Jessica Scogin, left, playing the role of Flora, and Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, perform a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, performs a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Jessica Scogin, left, playing the role of Flora, and Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, perform a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Jessica Scogin, left, playing the role of Flora, and Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, perform a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Director of "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery) Fiona Thornton, center, works with Jessica Scogin, left, and Steve Hoecker during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton.
Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, performs a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Jessica Scogin, left, playing the role of Flora, and Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, perform a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Jessica Scogin, left, playing the role of Flora, and Steve Hoecker, playing the role of Dirk Dagger, perform a scene from "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery)" during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton. The three-person, Vaudeville-inspired play will debut on Friday, April 29 at the White Pass Country Historical Society Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Director of "The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch (and other foolery) Fiona Thornton, center, works with Jessica Scogin, left, and Steve Hoecker during a rehearsal on Thursday, April 21 at the Roxy Theatre in Morton.
Fred Schwindt can think of no better place for the Roxy Players traveling troupe to debut its summer traveling melodrama than at the Mountain Festival this weekend.
Though the Roxy is in Morton and the Mountain Festival is in Packwood, they’re interconnected by one thing — tourists.
“It benefits everybody,” Schwindt said. “We really want Packwood to develop. Really, Packwood should be the Jackson Hole of Washington.”
Many East Lewis County towns have worked in recent years to redefine how their communities and economies would look after the closure of many timber and other manufacturing jobs. For many people, the solution lies along U.S. Highway 12, which is traversed by travelers year round.
It is those tourists Morton’s Roxy Theater is hoping to entertain with their “Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch” show, which will debut at Friday and Saturday night at the Mountain Festival and then continue at the Roxy Theater and possibly other locations during the month of July.
Schwindt, a member of the Fire Mountain Arts Council, said he has supported the idea of a summer stock style show at the Roxy for many years as a way to provide something for visitors to do during summer evenings. He said he once visited an old fashioned vaudeville-style melodrama in a small Montana town and was fascinated by the idea. Schwindt said he would ideally like to see a location such as the Morton Loggers Jubilee arena serve as the location for outdoor food and theater in Morton.
“The Scoundrel of Dagger Gulch” tells the story of hero Preston Goodly who is working to save the lovely Daisy Darling from Dirk Dagger's evil plot. Schwindt said the story is culled from many different traditional melodrama stories.
“It has all the good versus evil where good always wins over evil and there’s not a lot of character development,” Schwindt said. “It’s a funny genre where the audience participates with ‘boos’ and ‘yeahs.’ It’s developed to be good, family fun entertainment.”
The show perfectly fits the theme of the Mountain Festival, said Janice Grose, president of the White Pass Country Historical Society, which runs the White Pass Country Historical Museum. She explained the long-standing event was started many years ago by Packwood community leader Rose Bliss as a family-friendly event.
“It’s a celebration of our heritage and it was meant to be family fun,” Grose said. “It is a kickoff to spring. It really does take everyone to bring together, like they had to work together in the olden days to survive in our area.”
When the White Pass Country Historical Society took over coordinating the Mountain Festival at least 10 years ago, members decided to stay true to the event’s original vision. Much of the event focuses on the native and pioneer heritage of the Packwood area.
The native family who will be highlighted at this year’s Mountain Festival will be William and Jim Yoke and families, who are related to the Yakaima Nation. On the native side, some of the offerings include storytelling as well as a spectacular drum ceremony presented by Grandfather Roy Wilson of the Cowlitz Tribe and the 3 Mountain Clan.
This year’s highlighted pioneer family will be John, Martha and August Snyder. Pioneer celebrations include demonstrations on old-fashioned activities such as flint knapping and gold panning. Traditionally in the past a quilt show was staged the same weekend as the Mountain Festival. Grose said while there is no longer a separate quilt show, 30 handmade quilts will be on display in the museum during the event as a nod to that history.
And while the festival’s focus makes it a draw for local families, Grose noted that all visitors will find something to love about it.
“We often get people from Eastern Washington and Oregon who come for it. And we have this wonderful teepee that we put up by the side of the highway and some people see it and stop in,” Grose said. “We have a lot of people who travel for it but our local people keep it going.”
