PINEDALE – Just for a moment, it’s not a high school stage in Wyoming, but a run-down part of London where street waifs and orphans and passers-by all share one thing in common besides the need to scratch out a living – the overwhelming urge to belt out Broadway tunes.

It’s a practice night for Pinedale Community Theatre’s production of “Oliver,” the fifth musical in the community theater’s history. It’s a return visit for director Mark Hennessy, the visiting professional who is serving as an artist in residence in order to bring the whole thing together.

Hennessy, though trained in classical repertory theater, got his start in musicals. And because he had worked in Colorado with Kari DeWitt, now executive director of the Pinedale Fine Arts Council, he got an invitation some years ago to work with Pinedale Community Theatre’s musicals.

“It’s my third time up there,” Hennessy told the Pinedale Roundup. “I did it two years ago with ‘Oklahoma.’ And I did it two years before that with ‘Guys and Dolls.’”

The other musicals in the theater group’s history are “The Sound of Music” and “The King and I.”

“Oliver” takes place Oct. 26-28, Thursday through Saturday, at 7 p.m. in the Pinedale High School Auditorium. Tickets went on sale Oct. 7 and are available at Office Outlet locations in Pinedale and Big Piney, at the Cowboy Shop and online from the Pinedale Fine Arts Council at pinedalefinearts.com.

More than 70 people auditioned for the play and Hennessy chose 39 of them for the cast, the theater announced in a news release. Kyle Donaldson was cast as Oliver Twist while Parker Donaldson will perform as The Artful Dodger. Curt Haws was selected to play Fagin. Rhett Breedlove will play Bill Sikes, Sage Albrecht received the role of Nancy and Jamie Espeland is Bet. Greg Allen will play Mr. Bumble and Jocelyn Moore won the role of the Widow Corney.

Orphans/gang members will be played by Miranda Bousman, Sidney Wise, Otis Leniger, Eva Collins, Zeman Collins,  Adrianna Daniels, KayLee Bohnet, Noah Daniels, Reuben Allen, Konner Ziegler, Nolan Orm,  Adrienne Jones, Mia Haws, Travis Donaldson and Delaney Day.  

Additional roles were filled by Kim Buchanan, Scott Kosiba, Megan Anspach, Jaxon Buchanan, Ian McCusker, Matt Daniels, Mae Orm, Toby Allen, Ritamarie Martin, Sarah Murdock, Tillie Bennett and Logan Bing.

Making up the quartet are Chayla Saxon, Sabrina Donaldson, Adrianna Ruby and Shawn Buchanan.

It’s also a big production behind the scenes. Jo Crandall, a member of the community theater’s board who also works with costumes, said the 16 children and 23 adults who are acting in the play can’t get by on just 39 costumes.

“They all have at least one change of costume, and some of them have four changes,” Crandall said.

Crandall, who also oversees fundraising, said there is also a lot of administrative and bookkeeping work involved in pulling off a major production such as this.

“We figure that we are working with a budget of about $40,000,” she said. That includes costs such as paying for production rights, renting music and scripts and – importantly – paying for professionals from outside Pinedale to come work with the production as artists in residence. Hennessy, as director, has the greatest input, but the other visiting professionals during this production have included choreographer Jason Celaya, musical director/conductor David Dyer, lighting designer/engineer Doug Vogel and sound engineer David Rice.

Crandall said the idea of bringing in professionals, though there’s a financial cost involved, has been a big step in improving the quality of the theater group’s shows. “We decided that the way to grow was to bring in someone who knew more than we did. And it has worked,” she said.

The musicals have been a big hit with the community, but along with the fun and the music, Crandall said, each one has dealt with some serious underlying social issues.

Hennessy said that will be the case with “Oliver,” too, based as it is on Charles Dickens’ great novel, “Oliver Twist,” about an orphan getting along in the mean streets of London.

“I’ve always thought Dickens was an amazing storyteller,” Hennessy said. “It stays amazingly relevant. He was writing from some of his own experiences. His father was put into a debtors’ prison. Dickens was put into a working house.”

That is the backdrop for the novel-turned-musical.

“He was writing from what he knew about the mistreatment of children at the time.”