Scenes from our 2012 shows
Watch our Trial by Jury video!
(Matinee performance)
Videography by Larry Engler, www.JustShootMeVideo.com
Watch our Pinafore video!
(Matinee performance)
Videography by Larry Engler, www.JustShootMeVideo.com
Music Director: John Dreslin
Artistic Director/Choreographer: Bob Cumming
Trial by Jury Cast
| The Learned Judge The Plaintiff The Defendant Counsel for the Plaintiff Usher Foreman of the Jury Court Recorders Bridesmaids ” ” Gentlemen of the Jury ” ” ” Spectators ” ” ” ” Paperboy |
David Schancupp / Ralph Sherman Renee Haines / Laura Heckmann Mike Reynolds Craig Martin Laurie Weissbrot Nathan Rodriguez / John Freedman Bill Sorensen, Sharon Connal Webster Kathryn Bowden, Rachel Cook, Laura Heckmann, Andrea Olson, Julie Rumbold, Emma Wood, Bonnie Jean Connal, Pat Sloan Hal Chernoff, Mark Callahan, Phil Faraci, Bill Faye, John Freedman, Kevin Gherard, Ben Henderson, Dave Henderson, Don Shirer, Tom Speer, Dave Unsworth Cristina DiMuro, Wendy Falconer, Julia Faraci, Rhoze Faraci, Kevin Gherard, Linda Henderson, Richard Kelpen, Tori Kelpen, Kay Pere, Denise Shultzman, Connie Unsworth, Peter Wilhelmsen Samuel Connal Webster |
H.M.S. Pinafore Cast
| Captain Corcoran Josephine (The Captain’s Daughter) Ralph Rackstraw (Able Seaman) The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B. Little Buttercup (A Bumboat Woman) Dick Deadeye (Able Seaman) Bill Bobstay (Boatswain’s Mate) Hebe (Sir Joseph’s First Cousin) Bob Becket (Carpenter’s Mate) Sir Joseph’s Sisters, Cousins and Aunts ” ” ” ” ” ” Sailors ” ” ” Midshipmite Marines Understudies |
Nathan Rodriguez / Laurie Weissbrot Kathryn Bowden / Cristina DiMuro Dave Henderson Don Shirer / David Schancupp Julie Rumbold / Wendy Falconer Peter Wilhelmsen Hal Chernoff Denise Shultzman / Andrea Olson John Freedman Bonnie Jean Connal, Rachel Cook, Julia Faraci, Rhoze Faraci, Renee Haines, Laura Heckmann, Linda Henderson, Tori Kelpen, Kay Pere, Sharon Connal Webster, Wendy Falconer, Kay Pere, Kathryn Bowden, Julie Rumbold, Denise Shultzman Mark Callahan, Phil Faraci, Bill Faye, Kevin Gherard, Ben Henderson, Richard Kelpen, Craig Martin, Mike Reynolds, Ralph Sherman, Tom Speer, Dave Unsworth Samuel Connal Webster Tom Shultzman, John Sloan Rachel Cook (Hebe), Tom Speer (Carpenter’s Mate) |
2012 Events
2012 was a busy year. Not only did we decide to include two operettas at once, but we had to move the performance up to September because our Musical Director, John Dreslin, was slated for a world tour in October, our usual fall production date. Needless to say, rehearsals were intense! In the spring, our touring group, The Wandering Minstrels, presented a selection of G&S songs for the Sphinx Shrine Temple in Newington, a program they later repeated at the Covenant Village in Cromwell.
In August, a group from Opera Comique in Portsmith, England, visited Connecticut and presented a version of H.M.S. Pinafore at the Mystic Seaport using an authentic whaling ship for the entrances and exits. Many of our CG&SS members took part to fill out the cast and some of the minor roles. That weekend, both our groups took part in a benefit concert for the Mystic Union Baptist Church.
Our season concluded with a cast dinner party at the Gelston House in East Haddam.
It is a great honor to be participating in this year’s production of “The Mikado” — Gilbert & Sullivan’s masterpiece. “The Mikado” features more “hit songs of the day” than any of their other operas, and Gilbert’s satirical skills are in their finest form in “The Mikado’s Song” (“To let the punishment fit the crime”), which is performed to perfection by director Michael Loomis. The Victorian romance with everything Japanese, especially reflected in art and design, will be colorfully portrayed through authentic costumes and props (kimonos, head gear, fans, parasols, and sabers) as the cast moves through elegant choreography before the fanciful set design of the mythical Town of Titipu, where any man’s flirtatious behavior is a capital offence. Gilbert’s most poetic lyric is also featured in the splendiferous soprano aria, “The Sun and I” for which Sullivan provided an incomparably glorious musical setting. “The Mikado” promises to be a treat for the eye and the ear, and the audience will certainly exit humming the many “catchy” tunes. Also be prepared for high drama, outrageous comedy, and random silliness, all to the music of a full, professional symphony orchestra under the expert baton of Maestro John Dreslin, whose direction of this score, many years ago by the East Lyme Arts Council, accompanied the prodigious talents of (among others) the late Ted Wiseman and the late John Mahon, of which I still have fond memories. My own first exposure to Gilbert & Sullivan was the D’Oyly Carte “Pinafore” when they toured New York in 1959. There were many community productions of the operas in my native Westchester County, and recitals in community centers.
August 10th, 2018 at 2:07 amThe most important teacher of my youth, the late Dr. David Fairchild, performed with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Society … and (as a public school teacher) produced an unforgettable “Ruddigore” with a cast of eighth graders (and an eighth-grade pianist) over 50 years ago, at Eastchester Junior High School — a production still talked about today, by the surviving cast members. Please come and enjoy the fruits of the hard labor of cast and crew, in this production of a true masterpiece! Nathan Wise
Quote