A SUMMER OF MEMORIES AT SIX FLAGS

EUREKA -- Children have called him stupid, but Chris Hayes doesn't mind. Dealing with the youngsters in the audience is just part of the acting job in Miss Kitty's Saloon at Six Flags Over Mid-America.

Hayes, 21, of Festus is one of three music majors at Southeast Missouri State University who are singing away their summer in the 200-acre amusement park.

The other two students are Heather Bollinger, 23, of Washington, Mo., and Joshua Rhine, 21, of Mount Vernon, Ill. All three are seniors at Southeast. For the past two years, Hayes and Rhine have roomed together.

Hayes plays the part of greasy-haired, blackened-tooth Charlie Slocum at the Miss Kitty show.

"He is really a hillbilly. He is Jesse James' stupid partner. He is just a sidekick. He is the one who gets a lot of laughs," explained Hayes. "I think Charlie has the most fun interacting with the crowd."

He says sometimes children can be mean, accusing him of being stupid. But Hayes enjoys reacting to the crowd.

"It is not just singing. It is like a musical theater thing. It has lines and they usually lead into songs."

Bollinger, who plays Miss Kitty, says the 35-minute show amounts to a short musical.

There are seven songs in the show, and the performers generally do six shows a day. There are three female and three male roles.

There is about a 20-minute break between each show. "You never have time to cool down completely so it is easy to come back," said Bollinger.

Rhine worked at Screen Stars, a diner in the amusement park, for much of this summer before moving over to the Miss Kitty show.

He performed with a female singer. They sang from a repertoire of 23 songs, accompanied by recorded music.

"It got very repetitious, but I do believe that I had the most freedom of any performer in the park. I could do any set of songs I wanted to," said Rhine. "I wasn't ready to go home at the end of the day."

Many customers came into the diner just to cool off in air-conditioned comfort. They didn't care about the singing.

"I learned a lot of improvisation there," said Rhine.

With the Miss Kitty show, where he plays both the bartender and a tonic salesman, he has to do more dancing.

The three students each work about four or five days a week.

The three students say they simply enjoy performing. They sang the national anthem at the Muny Opera and on another occasion at a St. Louis Cardinal ball game this summer.

Bollinger loves opera and classical music. She wants to go to graduate school and eventually hook up with an opera company.

While the Miss Kitty show is no opera, Bollinger has enjoyed the summer job. "All the costumes are wonderful. They make you feel definitely in character when you put them on."

When he landed the job, Hayes found out he was going to be doing about 500 shows over the summer. "I was really afraid it would drag down and get old really quick. But it is really interesting. Every show is different."

On one occasion, a member of the audience jumped up onto the stage and began dancing with the cast.

Said Bollinger, "At least, we have definitely learned this summer how to handle ourselves in a live production."

Miss Kitty's can accommodate an audience of about 200. In such an intimate setting, the audience is part of the show.

Before every show, the performers serve drinks and refreshments to the audience. That interaction with the audience is something that delights Hayes. "It is a lot of fun to just try to stay in character the whole time."

All three students are enrolled in fall semester classes at Southeast. But from the end of August through September, they will be returning to Six Flags to perform on weekends.

The students will also participate in the amusement park's Halloween show in October.

Hayes and his fellow students view their Six Flags jobs as a training ground for their future singing careers.

Hayes says Six Flags isn't Broadway. But then, Broadway doesn't have Charlie Slocum.