'Paint Your Wagon' tryouts set Sunday and next Monday

Gold will be discovered this spring in the next Southwest Nebraska Community Theater musical, "Paint Your Wagon." Auditions will be at the McCook High School Auditorium from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10.

Rehearsals begin the first week of January. Directors are Don Harpst and Nathan McCarty, artistic, and Kathy Latta, music. Dates of performances are March 13, 14, 15 and 16.

Casting calls for at least 27 men and 11 women. Persons auditioning need to be able to sing. There are no parts for children below high school age. The men vary in ages, but the women are portrayed from 18 to 40. The directors encourage area talent to audition for this show.

The musical first hit Broadway in 1951, and the movie version came out in 1969. The synopsis reads as follows:

"After years of searching for gold out West, Ben Rumson and his young daughter, Jennifer, strike it rich. At the burial service of another miner, Jennifer discovers a gold nugget, and Rumson Town is born.

The strike encourages other miners to move to Rumson Town, and a boomtown is formed. Meanwhile, Jennifer falls in love with a Mexican prospector, Julio Valveras. With the lack of women in the town, the men feel uncomfortable with Jennifer's presence, so Ben sends her back East to school and the Fandango ladies arrive to work in the new saloon.

When Jennifer returns unexpectedly a year later, she finds that Rumson Town has turned into a ghost town and Julio is gone. In the end, Julio returns and he and Jennifer are reunited."

The show features such music as "Wandrin' Star," "I Talk to the Trees," "They Call the Wind Mariah," and "I'm on My Way."