SWEENEY TODD University of British Columbia
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Frederic Wood Theatr e SWEENEY TODD University of British Columbia Frederic Wood Theatre presents SWEENEY TODD Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM During1990, UBC is marking its diamond anniversary . Book by HUGH WHEELER It's a time not only to reflect upon our past accomplishments, but to look ahead to our brightfuture. To commemorate this special year, the University is offering a Directed B y wide range of official souvenirs, available at the Bookstore. When you purchase a 75th Anniversary souvenir item, you'll be French Tickner helping to support campus-wide events. January 17 - February 3 BOOKSTORE 1990 6200 University Boulevard, Vancouver, V6T 1Y5 Telephone 228-4741 Illustration reproduced with permission from Canadian Graphics West Inc . Co-Producing "SWEENEY" artistic collaboration . The President's Campaign, supported b y If J.M Synge, the Irish dramatist, is correct in maintaining tha t the munificence of private donors and matching Provincial "all art is collaboration", then Theatre artistry, more than an y funds, will create a complex of performance spaces—concert other form, would seem to thrive on multiple collaborativ e hall, proscenium theatre, studio, and cinema—which wil l processes . The art of the actor, director, scenic and costume an d provide an extraordinary facility for Music, Theatre, Creative lighting designers, technical magicians and sound operators, al l Writing and Fine Arts to combine their collective expertise i n blend into an amalgam which must seem a fully integrate d joint ventures. In this sense, SWEENEY TODD is not only a whole. One of the great advantages of the University structure is celebration of the University's past achievement over the last 7 5 that this kind of collaborative opportunity can be extende d years, but a tribute to the foresight and planning which wil l beyond the workings of a single department to draw on th e make UBC pre-eminent among Canada's Creative an d expertise of a range of other disciplines . And in producing Performing Arts campuses . SWEENEY TODD we have been extremely fortunate in fmdin g a happy and harmonious combination of three Creative and Errol Durbach Performing Arts Departments. The School of Music, under the baton of French Tickner, has brought all the musical and voca l resources of Opera to the Frederic Wood for this 75th Anniversary tribute to the University of British Columbia ; Robert Gardiner and Mara Gottler of Theatre have envisioned the grimy , Errol Durbach is the Head of the Department of Theatre . man-eat-man world of SWEENEY TODD in their set, costume , and lighting designs ; the Frederic Wood scene-shop an d Wardrobe have provided the professional and technical expertise of their construction teams ; and Richard Prince of Fine Arts has provided us with a sinister icon of a drop of blood congealing o n a cut-throat razor. We look to SWEENEY TODD as the model of ne w collaborative ventures in the Creative and Performing Arts . In 1 9 1 5- 1 99 0 creating a Centre for Excellence in Education in the Film Division of Theatre, the Provincial Government has also funded a series of additional positions in Music and Creative Writing t o enhance the University's capacity to write screenplays, compos e their scores, and shoot the films—another instance of the inter - disciplinary co-operation which makes UBC a particularl y attractive campus for scholar-artists . In the 1990s the Creativ e and Performing Arts will have even greater opportunities for ANNIVERSARY Stageland's Uncivil Barber Pitt's success spawned a host of Sweeney imitators. Some added cannibalism to the play's catalogue of horrors by havin g Mrs . Lovett, the barber's accomplice, recycle his victims as meat pies. Indeed, the exuberant bizarrerie of Sweeney's blood- letting seems to have titillated Victorian playgoers with the same combination of destruction and delight that has transformed the likes of `Jason' (Friday the 13th) and `Freddy ' Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, made his stag e (Nightmare on Elm Street) into cult figures for the 1980s and debut in George Dibdin Pitt's The String of Pearls, first performed at 90s. In our own century, Sweeney himself has been the subjec t the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, in March 1847 . A purveyor of popula r of a number of films, stretching back to two silent versions entertainments to London's minor houses, Pitt drew his tale from The made in the late twenties . In 1936 the aptly named Tod People's Periodical, which in 1846-47 ran a 18-part serial by Thoma s Slaughter, a stage Sweeney in his own right, featured himself in Prest setting forth in lurid detail the adventures of a barber wh o a major cinematic adaptation. Perhaps Sweeney's most curiou s "polished off" his more affluent clients . (Both Pitt's play and