MLC presents ‘The Pirates of Penzance’
By KREMENA SPENGLER Staff WriterArticle Photos
Fact Box
If you go
What: MLC's fall musical, "The Pirates of Penzance"
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6 and Saturday Nov. 7; and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8
Where: MLC auditorium
Cost: $6, $8 and $10 (students, seniors, general public)
More information can be found at mlcforum.org, or by calling 233-9114.
NEW ULM - The Martin Luther College (MLC) Forum presents its fall musical, Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance " this weekend.
The production is an operetta - but spectators should not be scared of the term, notes Director Sarah Sauer.
It's a funny, light, fun show that, in its 130th year, has stood the test of time, Sauer said.
An operetta is a funny, dramatic work where most dialogue is sung, with a sprinkling of straight talking, according to a description from musicaltheatreguide.com.
The singing and acting carry the show, Saur said. The costumes and sets are not meant to stand out in their own right - but rather, to support the performance.
The show is being put on by a "talented, dedicated" group who have really "put themselves into the show," Sauer said.
About 40 students are part of the production, and Sauer said it's been rewarding to "mold them into a cast, a tight-knit group."
"I've had a great time (directing the cast) - they've made me laugh every single (practice) time," the director said.
"The Pirates of Penzance"
The Story
When Frederic was yet a little boy, his nurse, Ruth, was told to apprentice him to become a pilot, according to a synopsis relayed by production manager Justin Liepert.
Ruth heard the word incorrectly and apprenticed him to a band of pirates, remaining with them herself as a maid-of-all-work.
Although Frederic loathed the trade to which he had thus been bound, he dutifully served; and, as the curtain rises, his indentures are almost up and he is preparing to leave the band and devote himself to the extermination of piracy.
He urges the pirates to join him in embracing a more lawful calling, but they refuse. Ruth, however, wishes to become his wife. Having seen but few women, he does not know whether she is really as pretty as she says she is; but he finally consents to take her.
Just then a group of girls, all the wards of Major-General Stanley, happen upon the scene. Frederic sees their beauty - and Ruth's plainness - and renounces her. Of these girls, Mabel takes a particular interest in Frederic, and he in her. The other girls are seized by the pirates and threatened with immediate marriage. When the Major-General arrives, he can dissuade the pirates only by a ruse; he tells them that he is an orphan, and so works upon their sympathies that they let him and his wards go free.
During the ensuing days and nights, however, this lie troubles the Major-General's conscience: he sits brooding over it at night in a Gothic ruin. He is consoled by his wards' sympathy and Frederic's plan of immediately leading a band of police against the pirates.
Meanwhile, the Pirate King and Ruth appear at the window and beckon Frederic: they have discovered that his indentures were to run until his twenty-first birthday, and - because he was born on Feb. 29 - he has really had as yet only five birthdays. Obeying the dictates of his strong sense of duty, he immediately rejoins the pirates. He tells them of the deception that has been practiced upon them, and they seize and bind the Major-General.
But the police come to the rescue and charge the pirates to yield, "in Queen Victoria's name." This they do. Ruth explains, however, that these men who appear to be lawless pirates are really all "noble who have gone wrong," and they are pardoned and permitted to marry the Major-General's wards.
