Pirates of Penzance Set Sail on New Providence High School Stage

Residents can enjoy a boot-stomping, swash-buckling good time this weekend at the Theater Production of Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert’s The Pirates of Penzance in the NPHS Auditorium.

Starring Gregory Grimes as Frederic, Hannah Black as Mabel, J. Eric Roper as Pirate King and James Whiting as Major General, this classic comic opera sets sail with Frederic, a young pirate, who discovers his birthday falls on Feb. 29, in a leap year. To his dismay, his apprenticeship to a group of tender-hearted pirate, which would have been complete on his 21^st birthday, will not end until age 63 — the 21^st anniversary of his actual date of birth. In the meantime, Frederic falls in love with Mabel, the Major General’s daughter.

“I hope [residents] can expect to be entertained and have a delightful evening with beautiful music, a great orchestra, and I think, I hope, they will be impressed with the level of talent of their kids,” said Craig Duke, a high school Drama, Theater Production and Broadcast Journalism teacher who provided stage direction and set design for the musical. “This particular cast is so talented and such a delight to work with. It’s been wonderful; I’ve really enjoyed it.”

The talent alone was secured through auditions before the holidays, Duke said, and rehearsals began once students returned from winter break in early January.

“We start out with maybe two to three [rehearsals] a week and then it progresses from there as we get closer,” Duke explained. “We’ve been living here for the past three weeks, I guess. It gets pretty intense but the kids bare with it and fortunately, we haven’t had any snow issues. Sometimes we’ve had weather to deal with in the past. This has been a good winter for us.”

With his Theater Production class at the high school, Duke and his students fully construct the set for every musical. He also has students and even some parents who volunteer their time after school hours.

“It’s a stagecraft kind of class so they learn the art of set construction. I usually come up with the design or sometimes we’ll have a volunteer or sometimes we’ll pay someone to come up with the design, but this one I designed myself. The kids work very hard,” Duke explained. “We have some parents who volunteer their time as well. One of our dads helped with our pirate ship and our woodshop teacher helps with a lot of the set pieces so it’s really a big, group effort.”

As for costumes, Duke said they are a mixture of handmade and rented, utilizing a company called Scaramouche, and Mrs. Ann Lowe, a former theater production parent and an active community member.

“[She] has been working with us for years, helping with costumes,” Duke said. “All of her kids have gone through the system and graduated, and she’s still helping us out, which is great.”

Of course, no musical could be complete without the orchestra.

“Mr. Michael Niedziejko, who is our band and instrumental director here, [asks students] to play in the pit and it’s an honor. A lot of kids are really excited to do it. It’s a mix of all of the kids [in band and the orchestra] and kind of depending on the requirements of the show itself,” Duke explained. “So he gets the pit together, rehearses them outside of school. They have their own rehearsal schedule and then they usually come in the week before as we get into dress rehearsals. The cast gets to work with them. He handles it really well.”

Duke said other teachers get involved as well, including Kenneth Hess, Department Head of Fine, Performing and Practical Arts, and Mr. Edward Fleischman, the Orchestra Director.

“He has a few adults who kind of ground some of the instrumentation and then the rest is all kids,” he said. “So there might be him and three other adult musicians and the rest are kids.”

Duke said the entire Music Arts Department at the high school takes part in each theater production.

“We’re a small school,” Duke said,” and I’d say we have a good 120 kids involved when you start adding up all of the crew, all of the cast and all of the orchestra kids together.”

Each year, Vocal Music Teacher Susan Kirkland, Choregrapher Leslie Ditta and Duke spend months determining the theatrical productions for the following school year. Earlier this school year, they decided on The Miracle Worker for the fall and The Pirates of Penzance for this spring, taking the up-and-coming theater students into consideration and what roles would fit them well.

“I have to say this is the first Gilbert and Sullivan I’ve directed and I was a little leery at first, not knowing how to go about it,” Duke said. “But it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve really enjoyed it and we’re surprised how much the kids have really committed and gotten into it. We thought it being an old-fashioned musical that it wouldn’t necessarily resonate with them but they’ve really embraced it and really enjoyed it.”

