By Shannon Eden
Within the last few weeks, I was able to attend two productions of Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan – one at the SCERA (http://bit.ly/11EGcBJ), put on by their youth company Acting Up!, and the other at the Valley Center Playhouse in Lindon (http://bit.ly/10dFvn4). When comparing the two, it is really like trying to compare apples to oranges. Both had the same script, the same plot, the same characters, and yet truly couldn’t have been more different from one another.
The SCERA Theater has a large stage with stadium seating. The Valley Center Playhouse is very intimate and provides the audience with an up-close theater in the round point of view. The venues themselves differed so much that pretty much every directorial decision had to be different for each production. The set at the SCERA consisted of a large framework of detail. They had room to build a ship, to have scalable rocks, and a cemetery full of honorable escutcheons. Whereas the Valley Center Playhouse made do with a small area devoted to props and set pieces that could convey the setting without crowding the already small area that the cast had to work with. The SCERA’s cast was relatively large with dozens of pirates and policemen and enough daughters to be married off to them all! The Valley Center Playhouse double cast the pirates as policemen as well, and had a modest number of frolicking maidens so as not to scale the rough and rugged passes right over the toes of their audience.
The fantastic thing about both shows was the simple fact that they both worked. And more than that, they worked well. Pirates of Penzance is a classic for a reason. It is adaptable in so many ways and can be brilliant when done large and loud as well as small and intimate. It doesn’t lose its comedy or musical prowess as long as it is done with heart and talent – two things that we are greatly blessed with in Utah County.
There will always be directorial aspects, costume choices, and vocal performances that may sway me one direction or another when it comes to choosing a favorite production, but in the end, I left both having enjoyed the show simply because it is almost impossible to not.
I brought my six-year-old to the SCERA’s production and included the rest of the family for the Valley Center Playhouse’s production (that’s a six-, four-, and two-year-old, plus a husband that sometimes requires a bit of an arm twist to attend theatrical performances), and both shows entertained and delighted them. If you want to know if a production is successfully entertaining, just ask a child – their reactions are always the most brutally honest! But none of them fell asleep, despite the fact that the shows ran almost two hours past their bedtime. They wanted to meet the characters and sang the songs as we left.
So, what did I take away from the two productions of Pirates of Penzance that I saw? Not that I preferred one over the other. Not even that I liked one theater over the other. Simply this – I love when people put great effort into putting on a great show. That they are willing to tackle a challenge, whether it be filling a large stage or fitting everything onto a small one. It doesn’t matter the size or simplicity, but whether or not people leave with a smile on their face. So far, Pirates of Penzance has yet to disappoint, and I look forward to seeing it again soon.
0 Comments