SIMLA • This tiny farming community has a lot going for it: there’s a gas station, nursing home, newspaper office, Methodist church, a thrift shop.

It’s seven square blocks of small-town Americana. A classic blink-and-you’ll-miss-it burg for motorists zipping between Colorado Springs and Limon on U.S. Highway 24.

Now it can boast a cultural revolution, too.

Simla has a drama troupe.

So what if it’s a troupe of amateurs who work for applause and provide their own costumes for a shot of fame on the plains.

It’s theatre.

The troupe of nine is busy at work on their next production on Aug. 8 in Simla Park and maybe a few other free venues around Elbert County.

Simla Branch Library program director Patty Carman started the drama troupe last fall to bring that theatrical experience to this town of about 660.

“I was at a town meeting and someone said: ‘Oh, it would be fun to have a play,’ ” Carman said. “I thought: Hmmm . . . I always wanted to be part of a theatre troupe. It was on my bucket list.”

So, she put out a call for actors.

“Scruffy actors,” is how she put it.

She got six takers for last November’s one-act comedy, “A Dollar.” It drew a standing-room-only audience in the library.

Three of the six actors opted not return to the stage for the August show.

“They said: ‘No, not in the summer,’ ” Carman said.

People in this 122-year-old former Rock Island Railroad town are too busy when the days are long and warm.

There’s also competition from another arts group: A community choir that recently started.

No problem. Six new members joined the drama cast for the upcoming production, two one-act fairy-tale spoofs of Pinocchio and Snow White.

Plays come from the royalty-free book. That’s the criteria for play selection for the no-budget troupe.

The current crew of actors, ages 13 to 55, are giving up summer evenings to rehearse in the Simla Library, where cheers from the nearby ball field filter into the troupe’s evil cackles and clever banter.

“I’m trying to get rid of my stage fright,” said newcomer Ashlee Light, 15, who plays a green-conscious Snow White. “I want to be famous.”

Actors picked their parts. Or, in some cases, the parts picked them.

“I love being the evil queen,” said Hayley Bandy, 17, cackle diva extraordinaire in Snow White. And she’s already mastered the mojo of a modern fairy godmother in the Pinocchio tale.

She’s good, but she doesn’t plan to quit her day job working at a grocery store.

Hyun Su Min, a 15-year-old exchange student from South Korea, joined the troupe to improve her English. She’s the narrator.

“I hope I don’t make a mistake,” she said.

Not to worry. Returning actor Micah Gilbertson, 16, said mistakes are acceptable. 

“We got stuck, like half the play. We kept going,” he said of the last play. “We ad-libbed a good part of it.”

Nobody noticed, he said.

Well, Carman did. This time, she’s exclusively playing the role of director.

“I’m going to stay back, so if somebody does forget a part . . .”  she said.

Katy Kabler hid behind her beard in the last production.

“I played an old man,” said Kabler, 55.

She came back for more drama. “This time I’m Dopey.”

It’s about as off-Broadway as you can get, but it suits these stage stars just fine.

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DETAILS:The Simla Branch Library Drama Troupe will perform “Snow White and Friends: A Fairy Tale Spoof” and “Pinocchio in Equal Opportunity Land: A Modern Turnabout” in Simla Park on Aug. 8 in the afternoon (they haven’t set a time yet). 

Admission is free.

The troupe is available to perform on your stage.

For information: pcarman@elbertcountylibrary.org or www.elbertcountylibrary.org or 719-541-2573

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Contact the writer at 636-0253.

Actress Katy Kabler, left, director Patty Carman, and narrator Hyun Su Min read the play “Snow White and Friends” as the Simla Branch Library Drama Troupe rehearses Wednesday, June 16, 2010, at the library in Simla. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

Christian murdock