Tales from tech week: The Pirates of Penzance

While most students on Muhlenberg’s campus spent last week in a flurry of pre-Halloween excitement, gathering candy and playing dress-up in advance of the big night, one group of dedicated students spent the final days of October amongst mountains of costumes and makeup for a different reason: they were about to become The Pirates of Penzance.

This year’s fall musical, a classic Gilbert and Sullivan operatic comedy, was officially in the throes of tech week when I visited the set. It put staff, crew, and cast alike in their most hectic state of the semester.

With the show premiering this past Friday and running through Nov. 6, everything from the set to the songs must be prepped and ready to go by the time the curtains open. Director Charles Richter describes this final week of rehearsals as a tumultuous yet exciting ride.

“It has been a great pleasure,” Richter said. “Our scene shop has done a terrific job on the spectacular set designed by Curtis Dretsch, so our actors have had a great deal of time to get used to the scenery.”

benefits from a very dedicated cast. “The huge cast is very disciplined which has made it very easy for me and our choreographer, Sammy Reyes, to space the show on the sets,” said Richter. “We have more than 50 people in the cast which can become chaotic, but our actors have very professional attitudes about their work on the stage.”

For some of these cast members, The Pirates of Penzance marks their first Muhlenberg production, including Laine Flores ‘20, who plays Isabel in one of the two casts.

“As a freshman, I’m working with new people, in new spaces, on a different schedule than I’m used to,” Flores said. “My favorite part of this week was definitely the reveal of the set. It’s gigantic and so beautifully constructed!”

Of course, the thrill of college tech week extends to the crew as well—new member Patrick Braue ‘20 recalls the past few days as full of new friendships and adventures.

“It’s been a fun learning experience,” said Braue. “I learned the lengthy and strenuous processes that [goes] into crewing, [like] how it’s all a team effort, and I really gained some respect for what the crew does.”

Even for those students who are no strangers to the strenuous Muhlenberg tech rehearsals, like Jessica Jones ‘17—who played Mama Morton in one of last year’s mainstages, Chicago, and is now performing as Isabel in Pirates—this show brings a unique flavor to a familiar routine.

“This tech process has overall been very stress free,” Jones said. “Time is being used fairly and efficiently and...the cast is very on top of adjusting to and remembering the changes made.”

“The only other shows I have experienced tech for were a student directed studio and the Mainstage Chicago,” continues Jones, “and both processes were very different...tech for this show has in comparison been less challenging in that having two unit sets and costumes that change at intermission has made our job as the actors less cumbersome, but that’s also thanks to the hard work of the crew to keep things running smoothly for us!”

After many sleepless nights of run-throughs and behind-the-scenes antics, at the time of these interviews there were only a matter of hours before the pirates would march on stage in front of their first audience —but would the combined hard work of every essential branch of the theater arts pay off? Richter certainly thinks so.

“The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan is one of the most hilarious pieces of musical theatre ever written,” said Richter. “Sullivan’s score is just delightful and Gilbert’s libretto is very funny. We have a talented cast (really two talented casts) that is bringing great life, comic energy and great musical vitality to the piece. It is going to be a wonderful production.”

The first weekend of performances was sold out, so be sure to grab your tickets for this wild seafaring comedy—or you might be made to walk off the plank.