Ghostoric ranch: GhostWalk 2004 offered eerie entertainment

The great outdoors was the setting for "Good Squad" by John Nichols, a tale of the early labor struggle as told by a passionate Wobbly, portrayed by hunky Tobias Peltier, whose soapbox can be considered even more relevant today. Peltier mixed the story of his death at the hands of the goons with a rousing speech about worker rights.Through the massive barn replete with silent ghouls and mysterious smoke one met up with "The Spectral Sheepherder of Wheeler Canyon," the tale of a baaa-d cattleman played by Louie Hengehold, who co-authored the tale with Jeff Rack. This high-energy story of a sheepherder’s murder showed the guilty cattleman’s eternal punishment of watching over what he hates most – sheep. If the two sheep – billed as Ovis Aries – co- stars were more interested in eating than acting, Santa Paula Union High School drama students were on hand – but unseen - to provide the obvious sound effects.Sitting and drinking beer in "Odem’s Pumpkin Patch" the ghost of the farmer himself told a tale of too high of spirits – in more ways than one – in trying to rid himself of the competition. Odem lives by the pumpkin and ultimately dies by the pumpkin, and in the afterlife he continues to be surrounded by the fruits – or should we say vegetables? – of his labor.William Mulholland traces his own rise and fall – the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam – in "Elusive Epitaph" where the once celebrated engineer agonizes over what went wrong in a story by Mitch Stone and portrayed by Doug Friedlander. Mulholland’s pain and confusion was wrenching to see and by the end of the tale – which was staged at the ranch’s water well station - you truly believed his genuine words about wishing he had joined the dam collapse dead.It was back to a front porch for the "Citrus Mistress," the most disturbing tale centering on the inamorata of a married man who confronts his unseen wife with brutal and deadly results. The paramour’s spinning Ouija board guide and a fallen chair were among the special effects that could not compete with the death throes of Cristina Minzi as she was graphically strangled to death by the outraged wife, who obviously also wouldn’t let her man go.Next year’s GhostWalk will have a lot of competition - from itself - to top this year’s excellent production.