Carson City acting troupe brings the Old West to life

Rimfire is a bit unusual as 19th Century Nevada towns go.

Although there's a saloon, a bank, a hotel, a cantina and a jail, Rimfire is the only town in the Silver State that can pack up and leave with its residents.

A false front is truly a false front in Rimfire, because the town is actually a stage set for the Nevada Gunfighters, an Old West theatrical troupe based in Carson City.

Founded in 1977 by brothers Sandy and Pete Scardina, the Nevada Gunfighters have been entertaining and educating audiences throughout Northern Nevada and Northern California for decades.

"We started off just playing around here and trying to have fun," Pete Scardina said. "From there it kind of escalated."

Scardina said the troupe has spawned other groups from members who have branched out and beyond. At least four other groups have been formed from the Nevada Gunfighters, Pete said.

"My brother was a cowboy and believed in the Old West a lot," Scardina said.

Troupe member Mike Perry, whose stage name is Big Montana Mike, has a long family heritage of ranching in the Big Sky State that goes back to the 1870s.

He said being an Old West performer just seemed like a natural fit for him.

"I brought my history into California, where I played with five different groups," he said. "I'm retired, and this is what I do pretty much full time now."

Perry is the newest member of Nevada Gunfighters. His association with the troupe began with an email to events coordinator and recruiter Bob Gillott, who said making that initial connection is the first step to becoming a Nevada Gunfighter.

"This is something that I had always wanted to do, but I didn't know how to get involved in it," said Gillott, whose stage name is Pronto Pike. "A friend of mine was with Sandy and Pete, and he was talking about it. I asked if I could do this, and so I went to a rehearsal, got signed up, and have been doing it ever since."

For Bob's wife, Sandy, whose stage name is Miss Emma, becoming part of an Old West theatrical troupe wasn't in her plans. It was more like happenstance.

"I was working in social services, and a guy I worked with had this picture on his desk of the group," she said. "I was intrigued by the costuming. I pointed to one guy (Gillott) and asked, 'is he single?' I've been here ever since."

Sandy Gillott said she met her husband, Bob, on the set. But what caught her eye and her interest first was the Victorian era wardrobe.

"I love to come dressed up," she said.

Troupe members Frank Freeland and John Miltonberger had careers in law enforcement and the U.S. Navy, respectively. Becoming Nevada Gunfighters turned out to fit them like the right kind of cowboy hat.

"I had just gotten out of the Navy in 2004," said Miltonberger, whose stage name is Augustus Ashe. "There was a show down at the Nugget that I went to see, and I said 'this is it, this is what I have been looking.' That day I joined."

Freeland, who plays William Wallace Byrnes on the set, said he also wanted to find his niche after having retired as a peace officer.

"I was looking for something to do, and I had an interest in the theater," he said.

Terry Smith, who plays Strawberry Tart, said she gradually integrated into the troupe. She said her husband was part of the Nevada Gunfighters, and she started by accompanying him to events.

"I just kind of came along for the ride," she said. "But once I got in it, I loved getting out there and loved the audience's reaction. I love entertaining people. It gives me a good feeling, because I know I'm doing something for them."

Entertainment is the modus operandi of the Nevada Gunfighters. Historical reenactment is part of the formula, Gillott said, but it is not what makes the troupe tick.

The stage is the thing. Putting on a good show that gives respect to and generates interest in the period of the Old West is the foundation of the designated 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

"Our philosophy is, do you look the part?" Gillott said. "Not the historical accuracy part, but the way the audience can identify you."

That said, the Nevada Gunfighters are very much dedicated to the preservation of Old West history.

Members do a fair amount of research to ensure everything from their costumes to their skits and the set are not only believable, but also based on Western heritage.

"We do a lot of research from pictures from the actual era to get that look, that atmosphere," Freeland said. "But we're not so concerned about thread count and the right buttons."

Gillott said the reenacting they do is more about getting the audience engaged than it is living history. He said that's how best to capture interest in the Old West, and to give it the respect it has earned.

"When the audience is able to look at one of us and say 'that's the bad guy,' that's far more important than being down to the correct stitching," he said.

The set of Rimfire, a fictitious Old West Nevada town, is a good visual example of creating a look that helps to tell a story. Seeing it for the first time gives spectators the feeling of being on a Western movie set during Hollywood's Golden Age.

"What it does is it gives a visual, gives it depth," Gillott said. "When people look at the set, it makes it kind of like you're watching a movie."

Rimfire has got all of the essential elements a Western town needs to tell a good story about the Old West.

The bank and the jail are natural attractors for outlaws looking to stir up trouble with the local lawdogs, whether it's a hold-up or attempting to break a gang member out of the clinker.

Then there's the saloon, complete with a solid wood bar, where trouble typically starts in a western movie and leads to confrontations in the street. Sometimes it's over a saloon girl, and at others it's about a card game gone wrong.

