MORAN — Marmaton Valley High School brings a tale about colorful characters, a few family secrets and a good old-fashioned double-cross — all inside a quaint trailer park.
The MVHS Drama Department performs “Doublewide, Texas” on Friday and Saturday evening in the old MVHS gymnasium.
The story is about a tight-knit group of friends and relatives trying to keep their home — a collection of doublewide trailers — from being annexed into nearby Tugaloo, Texas, which would almost certainly force them to move.
Mallory Heim as Georgia Dean Rudd and Bailey LaRue as Joveeta Crumpler star as best friends and the ringleaders trying to stave off the property’s annexation.
Joveeta is working under a deadline, however. She’s about to skip town, anyway, having given up her job for a higher-paying career at a discount cruise line.
Georgia Dean, meanwhile, runs the local cafe (where everything is fried). She’s made a nice living, despite her propensity for taking in any manner of stray animal — or person — in need of a home.
Speaking of which, Sophia Heim stars as Lark Barken, a very young, very pregnant widow, who is in need of direction and a place to stay. She offers to help out around the diner, much to the chagrin of the local townsfolk uncertain about her tofu cake, or her seemingly odd choices of potential baby names.
Their quirky costars are on hand to keep up the zaniness from there.
Kiowa Bloemer is the unforgettable Haywood “Baby” Crumpler, Joveta’s good-hearted little brother intent on practicing for a local, womanless beauty pageant. Ava Newman appears as their uproarious elderly mother, Caprice, who despite being in her 70s, has not yet given up her dream of making it into show business, wearing costumes from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Indiana Jones” to show her dedication.
Lily Mynatt is the outlandish Big Ethel Atterwhite, whose narration sets up the play, along with a misguided lesson on nutrition.
Jaedon Granere is Lomax Tanner, a rather suave and sophisticated city planner — perhaps too much so — recruited to help the townsfolk save their humble home.
Kaitlyn Drake portrays Starla Pudner, the mayor’s wife who has a small, but key role in watching the mystery unfold.
And what good is a comedy without a fiendish villain? Jeff Spillman is the curmudgeonly Haywood Sloggett, a neighbor all too eager to get rid of his “trailer trash” neighbors, even if it means seeing his home annexed as well.
Will Haywood’s efforts succeed? Can Georgia Dean and Joveeta save the day? And what about the expectant Lark?
You can find out starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets sell for $5 apiece, with dessert served at intermission.
The play is under the guidance of drama instructor Halie Luken.
