The wonderful world of Disney would be nowhere if it weren’t for the genre of melodrama.

Boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back — it’s at the core of most Disney movies. And it’s at the core of playwright Chris Sorenson’s “The Colorado Colleen,” the latest melodrama to take the stage at The Butte Theater in Cripple Creek. Mounted by Colorado Springs-based production company Chameleon Arts & Entertainment and The Butte Theater, the show runs through July 13.

“The first day of rehearsals, I do a history of melodrama and how important it was, and how the Disney formula grew out of melodrama,” said director Betsy Acree-McClenahan. “So actors have substance before they start rehearsing, because the majority of the cast has never done or seen a melodrama.”

Set in 1893 in Cripple Creek, Eily O’Connor, the character known as Colorado Colleen, works at a house of ill repute but is secretly married to the show’s hero, so she doesn’t work much. The hero comes from an upper-crust family that finds itself in financial straits after the death of its patriarch. The hero’s mother wants him to marry his cousin, whose family can pay off her mortgage and save the family fortune. Enter the villain, a conniving lawyer, who hopes to marry the hero’s mother so he can buy Cresson Mine, a real-life mine that once existed in Cripple Creek.

“We try to incorporate as much of Cripple Creek as possible into the scripts,” Acree-McClenahan said.

The cast of nine, plus musical director and Cripple Creek Mayor Annie Durham, come from around the U.S., with two actors from Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Melodrama comes with its own singular set of expectations. Audience members can expect to be encouraged to loudly boo the dastardly villains and cheer the heroes, and actors can expect the noise, which doesn’t typically happen during a regular play or musical.

“Part of the thing with melodrama is to have that audience interaction,” Acree-McClenahan said. “We do a pre-show and go out and introduce the different characters and how to receive them on stage so the audience knows this is the expectation. We want audience participation.”

Durham also adds to the melodramatics by underscoring the show, meaning music gets played underneath everything happening on stage and changes when different characters enter the fray. Once the actors get comfortable with their lines and the underscoring, they’re put through another gauntlet.

“My staff might stand in the audience and boo and cheer so they get the sense,” said Butte Theater Manager Lauren Smith. “If performers are not used to the audience being vocal, it can be jarring and throw you off. I always like to throw some in here and there to help them out.”

Some theaters encourage actors in melodramas to respond to the audience’s boos and cheers. Not so much at The Butte, though the villain will sometimes do asides.

“Both styles are wonderful, but up here you’ll find it to be more along the classical line of melodrama,” Acree-McClenahan said. “Sometimes the villain can get away with a little more. If he doesn’t get enough boos, there might be a look, but it’s not pre-planned or excessive. It if it happens, it’s more impromptu.”