Pittsburgh Savoyards

Casey Ciocco
St Vincent College’s Gilbert & Sullivan Society, and Assistant Director for Iolanthe

Casey Ciocco is a young music major from St Vincent College in Latrobe. She applied to direct Iolanthe for Pittsburgh Savoyards last summer, and we were impressed enough to ask her to be Assistant Director. She performed admirably.

I decided to ask about her music and theater life, as well as Gilbert & Sullivan.

I was introduced to G&S because of an act of desperation, actually. The end of my sophomore year at Saint Vincent, one of my close friends (who did theater there – I hadn’t done theater at all up to this point) told me his theater group on campus called the Gilbert & Sullivan Players desperately needed more people for a production of Princess Ida they were doing. I had a voice major in music, and an extensive musical background, so naturally, I said “sure.”

I found out they needed ensemble and small roles, so I auditioned with their student producer and was cast as Sacharissa. When the production team realized I was an actual trained singer with a lower voice, they moved me to play Cyril, one of Hilarion’s pals.

From that point, I stayed in the club and started in leadership positions the very next semester.

Note that Zach Lucchetti also went to St Vincent’s, where he helped found the Gilbert & Sullivan Players. Clearly he gave it enough push to last for years after he left. Casey didn’t know him until this fall, when he sang in Iolanthe. Zach has sung in several Savoyard productions, along with Undercroft Opera, and many other companies. (Don’t look at http:// barihunks.blogspot.com/.)

Now, about those Savoyards…. What’s not to like?? I can’t even begin to talk about how thrilled I was upon learning that there was a local G&S collective that shared one of my biggest passions.

I absolutely adore everyone who’s a part of this group, and I love that the shows are kept traditional. At Saint Vincent, we had to modernize them so they’d have a chance appealing to our audience, and so getting to be a part of the original, unedited operettas is my favorite thing.

The only grievance I have? The long drive (an hour and twenty to the church, and an hour and a half to the music hall). But hopefully that’s changing soon!

My musical training begins at the wee age of 10. I joined 4th grade concert band as a drummer, and absolutely loved it. I continued to drum all through college, and in high school, I spent 3 years on the marching band’s drumline and held leadership positions there as well.

I didn’t start singing until high school, where I was in chamber choir. Upon going to SVC, I declared a music major where I began vocal training. I still was a part of the band there, a drum major for 3 years. I also played drumset in the jazz ensemble.

This is when I began theater. I did both student group’s shows (The Company and The Gilbert & Sullivan Players) and had production roles, acting roles, and administrative roles in both groups. And I performed in the theater department’s shows as well. I worked for the professional equity Saint Vincent Summer Theater for 3 years, one as a student ASM and two as staff costumer.

My favorite G&S operetta is a tie between The Sorcerer and H.M.S. Pinafore. Both shows are very close to my heart, and the music for both is what gets me.

One of my worst shows (from a production viewpoint) was H.M.S. Pinafore. We had every lead but three drop out, and didn’t get a full run completed until opening night. One of our orchestra members had a seizure during the run the night before, and we had to call EMS. We stopped that run to stand still and sing along. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but our audiences told us the show ended up going well.

I have done many shows with Mark Harris, and probably the best thing I’ve seen happen is when he was playing Nanki-Poo in Hot Mikado. His introductory song became a jazz crooner ballad, and he had a tap break in the middle after he played his trombone.

At the end of the song, he had a high, belted note, and on Sunday’s final matinee, he cracked on that note. We still laugh about it, mainly because we think it’s hilarious to hear singers when their voices crack. It was a good time.

We hope to see much more of Casey and Mark in Pittsburgh Savoyards shows.

Interview by Eric Starbuck
All photos from Casey’s Facebook page.

King Gama in Princess Ida (2013)

I was introduced to Gilbert & Sullivan through hearing melodies over the years, but I hit the big time when I came to see SCA friends in HMS Pinafore. I knew the melodies for Little Buttercup, before knowing the words.

I had already done some theater. I knew that I could carry a tune without it falling on the floor and crashing into bits.

I started with the Savoyards in the 1994 or 1995 season. First show was Ruddigore in 1997. All the ghosts had to stand behind portraits during most of second act the first week, as the painted portraits were not finished until after the opening weekend. Very difficult to stand sufficiently still.

I will probably do lights for Iolanthe, partly because I do lights for Rocky Horror Show with Stage 62 in November, and want to be sure the lighting grid stays in good shape. Some lighting people really mess the grid up. I often spend extra time fixing lights, changing bulbs, and moving misplaced Fresnels and their electrical circuits.

I would to love to attempt to do Iolanthe special effects with the opening scene completely in the dark, illuminated only by fairies with light-up wings. This would require the orchestra memorize the overture, so it can be played in the dark. That’s how the original Savoy Theater production opened. And an illuminated magic wand for the Fairy Queen.

I never had formal training in music or lighting, though I served a form of apprenticeship. Learned something of acting from Glen Garth, with The Acting Company, in the early 90s, in Lawrenceville. He also showed me much about theatrical lighting and about working on a shoestring budget. It was a 3/4 round stage (audience on 3 sides), with lights hung on trees behind the audience. It had 12 electrical circuits for control, which places serious limits on lighting special scenes. When I started at Savoyards, they had only 12 circuits and many fewer lights than now, but Savoyards have grown to where it is much easier to light artistically.

One of the things I really like is the way Savoyards do the music, how well we re-create it symphonically as well as in singing. When Guy Russo came in, the orchestra started to sound really good. I also love the wit that Gilbert brings to it. The humor makes it very enjoyable. Even in some of the more serious moments it’s never far away.

My favorite Gilbert & Sullivan opera is the second show I did–a most fun time–Pirates of Penzance. Noblemen wanting to be pirates, but don’t have the stomach to kill. Leap year silliness. Closest to a flawless and believable plot.

Pinafore is fun, but there are problems–Rafe & Captain, same age? Looked alike as children? Little Buttercup, an adult when they were children, now marries the Captain. Some directors make Buttercup blind, so it’s clear why the mixup. Some play off it, making the men look radically different so the mixup looks even more impossible.

Iolanthe probably works, but I don’t know any magical fairies.

It is great that the Savoyards are continuing to grow artistically and retain the excellence in music they have been known for. I hope we continue to grow in the box office enough to stay another 100 years.

I did meet my wife, Janette, through the Savoyards. I was producing Iolanthe. Janette auditioned, and fell in love with my hair, which was long and silky at the time. She volunteered for every production meeting that involved tech, despite being poor at tools. “Can I help? Can I spend time with you making a great production?” The rest is history.

By Eric Starbuck