PEORIA -- Here's an account of the last Gilbert and Sullivan musical performed at Woodruff High School, which is slated to close in June. It reveals again the folly of closing a 900-student high school with long traditions and support in the community. The author wishes to remain anonymous.
"The Gondoliers" which filled the Commons at Woodruff High School with music and laughter last week was just the most recent in a series of 17 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
With the closing of Woodruff High, choral director Denise Adams doesn't know where she will be transferred or whether the series will continue. For a cheering and standing ovation audience Saturday night it would be a tragedy if it doesn't.
It was an evening to treasure starring Lee Wenger. director of radio information at WCBU, and Pete Driscoll who directs music at East Peoria High School, as the central characters -- a pair of zany gondoliers in Venice.
The student choruses which serve as a sort of Greek chorus explaining the turns of plot, proved to be all "sublime," a favorite word in Gilbert's lyrics.For Adams who directs as well as plays the Sullivan score on piano, it was a bittersweet evening not knowing if it might be the last.
Over the 17 years, hundreds of Woodruff students have learned self confidence, stage poise, clear diction and an appreciation of the British humor through the operettas.
The dinner- theater combination in Woodruff's Commons has been so successful that many hands shot up Saturday night to confirm they hadn't missed a single "Mikado" or "HMS Pinafore."
Operetta "alumni" also returned to take part in the chorus, and Wenger and soprano Shirley Salazar who teaches voice at Bradley University, have scarcely missed a year.
Dave Barnwell, retired Woodruff principal who supported the first operetta, has performed frequently since then and was there Saturday as the Duke of Plaza Toro.
Debra Austin, professional mezzo-soprano and voice teacher at Illinois State University; soprano Rhonda Heller, retired postmaster of Metamora; Susan Somerville, a Broadway veteran; Joe Suau of Caterpillar's "Beauty and the Beast" and Peter Wessler, Woodruff orchestra director. filled out the stellar cast.Chef Russ Cloud. a Woodruff alum, presided over the bountiful buffet.
Uncertainty runs through the plot of "The Gondoliers" and it's also in the future for Adams and the Gilbert and Sullivan Dinner Theatre series. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. -30-
UPDATE 1/30/10: check out Roger Monroe's column in the Feb. Community Word, on Woodruff HS closing.
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