Bulls, Bluster, Swagger – Riverfront & Rodeo
‘Tohidu’ brings Western flair to Riverfront Playhouse…
With the Redding Rodeo and all its related goings-on getting into gear this month, Riverfront Playhouse board members were looking to join in the fun with a Western-themed play to produce at their downtown theater. As it turns out, Lisa Collins had already written the perfect project and had it right in her hip pocket: “Tohidu,” a story of cowboys, buckin’ bulls, mystical characters and even a dog.
An actor, director and playwright who has been active in community theater for decades, Collins wrote “Tohidu” in 2011 when she and her husband, Bill, were running New Radio Theater, a local company that produced weekly plays that were performed on radio station KNCR (1460 AM).
“Tohidu,” a Cherokee word meaning peace of mind, body and spirit, is the story of Lee Montana, an arrogant country western celebrity and ex-bull rider who agrees to perform at the Redding Rodeo, but only if he is allowed to ride Ruthless, an infamous bull who has defeated all challengers.
Full of bluster and swagger, Montana bullies all he comes in contact with until he encounters Crazy Larry, “a ragged but mystical transient who may be the only voice that can get through to Lee before it’stoo late.”
John Welsh, a veteran actor with a list of credits a mile long, had the role of Crazy Larry in the original radio production and enjoyed it so much he produced “Tohidu” for Scratched Up Radio Theater on Round Mountain-based radio station KKRN (88.5 FM). Welsh encouraged Collins to adapt her play for the stage.
Transforming “Tohidu” from an hour-long radio play to a three-dimensional stage production required “beefing it up a little,” says Collins. To spice things up, she introduced a new character: Sam Mosely, a female rodeo clown (played by Erinn Brennan) whose presence irritates Montana to no end.
Ruthless the bull – who Collins says was inspired by Red Rock, the legendary bull who had a 311-0 record when the late Lane Frost successfully rode him at the Redding Rodeo in 1988 – will be represented by a set of horns. Cast member Rita Schopflin and her sister, Lena Quigley, created an ethereal horse puppet that will be operated by puppeteer Felise Esposito.
To more fully capture the nitty-gritty of rodeo life, Collins and her cast and crew were invited to the Redding Rodeo arena in April to take a tour and get an up-close look at how a bucking chute operates. Lee Luft, Redding Rodeo’s arena director and a cowboy with more than 40 years of rodeo experience, led the field trip.
“She’s been pretty engaged with the team,” says Ted Bambino, president of the Redding Rodeo Association. Bambino says he’s excited that Collins has set “Tohidu” in and around the Redding Rodeo. “I think it’s pretty cool. It’ll be good for the community to kind of pull the culture of rodeo and downtown together. It’s another chance to enhance rodeo month and that’s a real added value.”
Collins directs the play and Welsh returns to the role of Crazy Larry; Dan Beckman has been cast as Montana. Others in the 20-member cast include Addison Copley as Dani, a character Collins describes as “hopelessly horse crazy” and a huge fan of Montana.
Collins can trace her own interest in all things Western to her childhood in Marin County, where she grew up riding horses. She remembers wearing cowboy outfits while at a nursery school in Sausalito, competing at a little rodeo in Fairfax and riding in the color guard ceremony at the Grand National Rodeo in the Cow Palace.
Later, at the age of 18, she worked at the Orme Ranch summer camp in Arizona. Some of her charges at the working cattle ranch included children of Jordan’s King Hussein and one of entertainer Glen Campbell’s sons.
“I grew to have great respect for cowboys and the cowboy way,” Collins says.
“Tohidu” opens at 7:30 pm May 9 and continues on weekends through May 25 with 2 pm matinees on May 11, 18 and 25. Tickets are $20. A “pay what you can” preview is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. May 8 with a suggested minimum donation of $5.•
Riverfront Playhouse
1950 California St., Redding
(530) 221-1028 • www.riverfrontplayhouse.net