Vocally, Duke said this is one of the strongest groups he’s had in several years.

“Hannah, Greg and Eric — I think they are all really talented vocally. They are the principals,” Duke explained. “Also, [we have] James Whiting as the Major General, who I think is hysterical and he comes up with great little moments. I’m always kind of thrilled to see what he’s going to do because we rehearse and rehearse, and then he finds some little moments of his own that are hilarious. He’s a very talented kid.”

So how is the high school able to put on two productions each year, plus an end-of-the-year showcase for younger students? They pull it off through fundraising and ticket sales.

“I think we have a pretty good presale right now. They are collecting tickets from students and parents who reserved ahead of time,” Duke said. “We get pretty close [to selling out] depending on the show, but we have a thousand seats in [the auditorium] so it gets tough to fill it up completely. But our Friday and Saturday nights are always pretty full and Sunday, the matinee, is usually the lesser show out of the three.”

Duke said one of his great laments is that the high school can’t put on more performances. “The kids have worked so hard but it becomes hard to fill the space for more than the three performances. But for the kids, that’s something I’d like to be able to give them a little bit more of because just as they are finding their part, suddenly it’s over. Their three performances are done.”

So will Mabel, Frederic’s new-found love and the Major General’s daughter, wait for his liberation from the band of Pirates? Find out at one of three performances this weekend — Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased at the door, 8 for students and $10 for adults.

“I’m excited to see what the kids do with an audience,” Duke said. “That’s the thing — as much as we prepare, you don’t really know how it’s going to go over until we get a big crowd in here.”

Note: this production is Rated G by the high school’s licensing agent, Music Theatre International.

Cast (in Order of Appearance)

Samuel - Jamie Currie

Pirate King - J. Eric Roper

Frederic - Gregory Grimes

Ruth - Tori Thomas

Kate - Kathleen Joyce*

Edith - Paige Peterson

Isabel - Mara Natale

Mabel - Hannah Black

Major General - James Whiting

Police Sergeant - Perry Spiegel

Pirates - Zach Falk, Henry Lee, Laura Maxwell, Jose Quesada

Daughters - Eleni Catanzaro, Lauren Charlton, Claudia Kosiecki, Gigi Luciano, Tori Ortega, Julia Terrezza

Police/Ensemble - Katie Canete, Sarah Clowes-Walker, Gabriela Estupinan, Chris George, Mary Kate Grimes*, Dominique Paredes-Rupp, Jessica Rinato, William Roper, Stefan Suric, Anna Westerhaus

(*Dance Captains)

Orchestra

Woodwinds: Sierra Baglish, Alexandra Esposito, Tom Huang, Kaitlyn Mazzilli, Justin Patel and Ms. Wendy Large

Brass: Steven Bronocco, Jonathan Sales, Mr. Andrew Filippone

Percussion: Sonya Han, Mariana Papaianni, Victor Xu

Bass: Mr. Edward Fleischman

Keyboards: Nicholas Xu, Mr. Kenneth Hess

Construction Crew

Kenny Boyd, David Colby, Alex Eberle, Cara Esposito, Christina Gellert, Alex Iuliano, Zak Kosiecki, Allie LaForge, Maggie Lust, Bryan Mathis, JR O'Connor, Dominique Paredes-Rupp, Brian Schendt, Ryan Seth, Mike Sunyak, Katie Zabel, Will Zagorski

Note: It is the nature of theatrical productions that the Show Crew comes together just before Technical Rehearsals begin. Therefore, please look in a supplement at the show for more information about the Crew.

Faculty and Parent Involvement

Stage Direction and Set Design - Craig Duke

Music Direction - Susan Kirkland

Choreography - Leslie Ditta

Orchestration Direction - Michael Niedziejko

Technical Direction - John Russo

Costume Design - Ann Lowe