|
For many summers in high school and one in college, I participated in the Fairfield
County Student Operetta Workshop. This was a long name for a very simple thing:
students putting on Gilbert and Sullivan productions. Many musically minded
Fairfield County, CT students auditioned to participate. I had a long tenure
in the orchestra pit, playing the violin and eagerly anticipating long stretches
of dialog. The most amusing moments came when people forgot their lines. Even
more amusing than that was when the audience did not realize that the lines
had been forgotten and cleverly replaced. We went through all the classic G&S
productions, one summer at a time: HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, Yeoman
of the Guard, Mikado, Iolanthe, and so on. The director encouraged improvisation
within character, and each performance was a fresh experience. But being in
character was reserved for on stage. The actors were not allowed to wear their
costumes out to greet the audience after the show, as I've seen in all the other
G&S groups I have since played with.
As you may expect, the social part of the experience was the most fun. Not
only were there people I already knew in the production, but I also got to meet
people from other towns. The social fiascoes that abounded were typical of the
teen years, as people used their summer freedom to stay out all hours at cast
parties held at less conservative parents' houses. Never mind that most of us
had summer jobs to go to the next morning. School was out, and we were carefree.
There was a T-shirt made for every show, of course. This one for the Mikado
is my favorite, because I remember that summer with the most fondness. The show
that year was especially phenomenal. We had a genius playing Koko and it was
the funniest Mikado production I have ever witnessed. I was concertmaster and
was interviewed along with the female lead for an article in the local newspaper
(a nice picture appeared too). My clarinetist friend, Carolyn, had a huge crush
on one of the male leads and we spent lots of time contriving plans to get him
to notice her, including an odd plan that involved leaving her watch at his
house. Joan, my stand partner, and I laughed ourselves silly during almost every
show, and we wrote humorous comments in our music such as "FINALLY the
FINALE" and "It's Howdy Doody Time" on the "Here's a Howdy
Doo" page. But nothing was as funny as the time a spider started crawling
up our music. I mastered the trick of simultaneously laughing and playing the
violin that summer. Happily, I still get to use it once in a while.
Related Links
