View from the Stage during Pirates of Penzance

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Pirates of Penzance Performance Opens Tall Ship Celebration 2010

Community stages free performance opening night of Tall Ships 2010.

July 15, 2010       Leave a Comment
By: Stephen Kent

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Bay City welcomed the Tall Ship Celebration 2010 fleet on Thursday evening with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. Morning and afternoon thunderstorms threatened the show but skies cleared to provide a beautiful evening for the outdoor performance on the riverfront. The Tall Ship fleet provided a perfect background for Pirates!

"The idea for doing Pirates came up about a year ago" said Musical Director Don Clark. "Several of us were remembering when we did Pirates in 2004 for the Bay City Players Stages of Discovery program. We thought it would be fun to do it again and it just seemed appropriate to stage it during the Tall Ship Celebration"

First conceived as a simply a concert of the music with a small group of singers on stage, the performance grew into a full production. Word of mouth and Internet social networks spread the word and soon there were performers from Bay City, Saginaw and Midland.

The production was pulled together in just two months. The orchestra grew to some 30 musicians. They rehearsed in the Central High School band room just a few times yet pulled off a professional sound that delighted the audience.

Pam Barnes from Central High got involved to add movements and staging. Amy Hughes, also from Central High, provided the vocal direction and also took a solo part in the second act. Don Clark was the main organizer as well as the conductor.

The chorus and cast had some 70 voices and included some of the best known vocalists in the area.

The free show was sponsored by the Bay Arts Council as a "gift to the community". Other sponsors include Hagen Ford, Team One Credit Union, Kuhn Young Design Group, and the law firm of Lambert, Leser, Isackson, Cook & Giunta.

In an interview the week before Clark said "We think there could be an audience of a thousand people". From the photos it looks like that goal was met and exceeded.




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Daughters of the Major General listen in

Youngster gets a close-up view with her pirate spy glass

Daughters chorus

Pirates back stage

Daughters Chorus back stage

Pirates Chorus back stage

Pirates and the Major General's daughters

The sun sets on a great performance

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Stephen Kent
Steve Kent and his family have lived in Bay City for 40 years. He is VP of Technical Services at MMCC which produces MyBayCity.Com. Kent is active in many Bay City civic organizations. More from Stephen Kent

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