Spectators are advised to check any serious thoughts at the door of the Performing Arts Center where Annandale High School students will perform next week in a wacky western. Director Polly Kampsen has chosen "The Saga of the Golden Horseshoe, or That’s No Lady, That’s My Philly!" as the AHS fall play. The western comedy is set in a place called Skunk County and populated by characters named Clem Chowder, Philly Parsnip, Buck Teef, banker Midas Overbarrel, Black Jack Gulch and Marshal Penny. A troupe of about 30 actors and production personnel will present the spoof at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Nov. 16 and 17, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18. Kampsen said she hadn’t directed a western in five previous productions at AHS and thought it would be fun to try something new. "We’re having a really good time," she said. And the audience should too. "It’s a real fun, family friendly show." The story, according to Kampsen, goes like this: Blacksmith Clem Chowder, played by Mike Fliegel, has a problem that needs solving: Someone keeps stealing all the horses in town. It’s the final straw when horses belonging to his girlfriend, Philly Parsnip, played by Alyssa Lipsiea, are stolen too. Clem decides to do something about it and, with the help of Sheriff Debussy Slidell, played by Mike Planer, he hatches a plan to catch the thieves. In the meantime, banker Midas Overbarrel, portrayed by Tyler Jacobson, threatens to foreclose on the blacksmith shop, which would put Clem and Ma Chowder, played by Faith Fretham, out on the street. So Ma tries to distract Overbarrel by pretending to be romantically interested in him. When Clem is mistaken for the horse thief and sentenced to be hanged at the annual Skunk County Fair and Hanging, and a gun-slinging hit man shows up, pandemonium erupts. One of the nice things about "The Saga of the Golden Horseshoe" is that there are a lot of big parts for the 22 students in the cast, Kampsen said. The play is by Pat Cook of Houston, Texas, who has written other lighthearted works among his 125 published plays. Kampsen e-mailed him about how to pronounce one of the character’s names. "I was quite surprised that he e-mailed me back," she said. Tickets will be available at the door or by calling the AHS office at 274-8208.
