Overture

Act I:

1.	Pour, O pour the pirate sherry	Pirates and Samuel
2.	When Frederic was a little lad	Ruth
3.	Oh, better far to live and die	Pirate King and Pirates
4.	Oh, false one, you have deceived me!	Frederic and Ruth
5.	Climbing over rocky mountain	Maidens, Edith, and Kate
6.	Stop, ladies, pray!	Frederic, Edith, Kate, and Maidens
7.	Oh, is there not one maiden breast	Frederic, Mabel, and Maidens
8.	Poor wandering one!	Mabel and Maidens
9.	What ought we to do	Edith, Kate, and Maidens
10.	How beautifully blue the sky	Maidens, Mabel, and Frederic
11.	Stay, we must not lose our senses	Frederic, Maidens, and Pirates
12.	Hold, monsters!	Mabel, Samuel, Major-General, Maidens, and Pirates
13.	I am the very model of a modern Major-General	Major-General, Maidens, and Pirates
14.	Oh, men of dark and dismal fate	Ensemble

Act II:

15.	Oh, dry the glistening tear	Maidens and Mabel
16.	Then, Frederic, let your escort lion-hearted	Major-General and Frederic
17.	When the foeman bares his steel	Sergeant, Mabel, Edith, Major-General, Police, and Maidens
18.	Now for the pirates' lair	Frederic, Pirate King, and Ruth
19.	When you had left our pirate fold	Ruth, Frederic, and Pirate King
20.	Away, away! my heart's on fire	Ruth, Pirate King, and Frederic
21.	All is prepared	Mabel and Frederic
22.	Stay, Frederic, stay!	Mabel and Frederic
23.	No, I am brave	Mabel, Sergeant, and Police
24.	When a felon's not engaged in his employment	Sergeant and Police
25.	A rollicking band of pirates we	Pirates, Sergeant, and Police
26.	With cat-like tread, upon our prey we steal	Pirates, Police, and Samuel
27.	Hush, hush! not a word	Frederic, Pirates, Police, and Major-General
28.	Sighing softly to the river	Major-General and Ensemble

Chorus of Major-General Stanley's Wards and their Governesses

Deborah Braswell, Michelle Chaikin, Anne Clark, Tamara Gallant, Marese Dolan Hutchinson, Nina Kleinberg, Elysse Link, Kathy Moser, Sheila Mulvaney, Emily Petitt, Artemis Demas Roehrig, Deborah Shinner, Kathy Tobiassen, Elaine Walker

Chorus of Pirates and Policemen

Charles Adams, Alexander Blount, John Foster, Glen Gordon, Kurtiss Gordon, Peter Hirschman, Sean Kennedy, Mzamo P. Mangaliso, Alan H. McArdle, Richard Mudgett, Paul E. Peelle, Jim Pistrang, Joe Pistrang, Dick Stromgren, Anders Tobiason, Jim Walker

Perhaps we should have an inkling about how it will all turn out in the end when the curtain opens, and we find the pirates genteelly sipping sherry rather than roistering with rum. They are on holiday, come ashore to help Frederic, their apprentice, celebrate the fact that he is now 21 years old and ready to become a full-fledged member of the pirate band. Frederic, however, dampens the festivities with his announcement that he intends not only to give up piracy altogether but to exterminate it. He vainly urges the rest of the pirates to join him in some more lawful profession.

Enter Ruth to reveal that, as Frederic's nurse, she was responsible for his current association. She had been told to apprentice young Frederic to a pilot, but misunderstood the critical word. Too embarrassed to admit the error, she stayed on with Frederic and his pirate masters as a maid-of-all-work. As Frederic has grown, she has fallen in love with him. She asks him to marry her and, after some hesitation, he agrees to take her.

No sooner has he consented than a group of young maidens--wards of Major-General Stanley--appear on the scene. Frederic sees their beauty and Ruth's plainness, and he renounces her. One of the maidens, Mabel, takes a particular interest in Frederic, and he in her. The pirates, never very far away, rush in to seize the rest of the maidens and threaten them with immediate marriage.

Zestfully entering to sing his patter song, the Major-General tries to extricate his wards from the pirates' clutches. He succeeds by means of a ruse: gaining the pirates' sympathy by telling them he is an orphan. Frederic departs with the Major-General and his wards, despite another plea from Ruth.

