Young Trenton thespians perform ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’

TRENTON – Showtime was in an hour, barely controlled pandemonium reigned, and the actors had yet to make one clean run-through.

But the directors weren’t sweating too much Friday afternoon at Trenton Elementary School as the 45 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade thespians polished their version of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore.”

The touch of chaos and the pressure to perform were part of the theater experience, and that’s what the outreach and education committee of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Hancock County aims for as it brings the whirlwind dramatic adventure to area schools at no cost.

“It’s good for the kids because they get experience performing before people, before adults and peers, and that’s a big deal,” Joasha Dundas, committee co-chair, said Friday. “They learn about another culture, they learn how a program is put together – the music, the dialogue, the acting – and they also learn how important it is to work together in unison, because everybody depends on everybody else.”

The troupe of about 15 girls portraying the “sisters, cousins and aunts,” dressed identically in long, flowered dresses and dainty bonnets, were given a quick lesson in how part of the group affects the whole when director Phyllis Gibson found that she couldn’t hear the dialogue because of offstage clatter.

“I hear the sailors making appropriate noise, I hear the [actors], and what else do I hear? The hall,” she said. “Girls! We cannot have this noise!”

Brooke Swanson, 13, her blond hair in ringlets that fell over her shoulders, said she was having a good time while portraying a “bumboat girl.”

“I’m a poor girl who goes around and sells stuff from my basket to the sailors for their wives, like fabric, food and peppermint drops,” she said. “I think it’s just fun to do.”

Though only a single day was allotted to whip the performance of the operetta into shape, the youngsters cast in primary roles had practiced their songs before. Everyone, though, exclaimed over the elaborate costumes provided by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society and the treat of putting on lots of makeup for the show.

Ryan Bartlett, 12, was cast as the First Mate and strode around the school’s gymnasium with his military-style jacket slung over his shoulders.

“To see everyone here with a costume on is just very weird,” he said.

The school’s music teacher also was decked out in high style with a floral dress and bonnet.

“I told the kids that I wouldn’t have them do anything that I wouldn’t do myself,” Jessica Hartman said. “When that includes costumes and singing, I do it too.”

Looking around at the gym, which was alive with sailors dancing a jagged hornpipe, singing bumboat girls and the chattering sisters, cousins and aunts, she said that the school appreciated the society’s efforts.

“There’s been a real excitement,” she said. “[Putting on a performance] is positive because they get to see what a group effort can do for them, get to interact with members of the community and get a real feel for what the work is that’s involved in a performance like this.”