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COQUILLE — It’s a different world at the Sawdust Theatre.

For more than 40 years, the group has sold its 19th-century-set melodramas as an escape from the real world. In recent years, the group has experimented with twists on the melodrama formula, but one element has yet to be introduced: reality.

That will change with this season’s play, which is loosely based on the life of a real person, Camilla Lorenz Rietman. “Recipe for Disaster, or Camilla’s Culinary Quandary,” opens tonight at the theater in Coquille.

Rietman, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, was a lifelong Coquille resident and community benefactor. She donated to many institutions, including Coquille Valley Hospital, Oregon Health & Science University, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Southwestern Oregon Community College, the city of Coquille parks and library, and scholarships for Coquille High School students.

After the previous Sawdust Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1994, Rietman was among the largest donors to the effort to build the current theater, which opened in 1997.

But how does such a life form the basis of a melodrama?

“We take liberties,” said Edna Cotner, co-author and co-director of the play. “It’s a spoof.”

In her 20th year with the theater, Cotner is the least veteran of the group leading this play, which includes co-director Marcella Russell and co-author Cindy Robnett, who directs olios along with Lynda Poe.

Many details of the play reflect Rietman’s life, such as the Lorenz general store her father ran. There probably wasn’t a stash of gold in the basement, but then, considering the size of her donations, it can’t be ruled out.

As the play opens, villain Leopold Lecher (Marlin Christiansen, John Rieth) tunnels through the catacombs beneath Coquelle City toward Lorenz Dry Goods Store, where the expect to find gold belonging to the people of Sixes that was stolen from a stagecoach traveling from Brookings to Marshfield. Joining him in the search is lackey Or-Vile Krunk (Ralph Foord, Rick Green), who suffers from a skin condition with persistent itching.

Also in the tunnels is another pair hunting for gold: Vivian Van Vixen (Peggy Robison, Cotner), who has recently left Paris and abandoned her stage career as Miss VaVaVaVoom under mysterious circumstances that left her in need of dental work, and her handmaiden Fifi LaFluer (Deb Keeler, Shelby Moody), who dreams of being a dancer and can’t remember not to call Van Vixen by her former name.

Above ground, Camilla (Ryann Jack, Chloe Stevenson) asks her father, Henry (Ken Stratton, Dick McMahon), if he can afford to buy her some more cookbooks. Though business is good at the store, Henry is extremely frugal, frequently spouting financial advice that sounds like Poor Richard’s Almanac. Another reason for holding back is that he questions the value of the investment: As he and every other member of the family mentions, Camilla’s culinary skills are sorely lacking.

Camilla’s mother, Eugenia (Terri Russell, Tomi Francisco), who ends all of her sentences with “praise the lord,” returns from a meeting of the Jolly Girls of the West with two pieces of news: The group plans to establish a library in Coquelle City, and a dentist is due to arrive in town.

Cousin Mary Edna (Jamie Stratton, Dian Courtright) of Bandon is particularly excited about the library, so she won’t have to travel to Marshfield to get the romance novels she so enjoys, such as “Lust in Langlois” and “Passion in Powers,” which provide the play’s funniest recurring jokes. But Eugenia is hoping to fix up her daughter with the dentist, Carl Rightman (Sean Wirebaugh, Alexander Groble). (In real life, Camilla married dentist Carl Rietman.)

She plans to invite him to dinner, but Uncle Frederick (Arbie Gillaspie, Gerry Spanburger) wants to know who’s cooking: “It may put a suitor off should he require medical attention after one of Camilla’s meals.”

When the moment arrives, the whole family watches as Carl tries Camilla’s dish, and all are surprised to hear him pronounce it delicious. He admits he’s fallen for her smile, though he’s had few opportunities to see it with her nose always buried in a cookbook, and worries she doesn’t notice him as a result.

But as a cotillion nears, Camilla finds herself with two invitations: from Carl, and from Leopold, who introduces himself as a cookware salesman and promises to fuel her endless appetite for cookbooks.

Among the olios — unrelated musical interludes — farmers describe the results of genetic experiments on animals, and several women dance with walkers and canes, perhaps satirizing the aging of the group’s core performers, several of whom have been dancing with the theater for nearly 30 years.

Music is provided by June Jennings or Kerry Martinelli on piano and Butch Schroeder on banjo.

The show runs through Aug. 30. Performances are at 8 p.m. Saturdays and the following Fridays: tonight, July 18 and all Fridays in August. There are two matinees at 3 p.m. Saturdays, June 28 and July 12. Tickets are $12.50.