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G&S Deliver an Hilarious Parody of Gothic Melodrama
Director, Charles Richter. Musical Director, Jeremy Slavin. Conductor, Donald Spieth.
October 26 - November 4 in the Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts.
The G&S Tradition at Muhlenberg • The Creative Aritsts • Gilbert & Sullivan History
 THE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN OPERAS have enjoyed broad and enduring international success and are still performed frequently throughout the English-speaking world.The collaboration introduced innovations in content and form that directly influenced the development of musical theatre through the 20th century.
RUDDIGORE, or THE WITCH'S CURSE, is a delightful parody of standard Victorian melodrama: evil aristocrats, humble hero, innocent maid, the dastardly villain, the swarthy seaman, strange madwoman, fawning suitors and endless bridesmaids. The operetta puts everyone on a collision course with the witch's curse, stirring ruinous secrets, revelations of identity, and hilarious misdirections into a cauldron of questions on the nature of evil and the celebration of virtue.
Read The Morning Call's RAVE REVIEW!
"This is an operetta and as much about music as theater,and from the lilting, melodic notes of the opening overture, Donald Spieth's
live orchestra
brings magic to the glorious score."
2007 Production of RUDDIGORE - photo©JoeEdelman
THE STORY: Filled with madness, maidens, and musical merriment, RUDDIGORE tells the story of young Robin Oakapple - the rightful Baronet of RUDDIGORE - who has disguised himself as a shy young farmer in an attempt to escape the century-old curse placed on his family. The inescapable spell forces those who claim the title "Baronet of Ruddigore" to commit a daily crime or die in horrible agony.
Our young hero's absence has forced his younger brother Despard to assume both the title and the curse in his place. A crazy quilt of magic spells, ruinous secrets, and hilarious mistaken identities, the plot of RUDDIGORE spins into its cacophony of complications when Robin's foster brother, Richard, reveals Robin to be the true Baronet of Ruddigore and forces him out of hiding. The beautiful Rose Maybud, Robin's intended bride, fearfully recants her love, and Robin must find some ingenious way to circumvent the family curse if he is to win Rose Maybud and save his own soul.
"Charles Richter has conveyed his unabashed love and enthusiasm for Gilbert and Sullivan's flamboyant style of performing to his cast members.... Set designer Tim Averill has created a Disney-like fantasia -- an early 19th-century harbor village with orange thatched cottages festooned with flowering vines. Averill splashes the stage with vibrant colors. The background is vermilion. The foreground is a soft blue pastel sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds. A second set reveals the musty, melodramatic, dreary forbidding interior of Ruddigore castle. The dark chamber reeks with ghosts, vapors and mysterious alcoves. Constance Case's costumes complement the sets. Her chorus of 18 bridesmaids wears burnt orange, white paisley speckled, flounced dresses trimmed with white lace. The Villain's scarlet and black cape is sheer fashion artistry.
" Myra Outwater, theatre review, The Morning Call
"Ruddigore' operetta makes ghoulish fun of gothic tales" (themorningcall.com)
"Singing lyrics key..." (pennlive.com)
THE G&S TRADITION AT MUHLENBERG COLLEGE began on the Empie Stage in 1979 with The Pirates of Penzance, and the operettas became a staple of the early seasons of The Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre. The summer program staged The Mikado (twice), H.M.S. Pinafore (twice), The Pirates of Penzance (twice), Ruddigore, The Yeoman of the Guard, Iolanthe, and Patience from 1981 throu gh 1993. The Muhlenberg College Theatre has also produced Trial by Jury, Ruddigore,The Mikado, and most recently in 2005, The Pirates of Penzance. (Photo: The Pirates of Penzance 2005
with George Psomas as the Pirate King. Photo © Joe Edelman)
Director Charles Richter and Musical Director Jeremy Slavin have cast an unusual and fantastic chorus of ancestral ghosts and perpetual bridesmaids, double-cast eight of the nine wildly eccentric leading character roles, and added a 19-piece professional orchestra to the production. Richter is approaching Ruddigore for the third time in his three decades of directing for the theatre at Muhlenberg College, and he is keenly aware of the comic power of the double entendre, the opportunity to play more freely with the morality of the operetta a century after its debut, and the brilliance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ability to burlesque popular operatic style.
The student company of Ruddigore includes students from California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Featured players are Scott Parkinson '10 and Colin Hooker-Haring '10 (Robin Oakapple), Michael Biren '08 and J. Eric Stephenson '09 (Richard Dauntless), James Ludlum '09 and Nick Flatto '10 (Sir Despard), David Wrigley '08 and Joseph Power '08 (Old Adam Goodheart), Janelle Garipoli '08 and Melissa Frey '10 (Rose Maybud), Desirée Sedehi '08 and Kristen Kaelber '09 (Mad Margaret), Elizabeth Wasser '08 (Dame Hannah), Emily Herring '09 and Margaret Newcomb '10 (Zorah), Jenna McBreen '10 and Gina Zelko '11 (Ruth).
