Programme 1977 – Oops Titipu

OOPS!
TITIPU

is a light hearted look at
“THE MIKADO”
By BILL GILBERT
and
ARTIE SULLIVAN

WELCOME to the TABARD THEATRE for our May 1977 Production

CAST

THE MIKADO OF JAPAN   Les Deere
NANKI-POO – His Son   Haldane Scougall
KO-KO (Lord High Executioner of Titipu)   Lex Barker
POOH-BAH (Lord High Everything Else)   Gerald Brown
PISH-TUSH (A Noble Lord)   Peter Pangari
Wards of Ko-Ko Three sisters
YUM-YUM   Christine Treseder
PITTI-SING   Wendy-Lee Kyle
PEEP-BO   Jeannette Murray
KATISHA (an elderly lady in love with Nanki-Poo)   Tessa-May Brown

SCHOOL-GIRLS:   Avis Blackburn, Pauline Davidson, Christina Gale, Lee Lockyer, Yvonne McKenzie, Sherry Oldham, Jillian Sweeney, Susan Westbury, Jill Williams, Julie Williams.
NOBLES:   David Evans, Michael Hocking, Mike Kyle, Stuart McKie, Dick Puanaki, David Reefman, Frank Walker.

Producer:   DAWN UNSWORTH
Musical Director:   RICHARD HEWITT

THE ACTION TAKES PLACE IN THE TOWN OF TITIPU
Act I – Court Yard of Ko-Ko’s Official Residence.
Act II – Ko-Ko’s Garden

The Society gratefully acknowledges the use of piano supplied by Sutcliffes Ltd., Hastings.

OOPS TITIPU

Before the action begins, Nanki-Poo has fled from the Court of his father, the Mikado of Japan, to escape marriage with an elderly lady, named Katisha. Assuming the disguise of a musician he has then fallen in love with a fair maiden, Yum Yum; but he has been prevented from marrying her by her guardian, Ko-Ko who wishes to marry her himself. Ko-Ko, however, has been condemned to death for flirting; and when the scene opens, Nanki-Poo is hastening to the Court of Ko-Ko in the town of Titipu to find out whether Yum Yum is now free to marry him.
From this point onwards the Dramatis Personae take over and we hope you will enjoy our Producer’s, Musical Director’s and Cast’s efforts in this light hearted “MIKADO”.

MUSICAL NUMBERS

ACT I

If you want to know who we are   Nanki Poo & Men
A wand’ring Minstrel I   Nanki Poo & Men
Our Great Mikado   Pish-Tush & Men
Young Man, Despair   Pooh-Bah, Nanki-Poo & Pish-Tush
And have I journeyed for a month   Nanki Poo & Poo-Bah
Behold the Lord High Executioner   Ko-Ko & Men
As some day it May happen   Ko-Ko & Men
Comes a Train of Little Ladies   Girls
Three Little Maids from School   Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo & Pitti Sing
We much regret    Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing, Poo-Bah
Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted   Yum-Yum & Nanki Poo
I’m So Proud   Poo-Bah, Ko-Ko & Pish-Tush
With aspect stern & gloomy stride   Ensemble

ACT II

Braid the Raven hair   Pitti-Sing and Girls
The Sun whose rays are all ablaze   Yum Yum
Brightly Dawns our Wedding Day   Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing, Nanki-Poo and KoKo
Mi-Ya Sama   Mikado, Katisha, Chorus
A More Humane Mikado   Mikado, Chorus
The Criminal Cried as they dropped him down   Ko-Ko, Pitti-Sing, Pooh-Bah, Chorus
See how the Fates their gifts allot   Mikado, Pitti-Sing, Pooh-Bah, Ko-Ko & Katisha
The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring   Nanki-Poo, Ko-Ko, Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing & PooBah
Alone and Yet Alive   Katisha
Willow, Tit-willow   Ko-Ko
There is beauty in the Bellow of the Blast   Katisha & Ko-Ko
For He’s gone and Married Yum-Yum   Ensemble

It is remarkable how many things of value and significance to us today are the harvest of a great outburst of Victorian productivity in the period of 1884-5. It is also of significance that NAPIER OPERATIC SOCIETY produced the Mikado in 1887. A copy of that programme is held in the H.B. Museum and Art Gallery today.

