"Annie Get Your Gun" hits Havre

"Annie Get Your Gun," a 1946 fictional Broadway musical based on real-life sharpshooter Annie Oakley, will be performed by 23 Havre High School actors this week.

Opening night is Thursday. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the play starts at 7:30 p.m. The same time applies to Friday and Saturday. A 2 p.m. matinee performance on Saturday will also be an option.

The actors and orchestra had their last rehearsal Tuesday afternoon.

Director Angela Pratt said the students are performance-ready.

"We've got a few little things - we always have things to fine tune and stuff," she said. "Yeah, I think they're ready."

Pratt went through her fine-tuning notes with her actors after the rehearsal. She reminded the students to smile, pretend they're having fun and stay in character.

"Frank said 'frickin'," she said, laughing. "We just jumped about 100 years."

Aside from getting guns approved in the school - yes, they're fake guns, she said - Pratt said the orchestral composition was the biggest challenge.

"It's Irving Berlin. As a composer, he's very difficult, very jazz-harmonious - the songs are not real logical," she said. "That's hard for a lot of students to learn in a short amount of time."

This year, the play will be using a school orchestra instead of the community orchestra. Pratt said the new band director was "gung ho" about the idea.

"Now we have a new director and he's really excited about doing it. So it's awesome," she said.

Pratt said Randi Ruhkamp, the actress playing Annie, is the reason she chose "Annie Get Your Gun."

"Because I had that girl," Pratt said, "and I knew she was a senior. She's done really well over the years and has grown a lot as an actress."

For Ruhkamp, this will be her first leading role and she said the many lines makes her a little nervous.

Ruhkamp said said it takes a lot to be Annie.

"When she comes in, she's like the entire show. I have no time to change once I go off stage. I maybe have like a page of the script to maybe get into a ball gown, or something like that," Ruhkamp said. "And she has such a big personality and I really want to do it justice."

But she said she is happy and excited to play the role.

"I also think she's a lot like me. I see myself in her sometimes," Ruhkamp said.