Gallery Players’ ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ starts Friday

Sept. 21--Until recently, Allen Wilkerson had no idea he bore a striking resemblance to Col. Buffalo Bill Cody.

Then Mark Hastings, manager at J.R. Tobacco in Burlington, urged Wilkerson to "take a look at the photo in the warehouse." The picture, of Buffalo Bill, shocked Wilkerson. He found out by researching the real-life Western performer that they also share the same home state -- Iowa.

He will play the rough-and-tumble sharpshooter in the Gallery Players' first production of the 2014-15 season, Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun." Showtimes are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m.Sept. 28, 8 p.m.Oct. 3-4 and 2 p.m.Oct. 5 at the Paramount Theater, 128 E. Front St., Burlington.

Wilkerson, who is originally from West Des Moines, Iowa, graduated with a degree in accounting in 1986 and worked in insurance for 14 years in Kansas City and St. Louis before relocating to California in 2001 to pursue acting. He moved to Burlington in 2009 and is now a sales representative at J.R. Tobacco. He's performed with the Gallery Players in "South Pacific," "Fiddler on the Roof" and in Paramount Acting Company's "Hermit of Fort Fisher" and "Carousel." He's been featured in films such as "Frost/Nixon" and on TV in such shows as TLC's "Untold Stories of the E.R." But he is best known for his impersonations, which include the voices of the late John Kennedy, Jack Benny, Humphrey Bogart and Mel Blanc's Bugs Bunny. The ability to assume another's voice has come in handy for "Annie Get Your Gun" as Wilkerson demonstrated at the Times-News recently.

"(This show) has put my stamina to the test," Wilkerson said.

He's also learned that the beloved songs "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Anything I Can Do, You Can Do Better" and "Moonshine Lullaby" originated in this musical.

"It's a great opportunity to learn and enjoy these tunes," he said of the show.

Perry Morgan, who serves as director for this show, also directed the production in early June at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre in Clinton, Iowa.

"It's a great script," Morgan said. "And it's a different experience in theater than just actors on stage the whole time. Buffalo Bill's troupe of actors are telling the story. Everybody is part of the storytelling."

Morgan is a professional actor and teaches musical theater at Greensboro College. His wife, Josephine Hall, is assistant professor of theatre at Greensboro College. Morgan taught in the Midwest as well and has performed in productions in New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Colorado and Louisiana. He also is a singer, composer, musical director/conductor and choreographer. He has appeared in a number of commercials and film projects including the film "Awakenings" in 1990.

Of "Annie Get Your Gun," he said "there are no big, colorful sets. It's a bare bones set -- think Bertolt Brecht meets Irving Berlin. It's also a beautiful, tender love story about a strong-willed woman who meets a strong-willed man and they agree to disagree and fall in love."

S. Elizabeth Carroll, who plays Annie Oakley, said she knew that Oakley was a superstar sharpshooter and she performed with Buffalo Bill's famous Wild West show, but "what I didn't know was that while she could outshoot any man, she was fiercely devoted to her husband, Frank Butler, and their relationship lasted for over 50 years."

"This show has challenged me in unexpected ways. First, I never thought I would need to learn tricks with a rifle. Second, as a classically trained vocalist, it was difficult to find ways to include the dialect and style of the Wild West vernacular in the beautifully composed score. I took special care to make Annie's speaking voice and her singing voice match so that it would not sound like two different people," she said.

There are so many "characters" in this show and Sitting Bull is definitely one of those. Claire "C.J." King, who plays Sitting Bull, said through research, she discovered that the Native American was "proud, strong, wise and very protective of Annie; he sees her weaknesses." Morgan, she said, has been willing to tweak the show a bit.

"Perry is fun to work with and very innovative. He knows his theater and loves little line add-ons and bits. He knows the show and he knows theater. Look at me, I'm cast as a male and he has a 92-year-old man cast as a little boy."

Kyle Southern, who plays Frank Butler, said he remembered studying Annie Oakley in school a little bit. Before auditioning, he thought the only song he knew from the show was "Anything You Can Do," but then he looked at the script and realized that these songs are timeless and catchy.

"I think my favorite motto that I've gotten from this show is 'aim high and you'll always hit. This has been true both for the show, and our rehearsal process, as we have been forced to always try newer and better things and constantly think far outside the box."

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