Although his ruse was effective, the Major-General finds his conscience won't let him sleep. He broods fitfully, late at night, in an old ruined chapel on his estate. He is consoled by his wards' sympathy and by Frederic's plan to lead a police patrol to capture the pirates.

Now Ruth and the Pirate King reappear to complicate Frederic's life. They explain to him that his indentures were to run until his 21st birthday and--since he was born on leap day (February 29)--he has really had only five birthdays. Frederic's strong sense of duty impels him to rejoin the pirates and to reveal the Major-General's deception, but not without an explanation to Mabel and a touching parting duet.

Compelled by the changed circumstances to go after the pirates without Frederic's leadership, the police attempt to fortify their courage with a song. The pirates save them the trouble of an expedition by infiltrating the estate with cat-like tread and seizing the Major-General. The police force the pirates to yield in Queen Victoria's name.

Everything seems to be set for the pirates' ignominious exit to face legal consequences, but that wouldn't be a Gilbert and Sullivan ending. Once again Ruth intervenes, and all is finally set right.

-- Kurtiss Gordon

COSTUME CONSTRUCTION--Diane Helgesen, Phyllis Jordan, and Diane Kelton, co-heads;

Mildred Allenchy, Catherine Bennett, Helen Buonaiuto, Cami Elbow, Dick Gregory, Doris Holden, Marese Dolan Hutchinson, Karen Jordan, Constance La Pointe, Wendy Larson, Louise MacDonald, Alice Mertz, Rena Moore, Louise Reilly, Marion Rosenau, Emily Rosenberg, Sally Venman

MAKE-UP--Linda Stark, head;

Sarah Aronow-Werner, Danielle Hadley, Carol Lee, Daisy Mathias, Sarah Patterson, Henry Peirce, Shirley Pérez, Kaye Werner, Barbara Wurtzel

HAIR DRESSING--Hair by Harlow

SET CONSTRUCTION and STAGE CREW--Bob Graham and Lew Jordan, co-heads;

Sudro Brown, Bryant Carpenter, Phil DiPeri, John Foster, Judi Pierce, Jim Pistrang, Joe Pistrang, Jack Prebis, Chris Riddle, Bill Venman, Jim Walker, Dick Waltein

SCENE PAINTING--Linda Stark, head;

Carlton Brose, Byron Koh, Elysse Link, Judi Pierce, Jack Prebis, Eileen Rannenberg, Chris Riddle, Alycen Waltein, Dick Waltein

LIGHTING--Matt Kimmel, head;

Joshua Kranz, master electrician and board operator; Jim Brower, Shawn Gunderson, Drew Lichtenberg, Nick Lichtenberg, Jim Logan, Janet Mankowsky, Steve Morgan, Geoff Moss, Jim Walker, Ken Weinberg

PROPERTIES--Marese Dolan Hutchinson, head;

John Foster, Judy Pistrang, and the costume and set crews

HOUSE MANAGERS--Corinne Demas, head;

Geert De Vries, Matthew Roehrig

PROGRAM--Kurtiss Gordon, head;

Caralyn Ballou, Charlotte De Vries, Paul De Vries, Cami Elbow, Al Hudson, Judy Hudson, Paul E. Peelle, Fred Zinn

PUBLICITY/TICKETS--Steve Stoia, head;

David Aronow, Katy Berube, Jim Brower, Leslie Collins, Pat Desmarais, Judy Hudson, Laurel Kushi, Mzamo Mangaliso, Rena Moore, Kathy Moser, Paul E. Peelle, Carrie Robichaud, Donna Roy, Naeela Sattar, and Town of Amherst Leisure Services, Inc.

BANNER PAINTING--Alycen Waltein

USHER COORDINATORS--Mary Hocken, head;

Catharine Butterfield, Duane Dale, Kevyn Clegg

SENIOR USHERS

Caroline Allison, Barrett Allison, Zara Bohan, Johanna Bradley, Claire Brassord, Kate Campbell-Strauss, Chelsie Clark, Matthew Denny, Charlotte De Vries, Paul De Vries, Kellen Dougherty, Stewart Dougherty, Maya Elinevsky, Hannah Goodwin-Brown, Julia Griffin, Meng He, Benjamin Howard, Steve Howland, Wynter Howland, Abbie Jenks, John Johnson, Leslie Johnson, Ginger LaSalle, Sally Lawton, Unati Mangaliso, Zengie Mangaliso, Blake Marcus, Cindy Mathews, James Mathews, Ben Mew, Colin Mew, Jennifer Michelson, Marissa Michelson, Sam Michelson, Andrea Mizula, Kelly Morgan, Clare Orvis, Judy Orvis, Christina Pastorello, John Pastorello, Benjamin Pike, David Pistrang, Darden Pitts, Amy Shulman, Amira Shulman-Kumin, Emmajoy Shulman-Kumin, Matthew Stebbins, Leah Underwood, Hillary Wilcox

