The Pirates of Penzance (2007)

Gibert & Sullivan's
The Pirates of Penzance
(or The Slave of Duty)

June 8-17, 2007

Directed by Guillaume Tourniaire
Music Direction by Joseph Sorge

Cast

Mabel - Sarah Minckler
Frederic - Matthew Heil
Major General - Gary Sullivan
Pirate King - Ryan Power
Sergeant of Police - Blair Eig
Ruth - Karen Fleming
Samuel - David Dubov
Edith - Patricia Portillo
Kate - Ashley Bibby
Isabel - Madeleine Smith
Boy - Noah Friedlander (6/8, 6/10, 6/16),
Alex Desjardins (6/9, 6/15, 6/17)
Girl - Rebecca Sullivan (6/8, 6/10, 6/16),
Grace Brigham (6/9, 6/15, 6/17)

Ensemble - Meredith Beringer, Felicity Ann Brown, Ed Byrdy, Tony Dwyer, Wanda Flinn, Annie Gribbin, Lucy Hellerman, Tara Hockensmith, Rand Huntzinger, Adam Jackson, Donna Jaffe, Lyle Jaffe, Ralph Johnson, Marianna Martindale, Carlton Maryott, Jane Maryott, Kenny Maryott, Alexandra Morton, Heather Sperry

Orchestra

Violin 1 - Steve Natrella (CM), Bonnie Barrows, Carolyn Larson David Friedlander
Violin 2 -Martin Brown, Peter Mignerey, Irv Berner, Edwin Schneider, Erin Grace
Viola - Amanda Laudwein, Victor Ontiveros
Cello - Andrew Schneider, Laurie Brown, Michael Stein
Bass - Pete Gallanis, Alice Mignerey
Flute - Jackie Miller, Louise Hill
Oboe - Lori Guess
Clarinet - Laura Langbein, Laura Bornhoeft, James Bensinger
Bassoon - Richard Sargeant, Susan Reynolds
Horn - James Kocsis, Deb Kline, Kathleen Bartolomeo
Trumpet - Curt Anstine, Bernie Rappaport
Trombone - Steve Ward, Alan Potter, Frank Eliot
Percussion - George Huttlin

Production Staff

Producers - Felicity Ann Brown, Denise Young
Assistant Music Director - Jenny Craley Bland
Choreography - Guillaume Tourniaire, Felicity Ann Brown, Jane Maryott,
Carl Maryott, Lucy Hellerman, Annie Gribbin, Alexandra Morton
Assistant to the Director - Julie Stevens
Stage Manager - Kiersten Whitehead
Assistant Stage Manager - Tony Dwyer
Lighting Designer - Robert Wilson Timmerman
Scenic Design Artist - Varvara Tourniaire
Set Design Consultant - James Douglass
Costume Designer - Jennifer Gavin
Costume Construction -Hannah Whitney, Deborah Peetz, Sarah Huntzinger
Master Carpenter - William Kolodrubetz
Set Construction - Ed Byrdy, Tony Dwyer, Dave Kaysem, Rick Albani,
                             Les Elkins, Peter Oliver-Krueger
Set Painting - Felicity Ann Brown, Tara Hockensmith, Sandra Huntzinger,
                      Rand Huntzinger, Sarah Huntzinger, Lyle Jaffe, Donna Jaffe,
                      Marianna Martindale, Carl Maryott Doug Maryott, Kenny
                      Maryott, Jane Maryott, Alexandra Morton, Patricia Portillo,
                      Marina Ruiz, Madeleine Smith, Heather Sperry, Gary Sullivan,
                      Rebecca Sullivan, Robert Timmerman, Guillaume Tourniaire
Program - Ali Oliver-Krueger
Publicity - Sandy Rovner
Properties - Carlton Maryott, Jane Maryott
Educational Outreach programs - Debbie Niezgoda, Kiersten Whitehead
Technical Director (Rockville Civic Center) - Kim Haug
Theater Supervisor - Joseph Palamara
House Management - Merle Haber
Set Storage - Rockville Civic Center

Special Thanks to: City of Rockville, Grace Episcopal Church,
                              Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Pete Silvia
                              Luis Yliquin and the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel,
                              & The Willard Intercontinental Hotel

Director's Note

“A rollicking band of pirates we”
My interest in pirates is long-standing. In Brittany, across the Channel from Penzance, stands my mother’s hometown of St. Malo. As I child, I ranged
along its fortified rampart walls, which in the 18th century protected massive wealth accumulated partially by trade, but mostly by privateering. The gentlemen of St. Malo would close their respectable shops at week’s end, and go to sea with Letters of Marque: permission to raid foreign ships. They amassed fortunes, cementing their position and building palatial homes. One of them, Robert Surcouf, even earned the title “Le Roi des Corsaires” (The Pirate King) for the millions of francs he captured in gold, goods, and ships.

