Mary Baldwin University Theatre presents Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience, November 13-15 and 18-22, with performances Wednesday through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. in the Fletcher Collins Theatre, Deming Hall. The show is directed by Terry Southerington with musical direction by Anne Wick and accompaniment by Marie Masincup.
“The combination of Sullivan’s beautiful music and Gilbert’s wonderfully silly plot produces a delightful evening of fun, and continues a long tradition of G&S at Mary Baldwin,” said Sullivan.
In this witty and light operetta, G&S have fun satirizing the British aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century and Oscar Wilde in particular. The aesthetic poet Bunthorne and the idyllic poet Grosvenor have fallen for Patience, the village milkmaid, much to the disappointment of the lovely Lovesick Maidens who are in turn in love with the poets. Their fiances, the Dragoon Guards, aren’t very happy about that.
Having been told that true love must be unselfish, Patience (Michelle Laurence) rejects her true love Archibald Grosvenor The All Right (Rob Cantrell), who is too perfect. She agrees to love the imperfect Bunthorne (Elizabeth Van Doren), who admits to the audience that his aestheticism is really a sham done for the adoration of the ladies. On the defection of their idol, the Lovesick Maidens, led by Tiara Bowling as Angela, Jasmine Duran as Saphir, and Alexandra Carther as Ella, return to the Dragoon Guards, but the short-lived reunion only lasts until Grosvenor appears. Only Jane, played by Emarii Lopes, remains true to Bunthorne. When the Colonel (Michael Lafferty), the Major (Daniel Kirkland), and the Duke (Joe Swengel) attempt to become aesthetic to win back their ladies, things become even more complicated (and funny).
The leads are supported by a large cast of Mary Baldwin students as the Lovesick Maidens and students and local actors as the Dragoon Guards.
Tickets are $7 for students and senior citizens and $12 for adults and are available online at go.marybaldwin.edu/theatre or by calling the box office, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 540-887-7189.
For more information contact Terry Southerington.