JUNIOR USHERS

Ben Allison, Jackie Dougherty, Abigail Howard, Shelby Howard, Arielle Jessop-Humpage, Sonya Kitchell

COMPANY PHOTOGRAPHY

Deborah Campbell, Gigi Kaeser, Mary Jane Schulze, Dick Stromgren, Kathy Tobiassen

COMPANY COMMISSARY--Mimi Cary, head;

Mary Annarella, Constance La Pointe, Rena Moore, Barbara Pistrang

COMPANY GIFT SHOP--David Aronow, head;

Mimi Cary, Holly Fulton, Constance La Pointe, Rena Moore, Bill Peebles

PERFORMANCE REFRESHMENTS--Amherst Regional High School Theatre Company

Thom Griffin -- Stage Director -- returns to direct his third VLO production, after The Gondoliers (1992) and Princess Ida (1995). He has sung all of the patter roles in the Gilbert & Sullivan catalogue with VLO and with Simsbury Light Opera Company, plus a variety of principal character roles in Sweeney Todd, Barber of Seville, La Bohème, La Traviata, Jumping Frog, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. To support his theatre habit Thom teaches in the Plant & Soil Sciences Department at UMass. He owns and operates Penfrydd Farm Bed & Breakfast in Colrain.

Peter Gutowski -- Music Director -- has appeared as guest conductor of the UMass Opera Workshop's performances of Mozart's Così fan tutte in Amherst and Martha's Vineyard, and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. He has also worked with Commonwealth Opera, conducting Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Rossini's La Cenerentola, and serving as chorus master, assistant stage director, and board member. Peter received a BM in theory and composition from the University of Massachusetts and a MM from Indiana University in orchestral conducting. He works at Power-Vue Graphics in West Springfield and resides in Florence.

Mary Annarella -- Edith -- has been involved in community theater for nearly 14 years in Pennsylvania, Maine, and Massachusetts. She joins our cast for her third VLO fall production, having played Lady Saphir in Patience last fall. She has since busied herself by singing in Side by Side by Sondheim (The Country Players) and playing the Baroness in The Sound of Music at the Shea Theater. Sunday mornings, Mary can usually be found singing in the choir at the Newman Center in Amherst.

Caralyn Ballou -- Isabel -- joined VLO as a member of the chorus in our 1996 production of The Mikado, though she claims more than a decade of prior experience in our audience. At the Shea Theater, she has portrayed Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, Agnes in Agnes of God, and Tuptim in The King and I. Her most recent role was Alais in Vermont Theatre's The Lion in Winter. A resident of Northfield, Caralyn enjoys singing with local choral groups.

Katy Berube -- Kate -- is having her first experience with VLO this fall. She appeared in the Westfield Theatre Group's 1999 spring production of Camelot as a lady of the court and a wood nymph. Katy is a Reading Recovery teacher in Easthampton, where she lives with her wonderfully supportive husband Mark and their two lovely children AJ (9) and Shealyn (6).

James Brower -- Samuel -- appeared with VLO as the Duke of Dunstable in Patience. He has sung with the Hampshire Choral Society , and was seen most recently as Mordred in Westfield Theatre Group's Camelot and in Country Players' Side by Side by Sondheim. Offstage, Jim likes to read, commune with nature, cook, and go to the movies. He also leads nature walks for Mass. Audubon Society at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary.

Robert Kumin -- Pirate King -- played Pish-Tush in The Mikado (1996) and the Captain in The Vagabond King (1997). He has been singing in Amandla, a Franklin County community chorus, for the past 10 years, and is a classically-trained violinist and a former professional actor. A school principal for six years, he now earns his living as a union representative. Bob lives in Amherst with his wife Amy and two daughters, Amira and Emmajoy.

