All Hands on Deck at Theatre3 with Pirates of Penzance

By Elizabeth De Santiago
JournaliZm

Theatre3 immersed the audience into a swashbuckling adventure in “Pirates of Penzance.” The entire theater is decorated from the floor to the ceiling with nautical details, allowing the audience to feel as if they are truly a part of the setting. It featured a boat of actors pushed around comedically and a projector screen that flashes the word “duty” every time the word is mentioned, signaling for the audience to take a drink.

“Pirates of Penzance” is typically performed with more actors and a full orchestra, however this production only used nine actors and one pianist. The cast and crew had to tackle unique challenges to ensure the production ran smoothly.

“Doing it with nine people as opposed to 30 or 40 changes everything,” said Max Swarner, who played the lead role of Frederic. “The choral parts are scored for many people, so many times in the show, there’s one of us on a line so you can’t rely on anybody to pick up the slack for you if you choose not to sing it. You have to sing at all times.”

Rachel Poole played a particularly demanding role as the Pirate King. This role is typically cast as a male, but Poole masterfully carried it out as a woman. She utilized her impressive vocal range to switch between octaves quickly in her songs.

“For the story that we’re using, the Pirate King was written in the bass clef and as a choir person, I’ve only learned how to read the soprano and treble clef, so my brain is flipped upside down,” Poole said. “Sometimes I am the pirate king, up the octave, then I’ll jump to the alto ensemble track and then I’ll jump to a bass part up the octave, and then I’ll go back to the Pirate King in one song, in a span of about 30 seconds.”

The pianist, Jeffery Bowling also had to make major adjustments to the score. Typically the opera is performed with a full symphony or-chestra.

However, Bowling transposed the score so that it could be performed on just a piano.

Additionally, the stage design, such as Ruth’s “boat dress” and the projector element added to the lighthearted nature of the production. The chemistry of the cast brought a sense of unity and made the opera feel more lively.

“There’s so much that can fall flat if you don’t have that chemistry. It really helps that we all love each other and I hope that shows on stage,” Swarner said. “It’s interesting too because, as actors, you may have done shows where you don’t have that chemistry and it gets really hard because that’s where your technique comes into play.

“We’re really lucky here, especially in the Dallas community because all the actors are all just so wonderful.”

Elizabeth De Santiago is an intern for Texas Metro News. She is a rising junior at Coppell High School. Her passion for journalism began after writing for her school’s student newspaper. In her free time she enjoys skateboarding around her local park.