Aug 02-Aug 04, 2019
A hilarious farce of sentimental pirates, bumbling policemen, dim-witted young lovers, and an eccentric Major-General await you in Gilbert & Sullivan's musical masterpiece. The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, a comic operetta, is the tale of Frederic who has been indentured to a band of "gentlemanly" pirates until his 21st birthday. Frederic's nursemaid was hard of hearing and was supposed to apprentice the youth to a ship's pilot, not pirate. Upon his release he meets - and instantly falls in love with - Mabel, daughter of Major-General Stanley. Unfortunately, Frederic learns he was born on February 29th, so technically he has but one birthday every four years and is bound to fulfill his apprenticeship for yet another 63 years. Mabel agrees to wait faithfully for his return. The pirates to whom Frederic is apprenticed were all orphans, so they are unwilling to plunder and pillage any fellow orphans. Of course, news of this character flaw is widely known, making them very unsuccessful pirates. Madcap antics fill out the show with the Major-General saving Mabel and his other daughters from the pirates, Frederic's misplaced sense of duty, the not so "with it" team of police, absurd logic generously applied to spice it up, and of course a very "happily ever after" conclusion.
The Pirates of Penzance- in all its silliness - is directed by Stephanie J. Conwell with piano accompaniment by Ballard Coldwell.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Company of El Paso is a community theater group that has an unbroken history of annual Gilbert & Sullivan productions since 1969 when it was founded by its first artistic director, Joan P. Quarm (dec.), to preserve and present the works of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan. The company is funded and supported in part by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
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