Student Life: Musical and Dramatic Organizations: Gilbert and Sullivan Players Records

The Oberlin College Gilbert and Sullivan Players became a recognized group in the Spring of 1949.  The organization was conceived by two Oberlin students, Alan Garb (BA 1951) and Ellen Uhrbrock (BA 1951). From the period of 1949 to 1953 presentations of The Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, The Mikado, Iolanthe and HMS Pinafore were done in the Oberlin High School auditorium or in the Apollo Theatre. Once Hall Auditorium was completed Gilbert and Sullivan presented, on average, two productions per college year from the period of 1953 to 1966. In the summers from 1953 to 1966, the G and S Players held summer stock in Cape Cod at various locales and under differing conditions. Each summer production period averaged six weeks and five to six different productions. The last place of residence for the Cape Cod summer stock was the Highfield Theater in Falmouth, MA.¹

1968 was the last season of the Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan Players at Highfield Theater.  It was immediately followed in 1969 by the College Light Opera Company, founded and still run by Robert Haslun. Many Oberlin student participate in this program each summer, but it is no longer particularly a Gilbert and Sullivan troupe, nor is it officially associated with Oberlin College.

After Dr. Boyers’ retirement in 1967, the campus players saw hard times as well. The loss of Dr. Boyers dedicated and influential leadership was not the only problem. The creation of the Theater and Dance Department in 1968 was a factor limiting student theater in general. The increasing number of faculty-sponsored productions gradually edged student theater out of Hall Auditorium. The number of Gilbert and Sullivan productions declined to one per year in 1968-70. The interests of Oberlin students during the late ‘60s were understandably directed more towards social politics than student theater, and in the spring of 1970, while the attention of all was directed towards Kent State University, two things failed to happen. No executive board was elected for 1970/1971, and the traditional December slot in Hall Auditorium was not reserved for the Gilbert and Sullivan Players.

Students who had been involved in recent Gilbert and Sullivan shows were invited to revive the organization, and what resulted was a “student organization with financial support, supervision and encouragement for the Music and Theater Department of the Conservatory of Music.” This second Gilbert and Sullivan Players produced Gilbert and Sullivan operettas sporadically in Hall Auditorium until 1975. After that year, the Gilbert and Sullivan Players were limited to continuing their collaborations, begun in 1973, with the also weakened Mummer’s Guild, on non-Gilbert and Sullivan works. These included Anything Goes and Kismet, and were most often produced in Wilder Main Lounge. The last of these collaborations, Candide, did get a Hall slot, but it marked the end of student-run theater in Hall Auditorium. In the fall of 1978, all the student theater groups on campus (including Gilbert and Sullivan and the Mummers) merged into the Oberlin Student Theater Association (OSTA), which is still operating.

In the fall of 1980, Gayden Wren ‘83, dissatisfied that no Gilbert and Sullivan operetta had been produced in five years, began work towards the chartering of a new student organization, dedicated particularly to the production of Gilbert and Sullivan.  This naturally caused distress among OSTA leadership, still very aware of their role as a coalition of near-defunct organizations. They maintained that Gilbert and Sullivan was but one of many OSTA projects, and that after the energetic Wren had graduated no need would be felt for an independent Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Nonetheless, perhaps owing to strong alumni sympathy (and nostalgia), Gilbert and Sullivan got its charter, and has produced 25 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas since then, and 3 commencement shows. Twelve of the thirteen performable Gilbert and Sullivan operettas have been produced since 1980, as well as a performance of Cox and Box, by Sullivan and Burnand. The current third Gilbert and Sullivan Players differ from the first two in that it is entirely student-run in all areas, including administration. The productions in general have less traditional D’Oyly Carte polish, but more daring innovation. Outrageously different interpretations of the operas, which would not be possible under any other conditions, have been extremely popular with students and experienced alumni alike. Despite a near collapse in 1986, sailing has been relatively smooth for Gilbert and Sullivan, and since 1988 growth has been steady. A new, more specific charter was adopted in November 1989, and passed by the General Faculty in May 1990. Relations between OSTA and Gilbert and Sullivan have been steadily improving since 1988, and recently overtures for increased communication with the Theater and Dance Department have been received by both student organizations.  Gilbert and Sullivan is definitely alive and well at Oberlin, and looking for opportunities to grow and improve.

(History of Gilbert and Sullivan Players from 1966-1990 by David Zajic).²

SOURCES CONSULTED

     ¹The Oberlin College Gilbert and Sullivan Players, 1949 - 1966: Its past with recommendations for the future.  Prepared by Hayden Boyers, ca. November 1966.  Located in RG 19/3/3 case file.

     ²Continued History of the Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan Players, 1966-1990. David Zajic, 1989/90 President of the Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan Players, May 21, 1990. Located in RG 19/3/3 case file.

Note written by Carol Jacobs and David M. Zajic.