JACKSON -- When Tracy Fisher directed her first play at Jackson High School last year, a drama called "The Jury Room," she was dismayed when some of her actors and actresses began ad-libbing funny lines during the performances.

"They were trying to make it a comedy," she said.

The cast loved it and the audiences probably did, Fisher says.

"I didn't think it was funny."

This year, with her choice of staging "Donovan's Daughters," Fisher made sure the comedy was in the script.

"Donovan's Daughters" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the JHS Auditorium.

"Donovan's Daughters" is a romantic comedy with obvious parallels to "Taming of the Shrew" and maybe even "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Set in Seattle in 1895, it's the story of an Irish fisherman consumed by his mission to marry off his five daughters.

Ordinarily that would pose no problem in the female-deprived Northwest, but Donovan family tradition requires that the oldest daughter must marry before any of the others can.

And Katherine, the hot-tempered oldest, would much rather slug a man than marry one.

She flails away with a cast of 27, a kidnapping plot, two arch villains, feuding Indian tribes and some lumberjacks who make the Three Stooges look like Einsteins. That's "Donovan's Daughters," a lightweight entertainment written by a high school English teacher named Shirley McNichols.

High school students learn critical thinking skills from participating in drama, Fisher says. "It requires them to think beyond who they are."

She imagines that other students come to the performances thinking that acting is easy.

"It's not easy," she said. "You have to know the character, not just the action."

Despite its large size, this group of students has bonded well, Fisher says. And now that they're rehearsing in their lumberjack clothes and prim-lady skirts, they're getting serious about having some fun.

"Things don't seem real to the kids until they wear their costumes," Fisher says.