Students to present ‘Pirates of Penzance’ this weekend

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning musical will be taking a trip back to the 1800s this week as the students perform “Pirates of Penzance.” 

The story takes place in the 1870s and follows a young man named Frederic who was mistakenly apprenticed to a band of pirates. On his 21st birthday he leaves the pirates and quickly found love. In the second act of the comic operetta, Frederic finds out that his birthday was on a Leap Year, which made him only five-years-old, and left him with a decision to make between love and his sense of duty. 

The musical is based on an 1879 comic opera by the same name, which served as the basis of a 1983 musical romantic comedy film by the same name. The musical will be presented by 24 Henning School students who have been practicing throughout the winter on the show. 

“We have a very different set up than in the past,” said co-director Naomi Horn. “This musical is not as commonly heard of and because it is an operetta there is a lot of singing. Lots of laughs—it’s a comedy.”

The musical will be under the direction of Horn, Kaylin Bosworth and Bill Balfanz; while Marlene Wahlin will be the accompanist and Joy Rasmussen has been tagged as the set designer. Horn went on to say that a number of local businesses have also made donations and contributions to make the musical a success including Jamie Wilson who has assisted with the costume design. 

There are 24 students who are participating in the musical this spring, including Cade Strege who will be playing the part of the Pirate King, William Schwartz as Frederic, Breanna Bunkowski as Ruth (Frederic’s nanny), Isabelle Godding as Mabel (Frederic’s love), Brenden Weller as the Sergeant of Police and Elliot Severson as the Major General.

In years past the Henning musical was typically held in the fall of the year, but this year the musical was changed from a performance put on by the high school choir as part of their class to an extracurricular activity. Horn said the change was made to allow students really interested in the musical to put their attention on the performance, rather than have all 60 choir students be in the musical when some of the students did not like theatre as much. 

“We changed it due to lack of interest from such a large group of students. Theater is a very different from music, so forcing 60 students to be in it was a lot of extra commitment from many angles. The change has helped the choir class stay focused on creating music, while the students who auditioned for the musical all want to be there so it eliminates a lot of frustrations,” said Horn. “It has its own challenges, though, with practices outside of school and students adjusting to take the learning into their own hands instead of learning it together mostly during school.”

The Pirates of Penzance at Henning School will take the stage three times this weekend, including a 7 p.m. show on both Friday and Saturday night and a 1 p.m. show on Sunday. The show on Sunday was moved up one hour to accommodate students who need to leave for the state FFA convention which begins on Sunday as well. 

The performances will be held in the Henning School gym. Tickets are $5 and concessions will be available.