Steve Morgan -- Major-General Stanley -- has been involved with VLO since 1977 as performer, producer, and in a variety of other capacities. He has been seen on stage with VLO in such roles as Roddy Doddy in the 1982 Ruddigore, Arac in the 1981 Princess Ida, and Bunthorne in last year's Patience. Other local community theater roles include Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Emile deBecque in South Pacific, and the title role in Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Nancy Parland -- Mabel -- is making her VLO debut. She played Maria in Amherst Community Theater's production The Sound of Music and sang in Side by Side by Sondheim (The Country Players). She also sings with the Da Camera Singers. Nancy's roles before moving to the Pioneer Valley included Julie in Carousel, Fiona in Brigadoon, and Gianetta in The Gondoliers. She now works as a therapist in Greenfield and lives in Buckland.

Matthew Price -- Frederic -- is an Ohio native and received his BFA in Voice Performance at Marshall University. His operatic repertoire includes leading roles in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, The Gypsy Baron by J. Strauss, and Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. As concert soloist, he has sung in Schubert's Mass in E-flat, Beethoven's Mass in C, and Bach's Magnificat. Matt is pursuing a MM in Vocal Performance at UMass, studying with Jon Humphrey. This is his first VLO appearance.

Mary Jane Schulze -- Ruth -- is playing her ninth contralto lead for VLO in a run that began with Katisha (The Mikado) in 1977 and includes Lady Jane in last year's Patience. As Anna Russell, she taught us "How to Write Your Own G&S Opera" at the 1998 VLO Spring Show. Other credits include Mother Superior in Nunsense, Mame in Mame, and Reverend Mother in The Sound of Music. She sings with the cabaret troupe A Class Act. Mary Jane is an elementary school music teacher in Ludlow and a member of the Board of the Mass. Teachers Association.

Stephen Tanne -- Sergeant of Police -- is appearing in his fourth VLO production. He played Col. Calverley in Patience last year. Originally hailing from New York City, Steve lives in Amherst with his wife Sara and son Zachary (a budding Savoyard himself). Steve sang for several years with the Echo Chorus in New York and has been a G&S fan since childhood.

Cami Elbow -- Coordinating Producer -- has sung in the chorus of most VLO productions since The Pirates of Penzance in 1989. Behind the scenes, she was an associate producer last year for Patience and has served at various times as usher coordinator, house manager, and president of the Board of Directors. Cami is a retired social worker and divorce mediator. She lives in Amherst with her husband Peter.

John Foster -- Producer -- has constructed many a sword, bow, and quiver, and solved numerous technical problems with sets and props over the years. He has also sung in every VLO chorus since The Grand Duke (spring 1988). He particularly enjoyed singing with his daughter Lorie and son-in-law John in H.M.S. Pinafore (1993). John joined the faculty of Hampshire College a year before it opened in 1970, and taught biology and biochemistry there until he retired five years ago. John and his wife Nancy live in Amherst.

Bob Graham -- Technical Director -- returns for his ninth consecutive year with VLO as a technical director. He has been a producer for five shows as well as a member of the Board. A central Michigan native, he began his theatrical career early as the production assistant and stage manager with the University of Michigan Student Players. Bob was also active on both sides of the stage with the Ernie Pyle Players in Tokyo while there with the U. S. Army, including playing The Monk in The Lady's Not for Burning. He is a UMass Professor Emeritus of Computer Science.

Richard Gregory -- Costume and Set Designer -- joins us for his fourteenth VLO production. He has designed costumes for most of VLO's shows since 1985. He also directed one of those productions (Utopia, Ltd.) and designed sets for two others (Princess Ida and The Vagabond King). Dick has been on the boards as Cupid in Thespis and the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers. He designed sets for Commonwealth Opera's Kismet and has directed and designed for ECTA and The Williston Theatre. A teacher of arts history at Williston-Northampton School, Dick has composed several operas and many choral works.

Al Hudson -- Producer Emeritus -- has played many parts in VLO over the past two decades: chorus member, principal (most recently Oliver in The Vagabond King), producer, and president of the Board of Directors. He was the coordinating producer for last year's production of Patience. In real life, he is a retired Professor of Anthropology at UMass.

Lew Jordan -- Technical Director -- is working for the fourth year with VLO. He was assistant stage manager three years ago for The Mikado and is presently serving as a member of the Board of Directors. Lew has been stage manager for the productions of the St. Brigid's Players in Amherst. During the day, he is a computer network specialist at UMass. He resides in Amherst with his wife Phyllis and their three children.

