Washington Savoyards

Last updated

Washington Savoyards was a professional musical theatre company based in Washington, D.C. [1] Founded in 1972, the company annually produced three fully staged musicals and operettas, usually including at least one Gilbert and Sullivan production each year. It performed at the Duke Ellington School and the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The company suspended performances in 2012.

Contents

Description of the company

The company was formed in 1972 as the Montgomery Savoyards but changed its name in 1981, since its performers, musicians and patrons were drawn from all over the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. [2] For its first three decades, the company performed primarily the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. It began performing in church halls and Montgomery Blair High School. In 1982, it moved to the Trinity Theatre in Georgetown, Washington. In 1987, it transferred to the Duke Ellington Theatre at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts, also in Georgetown, which served as its home for ten years. [3]

The first non-Gilbert and Sullivan piece produced by the company was Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole , during the 2004–2005 season. The following season was the first with three productions, and in most seasons after that it produced at least three shows. The company cast the first of many members of Actors Equity in 2006. In late 2006, the company moved to its new home, the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast Washington. [4] The company also performed at the H Street Festival, Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, and at the Arts Club of Washington, among other venues.

Washington Savoyards attracted its singers from among opera and theatre professionals based in the Washington area, as well as music, theatre, and opera students from local universities. In 2004, the company was accepted into residency at Flashpoint, Washington's arts incubator run by the Cultural Development Corporation of Washington. The company's artistic director, from 2007 to 2012, was N. Thomas Pedersen. [5] Audrey M. Shipp directed all of the Savoyards' productions from 1973 until 1995. [2]

The company received support from charitable foundations, such as the Fund for Maryland's Future, the Sprenger-Lang Foundation, MARPAT Foundation, the Meyer Foundation, the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and individual donors, as well as from ticket sales and program advertising. The company's name was a reference to the Savoy Theatre in London, where the Gilbert and Sullivan operas were originally presented in the 1880s and 1890s by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and to aficionados and performers of the Savoy operas. [1] In 1986, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist (later Chief Justice of the United States) appeared with the Washington Savoyards to play the Solicitor in its production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience . [6]

Later seasons

In its later seasons, the company performed such works as Ain't Misbehavin', Kiss Me, Kate , The Merry Widow and Man of La Mancha , as well as Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Sandy Bainum brought the company its first Helen Hayes Award nomination for her role as Marian Paroo in the 2009 production of The Music Man .[ citation needed ] During the 2009–2010 season, the Company sponsored its first educational program.[ citation needed ]

In February 2012, the company held a 40th anniversary gala, celebrating Gilbert and Sullivan and their legacy to American musical theatre. During the 2012 spring season, Washington Savoyards performed Rodgers & Hammerstein's A Grand Night for Singing [3] and, as a Halloween production, The Rocky Horror Show . [7]

The company's last activity was a staged reading of the musical Delilah in January 2013. [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert and Sullivan</span> Victorian-era theatrical partnership

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard D'Oyly Carte</span> English theatre manager and producer (1844–1901)

Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establishing an opera company that ran continuously for over a hundred years and a management agency representing some of the most important artists of the day.

<i>Iolanthe</i> 1882 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan

Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert and Sullivan. In the opera, the fairy Iolanthe has been banished from fairyland because she married a mortal; this is forbidden by fairy law. Her son, Strephon, is an Arcadian shepherd who wants to marry Phyllis, a Ward of Chancery. All the members of the House of Peers also want to marry Phyllis. When Phyllis sees Strephon hugging a young woman, she assumes the worst and sets off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert's favourite themes: a tranquil civilisation of women is disrupted by a male-dominated world through the discovery of mortal love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savoy Theatre</span> Theatre in London

The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Palace. Its intended purpose was to showcase the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the Savoy operas.

<i>The Grand Duke</i> Comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan

The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel, is the final Savoy Opera written by librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, their fourteenth and last opera together. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 March 1896, and ran for 123 performances. Despite a successful opening night, the production had a relatively short run and was the partnership's only financial failure, and the two men never worked together again. In recent decades, the opera has been revived professionally, first in the US and then in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Reed (actor)</span> English actor, singer and dancer

John Lamb ReedOBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Reed has been called "the last great exponent" of the Gilbert and Sullivan comedy roles.

<i>Patience</i> (opera) 1881 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan

Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera is a satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s in England and, more broadly, on fads, superficiality, vanity, hypocrisy and pretentiousness; it also satirises romantic love, rural simplicity and military bluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D'Oyly Carte Opera Company</span> British theatre company

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The company was revived for short seasons and tours from 1988 to 2003, and since 2013 it has co-produced four of the operas with Scottish Opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Lytton</span> British actor and singer (1865–1936)

Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the starring comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1909 to 1934. He also starred in musical comedies. His career with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company spanned 50 years, and he is the only performer ever knighted for achievements in Gilbert and Sullivan roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light Opera of Manhattan</span>

Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Savoyards</span> Former light opera company in New York City

American Savoyards was an Off-Broadway and touring repertory theatre company that produced light operas, principally the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, in New York City and on tour between 1948 and 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Sandford</span> English actor and singer

Kenneth Sandford was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Passmore</span> British actor and singer

Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Russell (tenor)</span> British opera singer and actor

Harry Henry Russell, better known as Scott Russell, was an English singer, actor and theatre manager best known for his performances in the tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He was the brother-in-law of D'Oyly Carte contralto Louie René.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players</span> Repertory theatre

New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players is a professional repertory theatre company, based in New York City, that has specialized in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan for 50 years. It performs an annual season in New York City and tours extensively in North America.

Sullivan and Gilbert is a jukebox musical by Ken Ludwig with music and lyrics by Gilbert and Sullivan. Sullivan and Gilbert features over 15 Gilbert and Sullivan songs. It examines a fictional day in 1890 when the Victorian era composer and dramatist, while embroiled in their 1890 "carpet quarrel", are requested by Queen Victoria to present a revue of songs from their operas on short notice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royston Nash</span>

Royston Hulbert Nash was an English-born conductor, best known as a music director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and, later, as the conductor of the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra.

Lamplighters Music Theatre is a semi-professional musical theatre company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1952 by Orva Hoskinson and Ann Pool MacNab, the Lamplighters specialize in light opera, particularly the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as such works as The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, Of Thee I Sing, My Fair Lady, Candide, and A Little Night Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Hill Troupe</span> American musical theatre performing company and charitable organization

The Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd., is a musical theatre performing company and charitable organization based in New York City. The Troupe is the only musical theatre company in the city that donates all the net proceeds of its performances to charity.

References

  1. 1 2 Official "about us" page of the Savoyards
  2. 1 2 Kennedy Center's profile of the company
  3. 1 2 Ponick, Terry. "Forty years and still singing, Washington Savoyards throws a gala", DCTheatreScene.com, February 21, 2012
  4. ↑ "Hill Talk", Roll Call , October 19, 2006
  5. ↑ Pederson's profile
  6. ↑ Garcia, Guy D. (1986-06-02). "People". Time . Retrieved 2007-08-17.
  7. ↑ Forrer, April. "Theatre Review: Washington Savoyards’ ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center", MD Theatre Guide, October 23, 2012
  8. ↑ Home page, Washington Savoyards, accessed May 11, 2015
  9. ↑ "Washington Savoyards", accessed May 19, 2021
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.