08 So Please You, Sir

This is a segment from a production I directed in 2008/2009. I've always loved Gilbert and Sullivan musical/operetta's and having lived in Japan had wanted to direct this specific production for a number of years. I am grateful that I directed it when I did, as a project for my Japanese courses I taught because as of 2010, the program along with about 80 others was cut by our school district. I didn't break even from producing and directing this production, but it was a quality production with cast members who traveled from as much as two and a half hours a way to take part in it. I costumed the show by using my language skills and working with eBay sellers in Japan so that every costume was authentically Japanese. My son, Christopher M. Peterson, a skilled actor and singer in his own right, along with one of his former classmates Tim Fox, auditioned and were given roles. Tim played the part of Koko - the Lord High Executioner, and Christopher reveled in the role of the Grand PooBah. The last production I'd directed with Chris was when he played the role of Kurt in the Sound of Music for me when he was 10. Chris often traveled with me on directing gigs. One summer I was directing the King and I for Shawnee Summer Stock Theater in Greene County Indiana. The theater had hired an accompanist who turned out to only be able to play an organ. Several of my singers in the cast for some reason, couldn't take a starting pitch from hearing the organ. We double cast the role of Anna because of worries about the vocal strain for the two actresses we had who could play the role. One day in rehearsal, one of them was having a very difficult time finding that starting note for a song, when suddenly a bright and clear soprano note rang through the rehearsal hall. We turned and there was my son Chris, 18 months old, standing at the edge of his playpen and firmly grasping the top rail while singing his little heart out.... correctly on the melody, without having the words included. The actress who was not able to find the note said "How on earth does he do that?". I couldn't think of a response that would have hurt her feelings, but I too was amazed that Chris's early start in theater and music made him a very apt student of voice for me, and one of my dearest friends as well.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Michael J. Peterson director
• The Mikado
• role of Poobah
• Gilbert and Sullivan