Celebrating its 49th anniversary, the Gilbert & Sullivan Company of El Paso presents "Patience, or Bunthorne's Bride” for its 2018 summer production. Performances are as follows:
LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO
Black Box Theatre, 430 N. Main Street
Saturday, July 21 at 3:00 pm & 7:30 pm and Sunday, July 22 at 3:00 pm.
Call (575) 523-1223 to reserve seats
EL PASO, TEXAS
First Presbyterian Church, 1340 Murchison Drive
Friday, July 27 & Saturday, July 28 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, July 29 at 3:00 pm.
Friday, August 10 & Saturday, August 11 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, August 12 at 3:00 pm.
Tickets are: $12 adults/$10 students, military and seniors 62 and older.
“Patience or, Bunthorne's Bride” Patience is a lively, witty satire that pits the straight-laced ideals of the Victorian era against the passions and indulgences of the 1870's Aesthetic Movement, with its focus on beauty in art and literature. As the operetta opens, all of the maidens in the village are infatuated with Reginald Bunthorne, a handsome aesthetic poet that wears delicate attire, writes and recites poetry, and wanders around pensively. Bunthorne, however, is smitten with the village milkmaid, Patience, who finds all of his attitudes and mannerisms silly. The problem? Bunthorne’s artistic ways are all just an act to attract women to him--he doesn’t even like poetry! Upon the arrival of the idyllic poet Archibald Grosvener, the situation becomes complicated when he proposes to Patience. In the meantime, The Dragoon Guards, a troop of young soldiers that were meant to marry the village maidens, find themselves baffled by the sudden loss of their sweethearts. The advantages of ordinariness emerge eventually and everyone, or almost everyone, gets married in the end.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s sixth collaboration, “Patience” dates from 1881. Now, 137 years later, the Gilbert & Sullivan Company of El Paso brings it to life under the artistic direction of Stephanie J. Conwell with Marsha Watley as vocal director and Ballard Coldwell is piano accompanist. The Paso del Norte Philharmonia orchestra is under the direction of Francisco Javier Renteria for the production.
The Gilbert & Sullivan Company of El Paso is a community theater group that has an unbroken history of annual Gilbert & Sullivan productions since 1969 when it was founded by its first artistic director, Joan P. Quarm (dec.), to preserve and present the works of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan. The company is funded and supported in part by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Information/Reservations: 915-584-9319 or 915-479-248
Go to our Tickets page to purchase online.
