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About Us
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Founded in 1987, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Chester County presents a full stage
production of one of the G&S operettas, complete with costumes, sets and full orchestra every
November at West Chester University. In addition the group presents Trial by Jury in the Chester County Courthouse every year in early
December as part of West Chester's West Chester's "Old-Fashioned Christmas" Weekend. GSSCC also offers a
traveling "road show" featuring the best of G&S
and tailored to meet the needs of retirement communities, service clubs, churches, municipal
parks, business groups, and private homes.
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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
PRESIDENT - Rob Knowlton
VICE PRESIDENT - Patrick Shepherd
TREASURER - Julie May
RECORDING SECRETARY - Ken McIntosh
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY - Mark Chester
MEMBER-AT-LARGE - Amy Karash
MEMBER-AT-LARGE - Roy Hallowell
WCU FACULTY MEMBER - Dr. Emily Bullock
If You Want To Know Who We Are...
You could say that The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Chester County was born
on Sunday, March 1, 1987, when the first general organizing meeting was held.
But the society had been conceived the preceding November, when West Chester
University President Dr. Kenneth Perrin held a faculty luncheon to brainstorm
ways to increase positive interaction between the University and the surrounding
community. Associate Music Professor Lois Alt described her experience with a
"town-gown" Gilbert & Sullivan organization at the University of Michigan, and
Dr. Perrin said, "Do it."
Together with fellow G & S enthusiast Robert S. Taylor, Lois formed a founding
board composed of community leaders and university faculty members: then-Chester
County Judge, Robert S. Gawthrop III; Speech and Theatre Department head,
Dennis Klinzing; English professor, Dwight McCawley; language professor,
Philip C. Smith; Dean of the School of Music, Roy Sweet and associate professor of voice
Joy Vandever. The university agreed to subsidize the society with printing, graphics,
rehearsal and performance halls.
The founding board sent out flyers, ran two ads and got an introductory article
published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on February 22, 1987. "Gilbert and Sullivan
fans want to share operas with others," it announced, and quoted Lois Alt, saying:
"We are interested in people who love and want to create the topsy-turvydom which is
Gilbert and Sullivan." Over a hundred such Chester Countians showed up at Swope Auditorium
at 3 PM that first of March.
Forty-five of the attendees became members and got to work, electing Ian Williamson,
President Pro-tem; Alma Pollock, Vice President Pro-tem; Robert Taylor, Treasurer,
and Ira Binder, attorney. They held their first annual business meeting and "constitutional convention"
on Saturday, April 25 in Chester County's Courtroom #12. The fledgling society auditioned leads
for H.M.S. PINAFORE on May 10, then followed with a preview and fundraiser on July 31.
This featured highlights from nine of the G & S operettas with "full costumes and scenery,
a 35-voice chorus and several soloists," according to The Daily Local News, performed to
a sold-out Swope Auditorium. The group went on to present H.M.S. PINAFORE that November
6 and 7, and a full length production each fall or winter since. 1989 brought TRIAL BY JURY
in December. We have performed TRIAL BY JURY as part of Old Fashioned Christmas at Chester
County Courthouse ever since. We went on to present for the Buxton International Festival H.M.S.
PINAFORE in 1996 and TRIAL BY JURY in 1997.
The society's future promises to hold forth joy like Tessa's in THE GONDOLIERS: "It's too much happiness!"
- Suzanne Kuhn
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