Matt Kimmel -- Lighting Designer -- is working on his sixth show with VLO; he started out as stage crew on 1994's Orpheus in the Underworld and has since worked as lighting crew, stage manager, and assistant director. Matt also works with several other local theatre groups; his next project will be directing Flowers for Algernon for Arena Civic Theatre next spring. In "real life," Matt is head of the Programming Department at a computer game company in Northampton.

Janet Mankowsky -- Stage Manager -- returns for her second stint with VLO. She has also stage managed at Greenfield Community College, for Hampshire Shakespeare Company's Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing, and for Welcome, Yule! at the Shea Theater. Janet was seen onstage as the Courtier in HSC's Thomas of Woodstock this summer and as Lenox in Shoestring Theater's Macbeth. She works as an RN in the Adult/Pediatric unit of Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Kathy Moser -- Assistant Music Director -- started at VLO with a small principal role in The Gondoliers in 1980. She has been in every subsequent show, primarily as a staunch member of the chorus. Kathy's first stint as assistant music director came in 1992, with VLO's second production of The Gondoliers. She is a member of the Board and also works on props, costumes, and a variety of other tasks for the company. Kathy co-produced VLO's twentieth anniversary show. She teaches vocal music at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield.

Linda Stark -- Make-up Designer -- is designing make-up for her sixth VLO production. Linda studied fine art and received a degree in interior design at the University of Connecticut. She also studied painting in Italy and watercolor in New York, under the instruction of well-known American artists Sondra Frectleton and Jack Beal. Linda has lived in Amherst for 28 years. She is the mother of four and a grandmother. She is a trained pastry chef and runs a home business making special occasion cakes.

Elaine Walker -- Producer and Costume Coordinator -- has sung soprano in the VLO chorus for many years and served as co-head of the costume crew every year since 1988. This is Elaine's sixth year as producer with VLO, and she co-founded and produced several musical shows with the St. Brigid's Players in Amherst. She also supervises the costume shop for the Theater Program at Hampshire College. Elaine is self-employed as a dressmaker in Amherst.

Piracy of one sort or another figures in much of the history of The Pirates of Penzance. Gilbert and Sullivan's previous effort, H.M.S. Pinafore, had been pirated by so many American companies that their business manager, Richard D'Oyly Carte, had visited the United States to contend with them. In London, meanwhile, the directors of Carte's Comedy Opera Company attempted a bolder bit of brigandage by attempting to steal the Pinafore scenery right off the Opera Comique stage. With no international copyright laws to protect them, Carte persuaded author and composer to return with him to New York to benefit from the Pinafore mania by mounting their own production and to outwit future pirates by premiering their next opera simultaneously in both countries. Upon arrival, Gilbert explained in typical whimsy, "We see no reason why we should be the only ones who are not permitted to play the piece here."

The next phase of piracy took the form of Gilbert's customary self-plagiarism, stealing principally from his 1870 operetta Our Island Home, in which the theatre company for whom the sketch was written find themselves on a desert island with the melodramatic Captain Bang:

Oh, tremble! I'm a Pirate Chief;
Who comes upon me comes to grief.

The night before the scheduled New York opening, Helen Lenoir, Carte's secretary (later his wife and able partner), mounted a protective copyright performance of Pirates at Paignton, of all places, on the South Devon coast--as close as the opera ever gets to Penzance. A stranger professional opening performance of G&S was never witnessed. The cast, the D'Oyly Carte touring company performing just up the road in Torquay, dressed in Pinafore costumes with a few piratical and constabulary touches, read their parts from scripts, and presumably made up the Act I music, not yet arrived from America. The next night, the last day of 1879, Pirates unfurled its brave, black flag in New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre.

Gilbert had informed the American public, in a letter to Scribner's Monthly in June 1879, that the partners had "decided to keep both the score and the libretto [of Pirates] in manuscript with the view of protecting, as effectively as possible, such rights as your Common Law may grant us." Sullivan inadvertently helped all too well in this endeavor by leaving half the music behind, so worked frantically every night reconstructing that part of the score and orchestrating the whole work. The band parts were locked in a safe each night after the performance, and no libretto was published for almost a year. Such zealous caution preserved the monopoly the partners sought and enabled them to mount productions without rivals in Philadelphia, Newark, and Buffalo. This also meant, however, that unlike the Pinafore craze, the public had not heard the new music's din afore and hence could not whistle all the airs. Pirates proved far more profitable for Gilbert, Sullivan, and Carte, but considerably less popular with American audiences. The hotel at 45 East 20th Street, where Sullivan stayed but scarcely slept during those hectic months in New York, has long since vanished, but a plaque reminds us that "On this site Sir Arthur Sullivan Composed The Pirates of Penzance During 1879."

