Video Preview of Patience by Gibert & Sullivan, G&S Society of Austin, June 7 - 17

Artistic Director Ralph MacPhail, Jr. previews the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin's 2012 Grand Summer Production of Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride with 9 performances, June 7-17, 2012, at the Brentwood Christian School Performing Arts Center, 11908 N. Lamar. (click for map)
Patience is one of the most lyrical and laugh-filled of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas. It satirizes the "aesthetic craze" of the Victorian era with wit, charm, poetry, and a delightfully complicated love triangle. Beautiful music, memorable characters, and colorful costumes and sets will captivate all ages.

Tickets can also be purchased online at www.gilbertsullivan.org, at the Long Center ticketing service website or by calling 512.474.5664. All seats are reserved, assigned on 'best available' baasis. Advance sale prices including fees are $23 for adults, $14.50 for students with ID and $10.75 for those 18 years old and younger. Day of performance rates are $28, $17.50 and $13.75.

Auditions for Patience: Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, March 3 and 4

Received directly:

announces auditions March 3 and 4 for Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Sign up Today - Auditions are by appointment only
Call Chuck Antonie at (512) 733-1006 or (512) 825-5187 or email cantonie@yahoo.com to reserve an audition time slot.

Patience will be performed June 7 - 17 in Austin. Click here to go to a full synopsis of Patience with character list and performance photos

Audition Form | Audition Notes

• All roles are open for casting, including ten principal roles of various sizes and a chorus of twelve men and twelve women. There is also a small non-speaking, non-singing role for a male to be cast.

• A memorized aria or art song (English language preferred) is required. An accompanist will be provided, although singers may bring their own pianist if they wish. Please note that unaccompanied (a cappella) auditions are not permitted, nor are self-accompanied auditions.

• A completed Audition Form is required, and a résumé and headshot are requested.

• Read Ralph MacPhail, Jr.'s Audition Notes which contain information about Patience, about each role being cast, and about the audition procedure. Also these notes include important information regarding rehearsals and the rehearsal schedule.

• Auditions will be held at Genesis Presbyterian Church, 1507 Wilshire Blvd., near AIrport Rd. and the Mueller Town Center Development (click for map)

• A small honorarium will be paid to all performers.

• To receive timely audition information, please confirm that we have your contact information by joining our mailing list. Also, you can receive audition notifications via Facebook.

Video: Dress Rehearsal for The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin, June 9 - 19

An ALTcom glimpse of the company's first dress rehearsal with the orchestra of The Mikado, a four-minute compendium of scenes from Act I:

Apple users: can't see the video? Click to go to YouTube!

presents its summer 2011 grand production

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu

by Sir W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan

directed by Ralph MacPhail, Jr., with musical direction by Jeffrey Jones-Ragona

June 9-19 -- 9 Performances

Evening performances Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays at 8 p.m.

Matinees at 3 p.m., June 12, 18 & 19.

Travis High School Performing Arts Center / 1211 E. Oltorf (click for Google map)

For information, visit www.gilbertsullivan.org or call (512) 472-4772

Click here to purchase tickets on-line

Upcoming: Musical Rareties from The Yeomen of the Guard, Gilbert & Sullivan Society at Genesis Presbyterian Church, March 7

Received directly:




proudly presents a Sunday afternoon of Gilbert & Sullivan delights as Artistic Director Ralph MacPhail, Jr. – Master of Ceremonies of the event – reveals hidden mysteries and surprises in the ingenious

The Yeomen of the Guard

Audience favorites Janette Jones, Dan Girardot, Russell Gregory, and David Fontenot will perform various selections from Yeomen – accompanied by Martha Dudgeon.

Musical selections include:

• A song cut immediately after the opening night performance in 1888, as the lovesick Head Jailer of the Tower of London reveals his broken heart – with perhaps the most sensuous lyrics in all Gilbert & Sullivan.

