Melodrama begins at 3 p.m. Friday

Watching a melodrama isn’t quite the same as immersing yourself in the world of Shakespeare.

For one thing, you’re expected to boo and cheer as the action plays out onstage, and laughing out loud is encouraged.

“One of the key aspects is audience interaction,” says Annie Fale, who is directing “Rowdy Joe and the Lost Prospector’s Mine.”

The script makes this easy with “lots of bad puns, really bad puns. It’s all about the words and costumes,” Fale said.

This play, also titled “Baby, It’s Gold Outside,” will be presented during Miners Jubilee in the Iron Gate Theater, inside air-conditioned Basche-Sage Place, 2101 Main St.

Shows will be at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 16, and 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, July 17.

Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children age 10 and younger.

This western is set in a town called Delano, where Rowdy Joe Lowe has been missing for several weeks. The sheriff, Randall Rightman, can’t find a trace of the missing man, despite the “help” he receives from “Big Red” Beard.

Yep — Big Red is the bad guy, and his cohort is Mona Amplemounds. Turns out they’re holding Joe hostage until he reveals the location of the lost mine.

The plot thickens (a cliché, I know) when sweet Sharlene Angelheart arrives in town, newly orphaned and in search of Rowdy Joe, who was named her guardian.

Accompanying Sharlene is her aunt, Kate Crabapple.

The plot twists and turns — with a fair amount of those puns Fale mentioned, and Sheriff Rightman striking a hero pose with hands on hips whenever he takes the stage — until all is revealed at a surprise ending.

Which won’t be revealed here.

The cast is: Katie Horn as Sharlene Angelheart; Danielle Freese as Kate Crabapple; Chantal Arnold as Mona Amplemounds; Aaron Hull as Big Red Beard; Tyler Hughes as Randall Rightman; BJ Savage as Rowdy Joe Lowe; and Grace Fast as Billy Bowles.