Ahoy, mateys! Aye, this Friday and Saturday night will be one of thrills and twists within pirates’ midst! The Davidson College Music Department’s opera workshop will present Gilbert and Sullivan’s entertaining operetta Pirates of Penzance on November 6 and 7 at 7:30 in Tyler-Tallman Hall.
Jacquelyn Culpepper, the current Artist Associate of Voice at the college will be directing this operetta along with the eloquent wit and stage direction of accomplished director and regisseur, Carey Kugler.
The cast of sixteen students, four faculty, two staff members, two community members and an alumnus combine their voltaic cascade of musical and theatrical talent to present an operetta that will ensure hilarity and musical vibrancy.
The lead roles are filled by Caitlin McCarville ’10 as Mabel, Rieti Gengo as Frederick, Jared Smith ’11 as the Major General and Daniel Tart ’11 as the Pirate King. Krista Johnson ’12 plays Ruth and Patrick Scully ’12 fills the role of Police Sergeant.
“This production is very much in ‘workshop style,’ ” Culpepper said. “That means the set is minimal with only three flats and costumes are not elaborate.” Interestingly, operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan have been quite popular with liberal arts institutions.
“The Opera Workshop class has met only one night a week since the first week of school, a daunting task alone,” Culpepper added. “That being said, the cast is doing a fabulous job. I call it ‘laugh therapy’ as well as ‘music therapy,’ and the production has brought people together who might never have met.”
Pirates of Penzance is a comical operetta in which Frederick, the son of a wealthy 19th century gentleman, was originally meant to be apprenticed to a pilot. Instead, because of his nearly deaf nursemaid, he was apprenticed to a pirate. And not just any pirate, mind you, but the Pirate King, leader of the not-so-fierce Pirates of Penzance.
Later, Frederick falls in love with the charming Mabel, but his vocation stands between him and marriage to his beloved. What ultimately becomes of this situation? Find out this weekend during the performance!
“Being in the show has offered me the ability to learn about musical expression and effect through an enjoyable medium,” Jared Smith ’11 said.“Often classical singers get caught in the technicality of vocal production and forget that our task is to entertain. That’s exactly what this show is teaching us to do: entertain.”
“Penzance is an opera, so I had to focus on my classical singing and technique more than I have done in other shows,” Johnson said. “It has been a lot of fun to work with all the people in the cast. The leads are all students; but we have professors, community members and even Fountain Walker in the cast! Overall it has been so much fun, and I can’t wait for people to come and see what we’ve done.”
McCarville also enjoyed her experience. “I’ve never had this big of a role in anything, and it solidified my decision to go to graduate school for vocal performance,” she said. “The hardest part is trying not to burst out into laughter during our rehearsals because Gilbert & Sullivan were genius, and the cast is very funny.”
Admission to the show is free. Because of limited seating, though, viewers are kindly asked to claim ther seats five minutes prior to the 7:30 start time. Tickets are required for attendance and are available at the Union box office. For further information, please contact dafruchtman@davidson.edu.
Aye, come then and enjoy Pirates of Penzance with a chum—yo ho’ ho’ and a bottle of rum!
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