• One of the most famous tenor songs in G&S that Sullivan composed three times.

• The original Finale to Act I, cut to save time, that caused friction between its creators.

• The rollicking but often cut duet by Dame Carruthers & Sergeant Meryll at the end of Act II, that features one of Gilbert's favorite words – Rapture – and also includes a secret plot element.

• Hear Sergeant Meryll's lost song, cut after the opening night, in which he reflects on the passing of time and his pride in his son, the valiant Leonard, who's "come to join the Tower Warders."

This performance will preview the summer 2010 Grand Production of The Yeomen of the Guard, to be performed June 10-20. Last performed by the society in 1997, Yeomen is a richly textured show that is the closest thing to grand opera in the G&S repertoire.

Both Gilbert & Sullivan considered The Yeomen of the Guard to be their favorite collaboration. Its story is lofty and its score is magnificent, and yet it loses not one bit of the fun and frivolity that are hallmarks of G&S shows. Its hauntingly beautiful tunes, colorful pageantry, and topsy-turvy storyline have captivated audiences for well over 100 years.

Location for the March 7 musicale:
Genesis Presbyterian Church
1507 Wilshire Blvd | Google Map

FREE !
Please Bring Munchies!

See You There !
Sunday, March 7th at 3 p.m.



The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin
PO Box 684542 / Austin, Texas / 78768-4542 / 512.472.4772 / info@gilbertsullivan.org

Iolanthe, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, June 11 - 21

What a sensation Gilbert & Sullilvan must have been back then, the 19th century London equivalent of our Capitol Steps and Second City rolled into one! In fine satirical style, in their best known works they took on the Empire, the peerage, exotic Asia and the Royal Navy.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin in its 34th year brings us with Iolanthe their mockery of Parliament itself, pairing the pompous velvet-clad peers of the House of Lords with diaphanous fairies operating by quite a different set of social rules.

Gilbert and Sullivan provided my very first initiation into musical theatre. I was about 12 years old when my father took my brother and me to see The Mikado, all unprepared, in the distinctly unexotic setting of a high school in northern Alabama. We were enraptured by the music, the style, the color and the wit, and we have probably not recovered even yet. I took my wife, equally unexposed to G&S, to see this production of Iolanthe. I was cheered to see on her face, throughout the two acts, the same very attentive little smile that must have marked my own, way back then.

Their light opera is brainy stuff, pretty far removed from your standard American broadway musical. Recognizing that Austin's G&S society has put a lot of effort into teaching and outreach. Artistic director Ralph MacPhail Jr. and musical director Jeffrey Jones-Ragona worked the talk shows with Dianne Donovan at classical station KMFA and with John Aielli at KUT-FM. Their website includes streaming video both on the front page and on the page providing a history of the organization, with photo and video galleries reporting the last five years of productions. Since Gilbert and Sullivan is music, song and promenading-cum-dancing, that visual approach is effective.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Iolanthe Preview on KMFA, June 7, 7 p.m.

Click to view Statesman article on Iolanthe, June 5

Upcoming: Box and Cox Staged Reading, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, May 11

Received by e-mail, May 1:

G&S Society May Musicale

Box and Cox

Monday May 11th

7:30pm

Come see a staged reading of John Maddison Morton's 1847 hilarious farce, Box and Cox

Featuring:

Ralph MacPhail, Jr., as Mr. Box
Libby Weed as Mrs. Bouncer
Allan Longacre (stage director) as Mr. Cox

Genesis Presbyterian Church

1507 Wilshire Blvd.

Following the performance, Rafe MacPhail will explain, with musical examples, how the play was adapted by F. C. Burnand and Arthur Sullivan from comedic drama into musical theatre as Cox and Box.

Free to members and non-members!
Please bring munchies!

Click to read May 2009 Newsletter of G&S Society of Austin (.pdf)

Click for G&S website with video discussion of upcoming production of Iolanthe