-- Jim Ellis

Valley Light Opera expresses thanks to the following for helping to make this production possible: the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools' staff, especially Ron Bell and Maryanna Whittemore of the Superintendent's Office, the music and theater faculty, and the custodial staff, for their good nature, flexibility, and unstinting support; the Town of Amherst Department of Public Works for hanging the banner; the Hampshire College Theater Program for some costume pieces; the Heath Union Church for the pirates' chairs; Dunkin' Donuts of Hadley for the policemen's refreshments; The Pub Restaurant for an umbrella; and to Sally and Bill Venman for caring for the VLO year-round and always being there when we sought advice.

Funding for the calendar celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Valley Light Opera has been partially underwritten by the Cowls Companies of North Amherst--W. D. Cowls, Inc. and Cowls Building Supply, Inc.--manufacturers and retailers of lumber and building materials with roots in the Pioneer Valley for over 250 years.

Valley Light Opera is on the World Wide Web at http://www.vlo.org/. We express our gratitude and appreciation to BerkshireNet for hosting our site. BerkshireNet (http://www.berkshire.net/) provides Internet service to Western Massachusetts.

Valley Light Opera, Inc., is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation founded in 1975 by a group of Gilbert and Sullivan devotees. Among other things, this means that 1999-2000 is our silver anniversary year. Over the years, VLO has been guided by two principles--to promote broad community participation and to produce fine entertainment. In the course of its first 25 years, Valley Light Opera has produced all fourteen of the G&S operas as well as Cox and Box, The Zoo, and Sullivan's oratorio The Prodigal Son. In addition, VLO has performed Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King, Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, Warren Martin's The True Story of Cinderella, and several of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach works.

The affairs of VLO are in the hands of a Board of Directors elected by the membership at the Annual Meeting in February. Officers of the Board this year are Barbara Davis (President), Mzamo Mangaliso (President Elect), Kurtiss Gordon (Clerk), and James Walker (Treasurer). Members of the Board are Mary Annarella, Catharine Butterfield, John Foster, Tamara Gallant, John Jenkins, Lew Jordan, Kathy Moser, Judy Pistrang, and Stephen Tanne.

Donations to Valley Light Opera are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

With the current production of The Pirates of Penzance, Valley Light Opera celebrates 25 years of dedication to the revival of some of the most cherished works in musical theater. In a year in which considerable attention is drawn to the passing of century and millennium, the VLO looks back on a mere quarter-century. But these 25 years represent a production history which, if multiplied by individual experiences of founders, casts, crews, patrons, and casual theatergoers, represents a millennium of theater magic (and occasional mayhem!).

VLO began back in 1974 when productions of The Mikado and Patience at Mount Holyoke College inspired our founders, Sally and Bill Venman, and ten other stalwart lovers of light opera to take up the challenge of mounting first-rate productions of musical theater. Though the name chosen for the organization suggests a wider range of musical properties, the works of Gilbert & Sullivan were then, and remain today, at the heart and soul of the VLO. The most celebrated of the G&S works, H.M.S. Pinafore (1975), Iolanthe (1976) and The Mikado (1977), launched the company on a schedule of fully mounted productions of all fourteen G&S operettas, most by now having been revived a second time. The current production of Pirates joins Pinafore and Mikado in a third run on our high school stage.

In addition to full fall productions of Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (1994) and Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King (1997), VLO has also presented partially mounted concert versions or singalongs (most in tandem with our annual business meetings) as spring shows. These have included not only G&S-related works but compositions ranging from John Philip Sousa's operetta El Capitan to selections from Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach.

Valley Light Opera, of course, represents much more than a history of shows. In its 25 years, nearly 1,800 people have been listed as members of our production teams on stage and off--performers, musicians, producers, directors, and a host of people responsible for scenic and costume design and construction, ticket sales, program design, house management, promotion, publicity and community outreach. Many have returned year after year to sacrifice hours of their time (particularly on those glorious October Sunday afternoons) to see that the show goes on. A few who are still active in production have been with us since the very beginning.

