Notes from the Archives of Peter Zavon: Mikado '69

Due to the great intensity of the conflict between the director and the rest of the staff during Iolanthe '68, the Executive Board decided not to offer the directorship of the spring show to Mrs. Edmonds. The problem then was to find another director. The first choice of the Board was Constance Miller, who had directed two shows for the MIT group. It was known, however, that she wanted very much to direct Yeoman and that there was a very good chance that MIT would decide to produce Yeoman. It was assumed that, in that case, she would direct Yeoman at MIT. In the end, MIT did decide to do Yeoman, but did not choose Connie as the director. The directorship of The Mikado was thereupon offered to her, and she accepted. The auditions procedure was changed with this production, Instead of two, open audition dates followed by callbacks, Connie held four days of open auditions and then cast the show. Obviously sensitive about coming into the group from outside and changing too much, she retained the almost traditional Friday and Saturday nights off with Sunday afternoon rehearsals. Connie was appalled by the size of the stage she had to work with. At the time, the Savoyards were performing in Room 12 of CLA. This room featured a fifteen foot stage and a ceiling of about ten feet (no fly space). It had no wings, no backstage area, and no orchestra pit. There were three sets of on-off footlights and acoustical tile on the ceiling. The seating capacity was 190 people. To provide more room for the orchestra, the first row of seats was taken out. To provide more room for the cast, a stage extension was built over 1/3 of the "pit" on the stage left side. This reduced the floor area of the "pit" to what it had been before removing the seats. The set was designed to provide the maximum floor space on stage. It consisted of a backdrop and two sidedrops, painted to give the impression of a Japanese tea garden. The drops were designed in great detail by Richard Traubner, who flew in from New York to supervise the painting. The designs were done on the paint-by-number principle, and were most effective. The set pieces were two benches and two combination stairs and platforms to provide height for those upstage. The drops were suspended from horizontal poles. The downstage ends of the side drop poles were sunk directly into the walls. The drops were kept tight by stapling their bottoms to the linoleum stage floor. The acoustical properties of the stage were enhanced by suspending heavy-duty white paper below the ceiling. With the drops, this created a giant megaphone. Paper cut to give the idea of an oriental temple was stapled to the front of what passes for a proscenium arch in that room, producing the effect of looking at a framed picture. The make-up for this production was much more complex than for previous productions. It was a very heavy mask make-up which was quite effective at a distance. In 1969, American involvement in Vietnam was the major issue on campus. Such matters did not generally affect Savoyard productions in any way and those members of the cast and crew with strong feelings in this area made no attempt at political demonstrations, either within the group or on stage. During this production, however, one statement, which in the context of the times was regarded as political, was slipped onto the stage. The costume of the Mikado himself was covered with appliques, all of which were slightly stylized versions of the circled, inverted Y peace symbol. A number of people came with Connie Miller from the MIT G&S Society and contributed significantly to the increased quality of Savoyard productions. They included Jeffrey Weisenfreund, Jim Finder, Linda Houpt, Mac Sloan, Bob Gaston, Pam Grodzicki, and Judy Kelly. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that none of them were BU students. No record of Mikado '69 would be complete without mention of Owen Fleischman, Assistant Professor of Physics at BU and savoyard extraordinaire. Owen was a basso profundissimo who could not carry a tune, nor could he follow blocking directions. He missed many rehearsals, and, indeed, the entire second weekend of performances and the Framingham Tour. But he dearly loved Gilbert and Sullivan. To one rehearsal he brought a number of parodies which he had written, possibly as a student, expressing a 1930's socialist political orientation. For Mikado, the Savoyards gave performances on two, consecutive weekends. One matinee was given each weekend. For two performances, extra seats were put in the rear of the hall and still the group came within a seat or two of standing-room-only. This was the most successful production since the revival and in quality exceeded Iolanthe '68 by more than Iolanthe exceeded Yeomen '68. The Opera Department of the School of Fine and Applied Arts (SFA) had been less than supportive of the existance of the Savoyards for some time. Indeed, SFA students had on occasion felt it necessary to use pseudonyms when performing with the Savoyards. Several faculty members from the Opera Department attended performances of Mikado. On the basis of that production, Connie Miller was offered a part-time faculty position at SFA. (They wanted her to direct the Opera Department's next opera.) Connie was a full-time high school teacher and was, unfortunately, not able to accept.

FRAMINGHAM TOUR: This was the third tour of the BUS to Framingham State College. The performance was used as a come-on to get people to attend the organizational meeting of the Framingham Savoyards. Compared to the two previous tours, there were a great many more cars available for transportation. This time two econolines were rented, rather than a truck, to haul the set. The end result of combining the BUS set with the Framingham stage facilities was that the two side drops were not used. As in Room 12, no act curtain was used. During the ACT I finale, Constance Miller was seen to be in tears, due to the excellent review (see below) that was published that day and the excellence of the performance. During the entire first weekend, each succeeding performance had been better than the last, and this trend continued during the tour. The BUS was on a sky-rocket.

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