“As a child, I was regularly apprenticed to your band”
One of the highlights of working with VLOC is the family aspect of our shows, sometimes encompassing three generations of performers. In considering
the silliness and exuberance of Pirates, and the many threads tying it to Peter Pan, Treasure Island, and other tales, I decided to tell it as a children’s
story – seen from their perspective. Boy and Girl represent the children in the audience, and in us. Not allowed to stay up for the party, they go to sleep,
imagining what the adults must be doing. This is their dream, where they are a part of the story, skipping and marching alongside sisters, pirates, and policemen.

“Yes, yes, let’s talk about the weather”
Although I understand the conceit of Frederic being born in leap year, how can one explain the lovely spring-like weather at the English seaside in late
winter? Consulting the almanac (for both 1873 and 1877) does not reveal a particularly warm February 28th, near noon. The Scottish touch added to the
Major General and his family is purely hypothetical, but all things being relative, who else might consider Penzance’s climate in late February to be so
agreeable?

“They are all noblemen who have gone wrong”
At the end, are the pirates confessing who they really are, or is this simply a ruse to escape the law? Most productions portray them as pirates pretending to be gentlemen, but I began tinkering with the idea of gentlemen playing at pirates. This brings us to the setting of our production, set in the late Victorian, early Edwardian year of 1897. A century and a half after the Golden Age of Piracy. The members of the Penzance Boat Club gather once again to escape their lives of respectability and domesticity, and indulge in a bit of unbounded felicity.

“Let’s vary piracy …”
Some lines peppered throughout this production have been restored from early versions of the libretto, from the premieres in New York, Paignton, and London.

“… with a little burglaree”
Regarding the Overture, my apologies to Tchaikovsky. But if Gilbert might have stolen from Offenbach’s Les Brigands, I can borrow from The Nutcracker.

Synopsis

Frederic was as a child apprenticed to a band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates by his nurse who, being hard of hearing, had mistaken her master's instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Frederic, upon completing his 21st year, rejoices that he has fulfilled his indentures and is now free to return to respectable society. But it turns out that he was born on February 29 in leap year, and he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday. By the end of the opera, the pirates, a Major General who knows nothing of military strategy, his large family of beautiful but unwed daughters, and the timid constabulary all contribute to a cacophony that can be silenced only by Queen Victoria's name.

Settings:
Act I - Around midday, on a warm February 28th, 1897. A rocky sea-shore on the coast of Cornwall.
Act II - Later that week, well past twilight. A ruined chapel by moonlight.

Musical Selections

Act I

Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry (Pirates & Samuel)
When Frederic was a Little Lad (Ruth)
Oh, Better Far to Live and Die (Pirate King, Pirates)
Oh, False One, You Have Deceived Me (Frederic, Ruth)
Climbing Over Rocky Mountain (Girls, Edith, & Kate)
Stop, Ladies, Pray! (Frederic, Edith, Kate & Girls)
Oh, Is There Not One Maiden Breast (Frederic, Mabel & Girls)
Poor Wandering One! (Mabel & Girls)
What Ought We to Do (Edith, Kate & Girls)
How Beautifully Blue the Sky (Girls, Mabel & Frederic)
Stay, We Must Not Lose Our Senses (Frederic, Girls & Pirates)
Hold Monsters (Mabel, Samuel, Major-General, Girls & Pirates)
I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General (Major General, Girls & Pirates)
Oh, Men of Dark and Dismal Fate (Major General, Pirate King & Ensemble

Act II

Oh, Dry the Glistening Tear (Girls & Mabel)
Then, Frederic, Let Your Escort Lion Hearted (Major General & Frederic)

When the Foeman Bears His Steel (Sergeant, Mabel, Edith, Major General, Police & Girls)
Now for the Pirates’ Lair (Frederic, Pirate King & Ruth)
When You had Left Our Pirate Fold (Pirate King, Ruth & Frederic)
My Eyes are Fully Open (Frederic, Ruth & Pirate King)
Away, Away! My Heart’s on Fire (Ruth, Pirate King & Frederic)
All is Prepared (Mabel & Frederic)
Stay, Frederic, Stay! (Mabel & Frederic)
Sorry Her Lot (Mabel)
No, I am Brave! (Mabel, Sergeant & Police)
When a Felon’s not Engaged in His Employment (Sergeant & Police)
A Rollicking Band of Pirates We (Pirates, Sergeant & Police)
With Cat-Like Tread, Upon Our Prey We Steal (Pirates, Police, Samuel, Frederic, & Pirate King)
Hush, Hush! Not a Word (Frederic, Pirates & Police)
Sighing Softly to the River (Major-General & Ensemble)
Poor Wandering One (Company)