The success of any such endeavor finally is measured in terms of the support of its audiences and community. Here the VLO has been truly blessed. Without the unflagging support of the town and especially our schools, those initial performances in the mid-70s would surely have been the last. And finally, but certainly not least in enduring support, we salute our patrons and loyal theatergoers for coming back for more and encouraging us to let loose time and time again with "that infernal nonsense Pinafore," . . . and Pirates and all the others!

-- Dick Stromgren

Drawing from Mad Margaret's line in Ruddigore by W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, Valley Light Opera is celebrating 25 years of "singing choruses in public." Margaret concludes that speech by adding, "That's mad enough, I think!"

In any other community we're aware of, that certainly would be mad enough, but not in Amherst. Presenting any kind of community theater absolutely requires a certain kind of madness. We know that. But in Amherst, we're allowed to develop our own kind of insanity without being forced to deal with the kind of lunacy engendered by someone else's bureaucratic requirements.

In Amherst, we are blessed with a school committee and administration that is totally committed to the community. The schools are there primarily, of course, to provide a setting in which the educational needs of students can be met--a job which they do each school day from dawn until the final bell in the afternoon. After that, however, the schools are made available for the community--parents, friends, residents--and Valley Light Opera has evolved in that wonderfully supportive setting. We might have been able to do it under other conditions--certainly other G&S groups have done it--but we are in Amherst, a community which supports groups such as ours, and we are all the richer for it.

Every fall, and most springs, we mount a production. We move into the high school right after Labor Day, build our sets, store our equipment, sew costumes, rehearse cast and orchestra, and then perform. Night after night, even Saturdays and Sundays, the school opens its doors to us, and then allows us to invite audiences from throughout the Pioneer Valley and beyond to enjoy Mad Margaret and other delightful light operatic characters.

In return we have contributed to the schools. We have helped improve the stage and the auditorium at the high school, providing both willing workers and financial support. We lend costumes and props to the high school theater groups. The names of students, faculty, and staff appear throughout our programs, performing on stage or working with us backstage or in the front of the house.

But while all of this might be possible under a less community-oriented school system, we would not--could not--have become today's VLO without the wonderful support we and every other community group gets from our schools. Long may we both live!

Naturally, there's no such real entity as "the schools." The schools are people, and it's with people we have our day-do-day dealings. It would have been impossible to do what we have done without having had the support of the late Jack Heffley, for instance, or of the first high school principal on whom the VLO was inflicted, Sammie Potts.

We are grateful to Superintendent Gus Sayer for the invaluable year-round assistance of his staff. Ron Bell has been a rock of support (as well as playing in innumerable VLO orchestras!). Maryanna Whittemore is always gracious, finding us space in which to work.

Head Custodian Ben Young goes out of his way to make our lives easier. Custodians Francisco Maldonado (in the high school) and Mary Ellen Biso (in the middle school) cheerfully set us a high standard for cleaning up after ourselves. Maintenance Director Paul Lawler is the man behind the scenes throughout the year.

We thank Principal Scott Goldman for welcoming us into his building. The high school music faculty--Jessel Murray, Patrick Smith, and Doug Purcell--lend us talented singers and musicians every year, and let us do much of our work in their rehearsal space. John Warthen and Tim Holcomb of the theater faculty give us great support with technical and logistical problems. Art teachers Blanche Derby and Lillian Kravitz let us use the display cases in the hall to create a VLO showcase each year.

Wendy Kohler, Director of Secondary Education, has provided inspiration and leadership in renewing the arts in the schools. Middle School music faculty David Ranen and Andrew Phillips are helpful and generous personally and musically, as is Antonio Viva, theatrically. Our lighting at the middle school owes much to Jim Logan, "Mr. Technology" for the arts.

And, of course, underlying the work of these and many other wonderful school staffers are the members of the Amherst Regional School Committee: Joan Temkin, Sandra Berkowitz, Elaine Brighty, James Duda, Marianne Jorgensen, Barbara Love, Laurie Millman, Vladimir Morales, Nancy Ratner, and, until very recently, Myra Ross. We don't see them every day, but we want to thank them for providing the spirit of community partnership that makes Amherst a unique place in which music and the arts can truly flourish.

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