Make Me A Cowboy

Singing 'Cowboy' a play within a play

Don Bryant Bailey met his match while performing many years ago at Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse. And that partnership has brought his first play,"Make Me a Cowboy," to its world premiere as a full production next week at Playcrafters Barn Theatre, Moline.

It was 18 years ago that Mr. Bailey was in the down-homegospel musical "Smoke on the Mountain" at the Rock Island dinner theater, withShannon Sturgis -- who now works as a stage manager for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Mr. Bailey, 58, toured with "Smoke" many years, and wanted to do a retro-Western musical comedy and started collaborating on it with Ms. Sturgis about four years ago.

"This play is based on historical fact, like the first dude ranch," he said this week. "I expanded the story to make it the first evening of the dude ranch opening." The characters talk directly to the audience, breaking the traditional "fourth wall."

"Be prepared to laugh and connect to a period left behind -- a place before Twitter, texts and Skype -- a place of true grit and true heart," Mr. Bailey wrote in an email.

In the1890s, on the Jumpin J Ranch outside of Abilene, Kan., they're getting ready to celebrate its grand opening as a "Dude Ranch." The railroad has done away with cattle drives, and with that, has threatened the very livelihood of the cowboys and herders.

The ranch is in danger of closing its doors. To stay open, the owner and his city-slicker brother devise a plan to turn the ranch into a tourist destination. The aim is to attract city folk for a weekend of entertainment with lessons on how real-life cowboys and cowgirls live. Though a planned event, many unplanned comic and heartfelt moments unfold.

 Kevin Kurth and Shannon Sturgis composed the original songs the rest are traditional songs, like "Home on the Range," Mr. Bailey said. Playcrafters actors will play their own instruments. Revised over the past year, this is the first fully-realized production, after "glorified staged readings" in Texas, Colorado and Missouri the past two years, Mr. Bailey said.

"It's been a long process," he said.

"I think it is unlike anything Playcrafters has ever done before, with each member of the cast playing a musical instrument or two, or more,"Playcrafters producer Tom Swegle said. "We are quite lucky to have the author here directing it, as he has a natural feel for the show."

Stephanie Naab, Playcrafters board member and stage manager for the eight-person show, said "It so well fits our facility that it was irresistible."

While the 82-year-old company (at the Barn Theatre since 1960) for many years did not do musicals, it has done quite a few in the past five years. "Make Me a Cowboy" will be its fifth since 2006, and even 2009's "Papa's Angels" included a few songs.

Characters in "Cowboy" play mandolin, bass, piano, guitars and various rhythm instruments, including the upright piano that's been in the lobby, Ms. Naab said. The cast features Michael Schmidt, Tom Naab and Jamie Bauschka, all of Moline; Janell Just and Jon Schweppe, of Rock Island; Roger Akers and Nicholas Wallbusser, of Hampton, and Bryan Woods, of Colona.

The show also gives Playcrafters the chance to take some appropriate items out of storage to use in recreating the old West atmosphere inside the 1918 former dairy barn.

"We had many artifacts that used to hang on our lobby walls. When we remodeled, we decided to streamline the look, put those in storage," Ms. Naab said. Those, including bridles and farm implements, and donated items like a saddle, horse hide, a horse blanket and a buffalo head, all contribute to the decor.

Mr. Schmidt, who's in the cast, is the only other one who has directed his original play at the theater, Ms. Naab said. He directedhis show "Hail to the Chief."

Mr. Bailey said "Cowboy" is like coming back home for him, and praised the Playcrafters cast and crew.

"They're very talented people," he said. "They were very congenial, very helpful. I'm very happy to come here."

For more information on the show, visit makemeacowboy.org.





Make Me A Cowboy

Playcrafters Barn Theatre

Friday, September 9, through Sunday, September 18

Yee-haw! Gather up, pardners, an’ prepare yerselves fer the rootinest, tootinest evenin’ o’ Western music an’ laughs this side o’ the Mississippi, as the gals an’ fellers at that ol’ Playcrafters barn strap on their spurs an’ take y’all on a ... !

Fine. I’m stopping now.

But it’s a fair bet that plenty of theatre-goers will find it hard not to slip into an enthusiastic drawl after attending the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s Make Me a Cowboy, the Western-themed musical comedy running at the Moline venue from September 9 through 18. A musical so new that its cast recording was released just a few months ago, the Playcrafters production marks one of the first presentations of the show to be seen anywhere in the country, yet it’s being directed by someone well familiar with its content: co-author Don Bryant Bailey.

Set in Kansas in the late 1880s, the musical finds its Jumpin’ J Ranch on the brink of closure, a victim of the railroads that are forcing its cowboys out of the herding business. Yet the ranch’s owner and his wealthy brother from St. Louis devise a way to keep the family afloat – by turning the Jumpin’ J into a dude ranch, and raising money through performances of a knee-slappin’, toe-tappin’ musical revue.

As Make Me a Cowboy takes place on the first night of that revue, though, things naturally go haywire. Yet blended with the comedy of the evening’s mishaps is the delivery of 15 songs showcasing the spirit of the West: seven written directly for the show, and eight traditional cowboy classics including such ditties as “By the Silvery Rio Grande,” “Oh, Bury Me Not,” and “Frog Went a Courtin’.” (Which, having typed the title, is now going to be stuck in my head for hours.)

Boasting such familiar area performers as Mike Schmidt, Tom Naab, Jamie Bauschka, Nicholas Waldbusser, and Bryan Woods, Playcrafters’ Make Me a Cowboy promises Western fun for audiences of all ages ... an’ I’ll be madder’n a prairie dog in heat if y’all don’t rassle up some tickets an’ git yerselves ... !

Man, once you get going it’s really hard to stop.







From the Wet MountainTribune Thursday, May 19, 2011

Westcliffe, Colorado