapped up another Independence Day melodrama.  This year, the play was “Males Order Brides: Big Harry Deal’s Scandalous Scheme” by Billy St. John.   

The melodrama is a long-running and time honored fixture of the summer, which many, many people have memories of going back decades.  This year’s Grand Marshals Dennis and Sherrie Evans, for instance, spoke about their long connection to the melodrama and the local theatre, as did this year’s Pioneer Patsy Bybee.  And that’s not uncommon—more people than not have great memories attached to the Shootout on the Fourth (on hiatus at present), and especially the melodrama later in the day.

As a melodrama, an audience who is “in  the know” is aware of what to expect, though that may not be the case for someone walking into a performance from off the street.  The form of a melodrama is different than a traditional play, in that it encourages the interaction of the audience.  Primarily, this interaction comes in the form of cheers for the hero, boos for the villain, and “awwwwww”s for the inevitable romantic developments.

Melodramas are a mode of drama that has origins in and connections to opera and classical theatre, but its most recognizable form is connected to the American West of the 1800s.  Melodramas were plays that were designed to appeal to an audience that was more interested in entertainment than ponderous questions of philosophy or human psychology.  The plays were performed at dance halls, saloons, outdoor stages, camps, and other “rugged” locations.  As a result (and potentially also due to the often less than sober state of the audiences) the characters are loud, clearly defined, and over the top.  It’s a mode of performance that relies heavily on the skill and personality of its actors to connect with the audience. 

“Males Order Brides” is no exception.  The play is a “scheme” farce, where the villain, in this case played by Jeff Richins as “Big” Harry Deal, and Anneleise Atkinson, who played Starr Billings, also played Ima Blue.  And Indigo Bloodline.  And Modesty Virtue.  And several other characters.  As you can tell by the list of roles, Atkinson was called upon to present a virtuoso performance, inhabiting the characters of a number of ladies designed to appeal the various male characters as a bride.  This ranged from a sultry dance girl to a patrician matriarch to a chaste, blushing bride-to-be, to a prospector.  

As always, Jeff Richins seemed to inhabit the character of a conniving grifter comfortably (shades of his Music Man performance, but without the heart of gold turn at the end), and play well off Anneleise Atkinson.  Atkinson clearly also relished the bombastic vacillation between the different characters, each with their own convincing distinct personality.

Because the central setpiece of the play is a romantic dinner between the male characters and different avatars inhabited by Atkinson, a “quick change” sequence further complicated the scene and led to a lot of physical comedy.  Atkinson pulled it off extremely well, and in the meantime got to have some entertaining exchanges with real-life husband Steve Atkinson as the character Lucky Betts.

Iron Door stalwart Shannon Worrell was another standout comic element of the play, as Grubby Shurtz.  Beyond the initial entertainment in seeing Worrell overalled up as a grizzled prospector, the real joy was in the timing of her deliveries, and her skill at reacting to the other actors in the scene.  In several scenes, she commanded full attention, and the scenes between herself and Atkinson as his bride to be definitely crowd favorites.

In addition to Betts, C.D. Nichols was another lovelorn dupe, played by Jayson Spenser.  As a somewhat distracted widower, Nichols performed a largely straight man role in the play, but Spencer managed to give him a lot of pathos for the role in any case.

Calico Shurtz, the heroine and love interest of the play,  was played by Addler Garrett alongside hero Forrest Green, played by Conner Worrell.  The A plot involved the slowly dawning realization on the part of Green that Shurtz has been the right girl for him all along.

Tiara Rhinestone was played by Maren Sperry and Trinket La Glitz by Kassidy Martin.  The two saloon girls also made more of the parts than might have been expected.  Their interactions with each other and physical comedy during the dance numbers, among others, were great additions to the texture of the play.

Brenda Daniels played the Piano Player, and kept the scenes dynamic with stage business.

Lights and Sound were overseen by Laurie Richins.

As a melodrama, there can be little doubt about the ending.  Good guys win.  Bad guys are punished.  More puns happen.  And once again, the treat that is the melodrama came to Malad again for the 4th, but this time in the Kay and Gene Caldwell auditorium!