User:Hardyhouse/Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company

DO NOT EDIT THE ARTICLE HERE ANY MORE. SEE Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company instead. Give me a few minutes to move the info. -- Ssilvers (talk) 14:24, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company is an amateur theatre company based in Derby, England, that produces the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. The company have won Best Production at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival an unprecedented six times and have earned many individual awards from that festival and one or two from the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera. Derby G&S Company have also performed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Seattle, Washington in the U.S., and Nanaimo in Canada. The company generally mounts one or two productions each year, with orchestra, performing for a week in Derby, three or four performances at Chatsworth House, England and one performance at the G&S Festival in Buxton, England.

Origins and early years
The roots of Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company reach back to the 1940s when in Spondon, a parish village on the outskirts of Derby, a choral group was started by the local school headmaster – Spondon Choral Union. This choir sang both secular and religious music and performed in local and national music festivals. After the headmaster retired, the choir continued under the leadership of several conductors and subsequently was renamed as Spondon Musical Society.

The choir's musical style changed in 1966 when a concert version of "Trial by Jury" proved so popular that the decision was taken to try out a full production of "H.M.S. Pinafore" in the school hall in 1967. The success of this production initiated a series of yearly Gilbert and Sullivan productions in Spondon, which continued for the next dozen years until the society outgrew the potential of the school hall. In 1980, the society moved to The Derby Playhouse, where its first production, "The Mikado", received such a favourable response that they changed their name to Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company to more clearly reflect the new city base and repertoire of the company.

In the 1980's, the company played a couple of 'guest weeks' at the Buxton Opera House with "The Mikado" and later "The Yeomen of the Guard". Under the direction of one of its founder members, Andrew Nicklin, a theatre director and orchestra conductor, the company began to build a reputation for presenting updated, or "non-traditional" G&S productions.

Competitive successes
Under Nicklin, the company took The Mikado to The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in 1996, the company's first appearance there. The production had a modern theme and setting that earned the company an "Adjudicator's Special Award" for Innovation. The next year, the company's production of Princess Ida won the Derby Playhouse Eagle award for Best Amateur Musical seen by the adjudicators in and around the city during the 1997 season. Then the company presented this production at the G&S festival at its Philadelphia, Pennsylvania venue. The production was adjudicated the Festival Winner, and several of the performers won individual awards, including Deborah Norman for Best Female Voice and Andrew Nicklin for Best Amateur Producer.

At the 1998 festival at Buxton Derby G&S Co. continued to earn awards with 'The Pirates of Penzance' with the second runner's up prize to the Overall Festival Winners, Trent Opera Company.

In 1999 the company became overall winners of the International G&S Festival for a second time with their 1999 production of 'The Yeomen of the Guard'. The company's individual performers also won awards for Best Male Performer (Stephen Godward), Best Female Performer (Elizabeth Watkins) and Best Supporting Actor (Simon Theobald) with the production team being awarded Best Musical Director (Christine Nicklin) and Best Amateur Producer (Andrew Nicklin). Other members of the company won awards for other performances including Best Male Voice (Nick Sales) and Best Female Voice (Debbie Norman) both with Trent Opera's 'Utopia Ltd'.

The 2000 millennium became another award winning year for the company with 'Iolanthe' taking the Overall Winner at the 7th International G&S Festival. Other prizes won at the festival were Best Animated Chorus and Best Producer for Andrew Nicklin.

'The Mikado' in 2001 was placed 2nd Runners Up to South Anglia's production and also won Best Male Performer (Patrick Dawson), Best Male Voice (Stephen Godward) and Best Chorus as well as nominations in almost every other category.

In 2002 the Company appointed a new President, Glyn Hepworth, who helped the company immeasurably by organising the first of their now highly acclaimed 'Dinner and Operetta Evenings'. Their production week this year opened with a Gala Concert on 26th May and then five performances of 'The Gondoliers' the production week was a success with the audience who attended, but unfortunately the company did make a loss.

Touring USA
In the middle of July 2002 the company flew to Seattle on West Coast USA to join the Seattle G&S Society and perform three nights of their 2000 production of Iolanthe. This was their second trip to the USA after their single performance of Princess Ida in 1997 as part of the International G&S Festival. This time the company profit shared the ticket sales with Seattle G&S and this proved a successful formula.

It was less than two weeks after their return to the UK and the company performed 'The Gondoliers' one last time on the Awards Night of The International G&S Festival.

2003 was a challenging year with the Derby Playhouse choosing to move all non-professional productions into summertime slots which had a negative effect on the company's ticket sales. However the 2003 production of Ruddigore still went on to earn several awards from the 10th International G&S Festival, topped by the company being awarded the Overall Winners' trophy for the 4th time.

Making the Best...
2004 was a harder year than the last with the company having no choice but to end its 23 year relationship with the only true theatre venue in the city of Derby and move its 2004 production of HMS Pinafore to the Derby Assembly Rooms Darwin Suite. This venue is basically a 'black box' and it took a mammoth effort by the company and technical teams to turn this into a theatre venue. Staging was built and a raked seating construction hired and erected which allowed 190 people per performance to enjoy the show.

2005 and 2006 saw more multi-award winning productions with Andrew Nicklin's 'The Sorcerer' and 'The Pirates of Penzance' respectively. Both productions were awarded the Overall Winner's prize at the International G&S Festival amongst many other awards. The company also took 'The Sorcerer' to the Waterford Festival of Light Opera this year and won the awards for Best G&S Opera, Best G&S Director, Best Chorus and Stephen Godward won Best Male Singer for his Dr Daly.

In 2005 the company also took HMS Pinafore to Nanaimo in Canada. In association with local production company, UBetcha!, DGSC packed up their HMS Pinafore set from 2004 and travelled to the other side of the World to perform to a Canadian audience for the first time. It should be noted at this point that Derby G&S Co are a non-professional (amateur) theatre company so all the players and technical staff that flew from the UK paid their own airfare and accommodation with the production company and DGSC splitting the profits from the show to pay for the transportation of the set.

Canada proved to be success for the company so they went again in 2007, this time taking two productions; Andrew Nicklin's revamped 2002 production of 'Iolanthe' and the 2006 production of 'The Pirates of Penzance'.

Chatsworth Calls
For 2008 DGSC were privalaged to have been offered the rare opportunity to perform in the very exclusive Victorian Theatre within Chatsworth House. Three performances of 'The Pirates of Penzance' were be performed to a Sold Out audience with special events including 'Cornish Cream Teas' and a 'Black Tie Gala Night'. Such was the success that they were invited back to Chatsworth in 2009 and this is now considered a regular date in their schedule

A New Era for Derby Theatre
2009 saw the reopening of 'Derby Theatre' and Derby G&S Company were invited to stage the first production on the newly opened stage. DGSC was back on home turf in the theatre that the company had performed in since 1980.

2010 saw the company on another trans-Atlantic trip to Gettysburg, USA to take part in the 17th International G&S Festival joined by Gari Glaysher reprising his role of 'Nanki Poo'.

Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company clearly try to stage the best product that they can, they attempt to 'think outside of the box' and regularly try new and unexpected things.