(Photo courtesy of High Desert Community Theater)

The High Desert Community Theater Presents! Altar Egos (The I Do’s and Don’ts of an American Wedding). “All we want is a simple wedding,” agree Mark and Colleen as they get engaged. And their simple wedding stays simple, for about two minutes. Then the families get involved.

There are the McMasters, who think the Frobishers are a bunch of snooty dudes, and the Frobishers, who picture the McMasters as a crowd of hillbillies.

The bride’s father keeps offering the soon-to-be-wed couple thousands of dollars to elope, “No questions asked!”

The bride’s mother decides to call in her sister, who is a sweet, lovely woman, until she becomes “The Coordinator.”

The groom needs a best man so he enlists his uncle Josh, who’s an old hippie.

The bride’s kid sister can’t wait for the wedding either, since she gets the bride’s old room, if she can talk Dad out of it, who wants it for a den, if he can talk Mom out of it, who wants it for a quilting room.

The two mothers are literally dueling over the rehearsal dinner seating chart while the bride and groom wonder where it all went wrong.

Throw into this mix football referees, tailors, circus ringmasters, caterers and even an interpreter and you get just some of the Altar Egos. Written by Pat Cook and produced by special arrangement with Eldridge Publishing Company.

Altar Ego will be performed by the High Desert Community Theater on October 25-27 at 7pm and October 28 at 2pm at The Madras Performing Arts Center. Tickets are free and available at the Madras Chamber of Commerce and the Culver City Hall. Donations are gladly accepted at the door.