AACC puts on ‘Pirates’ show

Tomi Brunton Associate Editor

Opera AACC will perform the comedic opera “The Pirates of Penzance” in May.

The company’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1880 show will run May 1921 in the Kauffman Theater.

“It’s really fun music,” Maureen McArdle, a 10thyear music student who will sing in the chorus, said. “The tunes are very catchy. I think people will really like the whole [performance]. It’s … a funky little show.”

“The Pirates of Penzance” is centered around the ex- ploits of a boy named Frederic who accidentally indentured himself to a group of pirates.

Will Kuethe, who will play Frederic, said Gilbert and Sullivan were “the Monty Python of classical music.”

“I’ve done a couple of their operas in other places, and they’re all really funny,” Kuethe, an eighth-year continuing education student, said. “It’s just good music and it’s fun.”

Doug Byerly, the artistic director of the show who will play Major General Stanley, said working on the performance is “a lot of fun.” craft that has given me the bulk of success in my life.”

Canada said his advice for students who intend to become actors is to never “conflate the word actor with the word celebrity.”

“If you want to be a celebrity, that’s fine,” Canada said. “You can pursue that in many other ways, but don’t think it’s the same as an actor. If you have anything else you’re passionate about in life, that gives you more enjoyment that you think fits you better, then do that. The sacrifices that you have to make personally are going to be far too taxing and the emotional burden is going to be too great.”

“This company is a joy to work with,” Byerly, a music professor who founded the opera company in 2001, said. “We have a good diversity of students that repre- sent the college in a great way.”

Liz Barrett, who will play one of the pirates, said she “knows this opera backwards and forwards.”

“I’ve been singing Gilbert and Sullivan since I was 6,” Barrett, who has been taking classes at AACC for 40 years, said. “[Pirates] is my favorite musical of all time.”