Either way, these tride and true scenarios work just as well on a hand-crafted theater set as they have done for decades on the silver screen.

Rimfire was constructed from the ground up by troupe members, who applied skills in carpentry, construction, design and detailing to make something special.

"This is a piece of art here, not just some pieces of wood slapped together," Freeland said.

The current set is larger than the original, Gillott said, so it takes longer to set up and take down. But it's also easier to handle and transport, too, made of lighter weight materials.

"We changed over all the two-by-twos and two-by-fours, and half inch plywood into aluminum and quarter inch plywood," he said.

Rimfire can take a day and a half to set up, Gillott said, because of all the detail that goes into the set to make it a realistic portrayal of the Old West.

"It's a dusty Old West town," Freeland called Rimfire. "It's got the flavor of the Old West."

Background art was painted by a former troupe member now living in New Mexico. Smith is the group's resident artist now, and she adds colorful details to the set in an effort to make it as believable and appealing as possible to audiences.

"She gets a lot of credit for the art as well," Freeland said. "We try very hard to keep the Old West atmosphere."

Preserving the memory of the American West through stage acting is certainly an integral part of why the Nevada Gunfighters do what they do. But they also educate and inform audiences of adults and children alike.

Another key piece of the whole entertainment package is demonstrations on firearm safety.

The Nevada Gunfighters are insured and certified by the National Rifle Association to teach gun safety, and they do it using their own unique brand of comedic play, Gillott said.

"It's not dead serious," he said. "We use whatever we can think of that might be humorous for the kids, and confuse the [master of ceremonies]."

Freeland, who serves as the program's MC, said the meat of the safety demonstration is based on the NRA's Eddie Eagle program.

"If you see a gun, don't touch it, walk away, and tell an adult," he said. "But it's not just about kids. It's for adults, too. If you are going to choose to have a gun in your house, as you have the freedom to do in this country, then you've got to keep them locked up and out of reach of children."

The get the point across about the dangers of firearms, the troupe uses a dummy they constructed and named it Slim. They bring him out and fire a few holes into him to show the damage a gun can do to a person.

"We make it dramatic by firing a hole into Slim, so the kids remember what a gun can do," Freeland said.

Smith said the troupe has a safety officer who checks the guns before and after every show to make sure they are unloaded.

Perry added that safety amongst one another is as important as safety with the audience.

"Before every show, we have our guns checked, and run dowels through them to make sure they are clear so there's no way that we're going to get in trouble," he said. "No real ammunition or real firearms are allowed anywhere on the set."

Freeland said the Nevada Gunfighters practice what they preach by educating themselves about gun safety and ensuring they stay current on training.

"Every member has to pass a gun safety class every year," he said. "We have documentation that we've been trained and tested on how to handle a firearm safely on stage. We're very big on safety around each other."

While some things, like safety training or stage set up, have to be planned and prepared for as a formality, many other elements of the show are shot from the hip.

Acting scripts are written out regularly for skits. But changes are often made at the last minute, either out of necessity or just to make things more interesting.

"We're very good on the fly," Perry said. "If something happens, we're very quick to ad lib."

Oftentimes a cast member will throw something into the skit that was not in the script, and everyone else just runs with it, he said.

"You never know what one of us is going to do," Perry said. "We either do something to get a laugh out of the crowd or to build some suspense that something's happening that we may not have talked about."

Smith said even whole scripts have been written at the last minute, too.

"We've actually sat down and written out a script the night before a performance," she said, "and fleshed it out the next day."

The ad-lib nature of the skits is a large part of what has made the Nevada Gunfighter shows so successful and entertaining over the years. But comedy wasn't always the basis of performance, Pete Scardina said.

"Back when we first started, we used blood packets and it got to the point where it was too gory," he said. "We've done away with that, because it left a bad impression of these guys laying on the ground all bloodied up. So we started going into a comedy-type style of western reenactments and it's taken off to the way that it is today."

While the Nevada Gunfighters take their trade as actors seriously in order to deliver a good performance, they never have and never will see themselves as exclusive.

Anybody and everybody who wants to be a part of the fun can join, Gillott said.

You don't need to be a history whiz or have any acting experience to join the troupe, he said. You will find your place among the ranks if your desire is to have fun.

"We are always accepting new members," he said. "You don't have to have any experience, and you don't even have to believe that you're any good at it, because you will be. If you're out here having fun, you will be. We're here to give you that chance. If we can get people to come in, that's what it's about."

The Nevada Gunfighters are performing at Mills Park throughout State Fair week. You can find them in the northwest corner of the athletic field across from the Carson City Community Center.

Three shows are scheduled for Saturday. The first at noon, followed by another at 4 and the last performance of the day at 9 p.m. On Sunday, shows are scheduled for noon and 3 p.m.

For more information about the Nevada Gunfighters or if you are interested in joining the troupe, visit their web site here or find them on Facebook.