Prest's incarnation to date has been a 1959 Royal Ballet , story allude in their titles to a strand of pearls the barber hopes t o choreographed by John Cranko to a score by Malcolm Arnold. obtain by cutting the throat of a young sailor.) Where Prest went fo r Stephen Sondheim's musical, now the best-known rendering of his plot is anybody's guess . Contemporary scholars have found the Sweeney myth, premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drur y analogues in two 18th Century court cases, and a medieval Frenc h Lane, in July 1980. It is, in turn, based upon a 1969 stage ballad . It was, however, Pitt's reshaping of Sweeney for working-clas s version by Christopher Bond, first performed at the Victoria playgoers that launched the figure on his considerable career . Pitt Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. began by recutting his material after the fashions of Victoria n melodrama . Sweeney himself with his murderous mechanical chai r Joel H. Kaplan participates fully in the vogue for `goriodrama' that offered 19th Century audiences protracted scenes of violence, supposedly based upon `real-life' incidents. That Sweeney was a working man and hi s victims persons of means, may well have amused the Britannia's Eas t Joel H. Kaplan is proprietor of the Adelphi Screamers, a Vancouver- End spectators by reversing the positions of oppressed worker an d based troupe specializing in plays of the Victorian and Edwardian monied villain they had come to expect from domestic plays in the periods. The company's production of Oscar Wilde's Florentine period . Melodramatic in a more literal sense was Pitt's use of emotiv e Tragedy will open at the Edmonton Fringe Festival in July 1990. music to support stage action. Taking advantage of his theatre's in- house orchestra, Pitt provided Sweeney with almost continuous melodic accompaniment . Years later critic H. Chance Newton recalled the thrill created by one of Pitt's most insistent effects: "It is noteworthy that throughout the play whenever the word `pearls' is mentioned, it served as a special music-cue (for) music of a mos t thunderous crashing nature ." ANNIVERSARY SWEENEY TODD The Demon Barber of Fleet Stree t Music and Lyrics by Book by STEPHEN SONDHEIM HUGH WHEELER Director/Conductor French Tickner PRODUCTION Set Design by Robert Gardiner Costume Design by Mara Gottler Technical Director Ian Pratt Lighting Design by Ronald Fedoruk Properties Sherry Milne Costume Supervisor Rosemarie Moore Set Construction Don Griffiths, John Henrickso n Robert Moser, John Corrigan CAST Costume Cutter (Ladies) Jean Driscoll-Bel l Costume Cutter (Gentlemen) Leslie White Sweeney Todd Roger L. Stephens Wigs Terry Kuzyk Anthony Hope Christopher Johnso n Stage Managers Erin E. Jarvis, Lisa Roy Beggar Woman Gail Mandryk Assistant Stage Managers Nancy Lyons, Jeff Rankin Understudy Margaret Harding Wardrobe Mistress Michelle Mellan d Mrs. Lovett Adele Clark Costume Assistants Celine Boucher, Nancy Canning, Lucy Sherilene Marie Neyedl i Jo Howitz Johanna Margaret Ann Brockington Lighting Operator Jennifer Ames Understudy Aviva Lacterman Set Design Assistants Tom Schaad, Lorraine West, Tania Lazi b Tobias Ragg Stephen John Salvati Properties Assistants Kristen Johnson, Decima Mitchell, Pirelli Giovanni Smaldino Peter Sickert The Beadle Mel Eriksen Scenic Artist Robert Gardiner Judge Turpn Lloyd Burritt Paint Crew Crickett Price, Celine Boucher, Jonas Fogg Guy Fauchon Nick Davis, Tom Schaad The Company Juliette Arato, Sarika Bose, Sewers Theatre 453 Class Eliza Green-Moncur, Margaret Harding, Make Up Nick Davis Lori Harris, Aviva Lacterman, Wayne Line, Stage Crew Scott Bell, Heidi Bevington, Roberta Norman, Nancy Quan, Gavin Crawford, Lynn Emde, Alexandrea Trimble, David Vaisbord, Carl Watson Lynda Phillips, Sandra Young Box Office Carolyn Preiswerck, Mariascha Wright Associate Music Director Richard Epp Lisa Beley Chorus Conductor James Schell Poster Design Richard Prince Chorus Rehearsal Pianist Marie Chan Business Manager Marjorie Fordham Musicians Richard Epp, Ken Cormier Production Manager Robert Eberle A Note SWEENEY TODD, from THE BARBER OF FLEET STREET ; The Set Designer OR, THE STRING OF PEARLS . A LEGENDARY DRAMA, IN TWO ACTS. BY GEORGE DIBDIN PITT . First Performed nt Phr It Ito u n iii Throve, IP42. I try in my design to invent a world in which the only actio n that can happen is the play. The story of the play and the world of the play should belong together. Of course, most plays and operas could happen in more than one kind of world ; so at once I find that I must choose, among the many possibilities , the one I find most suitable. To help me in this I have the text, the music, the director , and my fellow designers . I try to use these resources to devis e a setting for the story that will both support the action, and be a kind of window in which the story's "message" or theme ca n be seen more clearly .