Music Theater Workshop Performs 'H.M.S. Pinafore'

Linna Jones
Arts & Entertainment Editor

  The Music Theater Workshop performed one performance of “H.M.S Pinafore” in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium Friday, April 25.

Photo by Eric Bell

Wedding Bells - Captain Corcoran and Little Buttercup will be married in a triple wedding. David Brent Miller played Captain Corcoran and Sarah Humphreys and Ashley Couch played the role of Little Buttercup in "H.M.S. Pinafore."

    Members of the workshop performed the two-act comic operetta by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan with great skill and what looked like real emotion, as if the actors felt the their character's emotions.

   The cast included:

• John Gladden as the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K. C. B, the First Lord of Admiralty

• David Brent Miller as Captain Corcoran, the Commander of the H.M.S. Pinafore

• E. Jason Bowen as Ralph Rackstraw, able seaman

• Regina Vaughn as Josephine, the captain's daughter

• David Vaughn as Dick Deadeye, able seaman

• Lillian King as Cousin Hebe, Sir Joseph’s first cousin

• Ashley Couch and Sarah Humphreys as Little Buttercup, a Portsmouth Bumboat woman

• Erickson Skinner as a Boatswain, warrant officer

   The story takes place on board the English ship H.M.S. Pinafore. Captain Corcoran busily plans to arrange a marriage between his daughter Josephine and Sir Joseph Porter, K.B.C., the First Lord of Admiralty. Unfortunately, Josephine finds sir Joseph insufferable and she loves Ralph Rackstraw, a common sailor who works on her father’s ship.

   Ralph professes his love and when rejected, tries to commit suicide. Josephine relents and tells Ralph she loves him. Ralph and Josephine make a plan to go to shore that night to get married. The captain with the help of the evil Dick Deadeye foils their plans and captures them before they can leave the ship. In his rage, the Captain Corcoran swears. Sir Joseph overhears him and sends him to the brig.

    Sir Joseph asks Ralph why the captain lost his temper and swore. Ralph tells him why and proudly tells Sir Joseph that he loves Josephine. Sir Joseph, in shock and dismay, sends Ralph to the brig as well for planning to steal his bride.  Little Buttercup steps in and confesses that a foster mother switched Ralph and Captain Corcoran.  The two come back in different social classes from where they started. Ralph becomes the captain of the H.M.S. Pinafore and Corcoran becomes a lowly sailor.

   Sir Joseph decides not marry Josephine because of her rank and allows Ralph and Josephine to marry. He announces a triple wedding, and the next day he and Cousin Hebe, Ralph and Josephine and the captain and Little Buttercup all get married.

   “I thought it went really well,” Humphreys said. “The hardest part was fitting it together with the orchestra."

   The cast, choir and orchestra performed with skill and talent in singing and playing in this comic operetta. The characters of the operetta seemed to have themed music for their characters. Sir Joseph and Captain Corcoran entered in with military-themed music, Little Buttercup with light bouncy music, and Josephine and Ralph entered in with melancholy and, sometimes, joyful music. The play made fun of how social rank didn't matter if you loved someone enough.

Photo by Eric Bell

Caught Red-handed - Captain Corcoran (Miller) questions Ralph (Bowen) and Josephine (Regina Vaughn) as they try to run away and elope. The captain catches them with help from Dick Deadeye (David Vaughn).

  “It’s different from the musicals they have done, and vocally, it’s more challenging.,” said Richard Couch, Ashley Couch’s father.

   Regina Vaughn and Bowen sang beautiful duets with Regina reaching notes high on the scale.  David Vaughn sang with power and strength in the dark part as Dick Deadeye. Humphreys and Couch worked well as a team, and Miller sang with great precision.

   “I thought it was excellent,” said Robert Fellows, Jr, assistant to the directors of Bands. “I thought all the kids did a very good job.”

  The set design consisted of risers for the choir, chairs and stands for the orchestra, a director’s podium for the director and a platform laid across the orchestra pit for the actors to stand on. The music and talent of the actors created the rest of the set.

   The choir and actors wore simple costumes consisting of their concert attire, long black dresses and tuxedos. The women wore various types and styles of straw hats with ribbons varying in blue, pink and yellow. They wore matching gloves according to the color of the ribbons on their hats. The men wore their tuxedos with broad-brimmed British sailor hats with a yellow ribbon around the base.

   The actors wore their concert dress attire with the addition of accessories needed for their characters. Regina Vaughn wore a blue-laced bonnet and a blue layered cape trimmed with white satin and tied with lace. She wore blue gloves, carried a white handkerchief with blue embroidery, and she carried flowers in a white basket trimmed with white ribbon.  King wore a teal cape with pink lining with a matching ostrich-feather hat and black-lace gloves, and she carried a black-laced trimmed parasol.

   Gladden and Miller wore British Navy uniforms with gold bars and metals for the positions. Humphreys and Couch wore aprons over the their dresses, white shawls over their shoulders, straw hats with yellow and pink ribbons, pinks gloves with the fingertips cut-off and gold coin necklaces. David Vaughn wore a blue-stripped vest with his concert attire.

  Members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, selected members of the Arkansas Youth Symphony and members of the University of Arkansas-Monticello faculty and students performed the music during the show. Participating members of the UAM faculty and students playing in the orchestra included David Laubach, Tori Covington, Don Johnson and Rashaad Calaham.

   Kent Skinner conducted the choir and orchestra, Paul Becker accompanied on piano, and Chandrika Taylor worked with the costumes and properties.

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