{"id":950,"date":"2012-08-13T23:10:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T03:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=950"},"modified":"2017-11-01T19:36:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T23:36:18","slug":"monster-monster-dread-our-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/monster-monster-dread-our-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster! Monster! Dread our fury!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trial by Jury, 1939. Photo donated by Sally Showalter Hubbard ’40. (Click all photos to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the pleasures of working in the Archives is that sometimes a question will lead to a whole new line of inquiry.\u00a0 Or, to put it more simply, one will open a file and an idea for a blog post will jump out.\u00a0 Recently, research on behalf of a member of the Class of 1940 led to this photograph, from the first in a long tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta performances.\u00a0 On May 5, 1939, the Glee Clubs of Williston Academy and Northampton School for Girls performed Trial by Jury<\/em> on a makeshift stage in the basketball court.\u00a0 Chuck Rouse, Ruth Dunham, and Frederick \u201cBinky\u201d Hyde were co-directors; Howard G. Boardman provided scenery and lights.<\/p>\n

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H.M.S. Pinafore, 1941. Donated by Francis Lovett ’41.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thus began a quarter-century of Gilbert and Sullivan performances by Northampton and Williston students.\u00a0 A far more ambitious production, this time The Pirates of Penzance<\/em>, followed in 1940; H.M.S. Pinafore<\/em> a year later.\u00a0 Rouse and Dunham continued to direct, eventually succeeded by Henry Teller, Helen Spencer, and Jean Diekoff.<\/p>\n

Annual performances gave way to biennial in the mid-1950s, but a tradition of Williston and Northampton musicals \u2013 always Gilbert and Sullivan \u2013 was established.\u00a0 It lasted through a spectacular Mikado<\/em> in 1963, after which Teller and stage director\/pianist Stephen Randall were heard to comment that they didn\u2019t think they could top it nor, perhaps, should they try.<\/p>\n

In 1965 they instead presented the premi\u00e8res of two operettas, The Yankee Pedlar<\/em> by Smith College composer John Duke, and Artemis Undone<\/em> by Williston\u2019s own Richard Gregory, with the student cast supplemented by a brave contingent of faculty centurions and an army of Amazon women drawn from faculty wives and Schoolhouse secretaries.<\/p>\n

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Richard Gregory’s Artemis Undone, 1965. Photo by Andrew Stone Lapidus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But another reality was that students\u2019 musical interests had changed.\u00a0 Kids in the ’40s and ’50s \u2013 this writer included \u2013 often grew up knowing Gilbert and Sullivan practically by heart; thus the idea of donning gorgeously silly costumes and putting on Iolanthe<\/em> or Ruddigore<\/em> had broad appeal.<\/p>\n

By the mid-60s, directors could not make this assumption.\u00a0 In any case, while the musicals continued (most recently with Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> last May), Gilbert and Sullivan did not.\u00a0 1963’s Mikado<\/em> was the last of G&S at Williston, save for a 1983 faculty production of Trial by Jury<\/em>, featuring Richard Gregory as the Learned Judge and Dean Mary Hocken Goar as jilted bride Angelina.<\/p>\n

(It is to the Archivist\u2019s regret that no photographs of that performance appear to have survived.\u00a0 Can anyone help?)<\/p>\n

And if you didn\u2019t recognize the title of this post (it got your attention, didn\u2019t it?), surely it is the line sung by the chorus at the moment in Trial by Jury<\/em> captured in the photograph.\u00a0 As noted earlier, some of us grew up with this stuff.<\/p>\n

Your comments and questions are encouraged!\u00a0 Please use the space below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the pleasures of working in the Archives is that sometimes a question will lead to a whole new line of inquiry.\u00a0 Or, to put it more simply, one will open a file and an idea for a blog post will jump out.\u00a0 Recently, research on behalf of a member of the Class of … Continue reading Monster! Monster! Dread our fury!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[111,9,453,12,43],"tags":[118,112,35,117,114,120,113,119,115,121,116],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fine-performing-arts","category-northampton-school-for-girls","category-student-life","category-williston-academy","category-williston-northampton-school","tag-artemis-undone","tag-gilbert-and-sullivan","tag-glee-club","tag-h-m-s-pinafore","tag-henry-teller","tag-mary-hocken-goar","tag-musicals","tag-operettas","tag-richard-gregory","tag-stephen-randall","tag-trial-by-jury"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}