Troy Dwyer is the dialect coach for the production. Designing the late 19th-century costumes and scenic stage elements are Muhlenberg theatre faculty members Constance Case and Timothy Averill, respectively. Averill describes his Ruddigore designs as “19th century Disney.” Finding inspiration in Victorian children’s books and the landscape painter John Constable, Averill has created a set design with a delicate, translucent quality. “It’s a watercolor sensibility that uses light washes of paint that contrasts nicely with the darker colors of the costumes.” Donald Spieth, former music director and conductor of the Lehigh ValleyChamber Orchestra, will conduct the professional orchestra. Jonathan Evans '08 is designing lights, and Elizabeth Seavy '08 is choreographing the production.
 G.W. GILBERT and ARTHUR SULLIVAN
The genius of the partnership between Arthur Sullivan and G.W. Gilbert broke the divide between the British Music Hall and the European Opera Theatre brought musical theatre back to popularity for a wide range of classes in England in 19th century. Gilbert was an accomplished illustrator and satirist when D'Oyly Carte engaged him to collaborate with Sullivan, an established composer who could convey both the humor and the pathos of Gilbert’s lyrics.
Producer Richard D'Oyly Carte built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works—which came to be known as the Savoy Operas—and he founded the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and promoted their works for over a century. Gilbert created fanciful topsy-turvy worlds for these operas, where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion—fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates turn out to be noblemen. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote 14 operas together, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado are among the best known. Ruddigore was their ninth collaboration.
(Poster left:Elsie Griffin (Rose) and Bertha Lewis (Hannah)
in Doyly Carte Opera Company poster for Ruddigore.)
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CREATIVE ARTIST PROFILES:
Charles Richter (Director) is the Director of Theatre at Muhlenberg College, where he has taught and directed for 29 years. His productions of The Good Woman of Setzuan, The School for Scandal, and Spring Awakening were selected for presentation at American College Theatre Festival regional festivals; he has also directed, among others, Life’s a Dream, Cabaret, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, West Side Story and Oklahoma!. He is a founding artistic director of the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, former artistic director of the Pennsylvania Stage Company, and a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
Jeremy Slavin (Musical Director) has taught on the faculty of the Muhlenberg College Department of Music since 1976. He is one of the founding artistic directors of the SMT and directs the College Choir, Chamber Singers, and the Opera Group. A graduate of Chicago Musical College, he made his professional debut with the Chicago Chamber Opera in Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor. He has performed operatic roles in productions including Don Giovanni, Madame Butterfly, La Traviata, and Carmen. Jeremy was the musical director for the MTA productions of Dido and Aeneas, Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore, The Beggars's Opera, Candide and Street Scene and the SMT productions of The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Man of La Mancha, 42nd Street and Oliver! as well as for the host of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
Tim Averill (Scenic Designer) is associate professor of scenography in the Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance. He has been scenographer for MTA productions of Orpheus Descending, Life’s A Dream, Tartuffe, Pentecost, The Mikado and Dido and Aeneas, among others. His professional experience includes work for Glimmerglass Opera, Yale Repertory Theatre, Powerhouse Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Syracuse Opera, Arena Theatre of Buffalo, Theatre of the First Amendment, and MacHaydn Theatre.
Constance Case (Costume Designer) has designed the MTA productions The Beggar’s Opera, Pentecost, Brigadoon, Dido and Aeneas, The Country Wife, The Mikado, and Top Girls. She has designed dance costumes for Shelley Oliver, Karen Dearborn, Charles O. Anderson, Clare Byrne, Tiffany Mills and many other talented choreographers. Her work has also been seen at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Archives, Wolftrap, and the Woolly Mammoth.
Troy Dwyer (Dialect Coach) is an assistant professor of theatre. An actor, writer and VASTA voice and speech trainer, Troy has designed dialects for Muhlenberg stage productions of Dancing at Lughnasa, Lebensraum and Orpheus Descending; he has served as voice/text coach for Measure for Measure and Life's a Dream and co-wrote the new musical Lures & Snares with Beth Schacter and Mike Krisukas. Recently he wrote spoken-word text for Charles O. Anderson's TAR, performed by dance theatre X.
Donald Spieth (Conductor) has established himself as an outstanding conductor, orchestra builder, and educator. March 2007 marked the conclusion of the twenty-sixth year of Spieth's tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra (LVCO). He has held that same position with the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra for twenty-five years, and is Professor of Music and Head of the Music Department at Northampton Community College. Spieth is the Artist in Residence and Conductor of the Moravian College Community Orchestra andf the guest conductor of the recently created Monocacy Chamber Orchestra at Lehigh University. |
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