Daimler in 1885 invented the petrol engine. Gold was discovered in the Transvaal. Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine. George Bernard Shaw was writing his first play and Gilbert & Sullivan completed their revolution with the “MIKADO”. The quaint arts of Nippon – in costume and scene, in acting and speech – but where has Mr Gilbert taken us, like Alice through a looking glass and we gaze around expecting to find ourselves in a foreign cherry blossom land, but – you recognise things which are grotesquely familiar.

Pooh-Bah, that epitome of grudge and patronage. Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner, produces his little list of things that never would be missed, which is in fact a catalogue of some of the tiresome features of English life in 1885.

In this play wrote G. K. Chesterton, “Gilbert pursued and presented the evils of modem England till they had literally not a leg to stand on exactly as Swift did under the allegory of Gullivers Travels. I doubt if there is a single joke in the whole play that fits the Japanese. But all the jokes fit the English.” The Mikado himself has a singularly Britannic list of antipathies for which he prescribes the punishment to fit the crime.

The music follows a thoroughly English idiom. There is one exception Sullivan made to this rule: The Entrance of the Mikado “Miya Sama on m’n-ma no maye ni . .” is the only Japanese March in the whole piece and “Ko-Ko”, in Japanese means pickles. Still today the success of 1885 lingers on, as one of the most successful comic operas in the English language ever produced on the melding of east and west.

McMillin Craig Limited,
Napier

PRODUCER
MAMASAN – DAWN UNSWORTH

STAGE MANAGER
BOFU – ROBIN JOHNSON

ASST. STAGE MANAGER
YOSHI – BILL PERRY

STAGE CREW AND SET CONSTRUCTION
KOCHI – BARRIE BROWNE
KOFU – DES TUCK
KITA – GEORGE CHALKLAND
KUJI – BILL SHIRRAS
KOBE – CHRIS BROWN
KANOYA – JILL SWEENEY
KYOTO – STEWART McKIE
KAMATSU – GRAHAM LAWLOR

MAKE-UP TEAM
OITO – DAWN McCOWATT
MITO – MINNIE WRIGHT
FUKUITO – JOHN COLLIER

WARDROBE MISTRESS
OSAKA – SYBIL REAY

WARDROBE TEAM
MATSUZAKA – SUE LONDON
HISAZAKA – MONICA HAYDEN
IMASAKA – RONNIE STICKLAND

PROPERTIES
KUSHIRO – KATHY SINGLETON
KAMATSU – GRAHAM LAWLOR
NOSHIRO – JAN HILL

LIGHTING DESIGN
GOFU – GWYN ACE

LIGHTING TEAM
TAKEFU – ROBERT LOCKYER
GIFU – PAULA JEPSON
KUNGFU – DON HURLEY

REHEARSAL PIANISTS
MOJI – RICHARD HEWITT
SOJI – VICKY MASON
LOJI – DIGBY EDGECOMBE

PRODUCTION SECRETARY
TAKAKI – AUDREY LONDON

HOSTESS
MIYAZAKI – MOYRA BEWLEY

WAITRESSES & WINE STEWARDS
FRIENDS & MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY

KOKO’S KITCHEN
NAGASKI – LINDSAY BROWNE
SASEBO – FRANCIS MURRAY
TOYAMA – DIANNE HURLEY
TAKADA – ERIC HUNT

FRONT OF HOUSE TEAM
TOJO – BILL BECKETT
SOJO – IAN REID
IAMAJO – FRED TWYFORD
BIGJO – BUNNY UNSWORTH
KOBE – CHRIS BROWN
KOCHI – BARRIE BROWNE

SOCIETY OFFICERS 1977

Patron:   E. COLLIER
President:   W. BECKETT
Vice-President:   T. BROWN
Chairman of Committee:   D. HURLEY
Secretary-Treasurer:   F. TWYFORD
Committee:   L. BROWNE, M. BEWLEY, R. JOHNSON, P. JEPSON, L. DEERE, A. LONDON, R. LOCKYER, W. PERRY, A. JONES, B. UNSWORTH, M. KENAH.

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ADRIAN LEE
Representing Norwich Union Life Insurance Society, supports the Tabard Theatre and wishes them every success with their production “Oops Titipu”.