3 October 2012

24-hour hour Mikado means a sleepless night for staff and students

Students from the University of Dundee will have just 24 hours to immerse themselves in the world of Titipu before staging a performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic 'The Mikado'.

The students will go from initial rehearsals to final performance in a single day. Although the principals will have had the chance to learn their parts, the production and first rehearsals will take place overnight on Friday, 5th October. The chorus will have to learn the whole show from scratch ahead of the performance on the Saturday evening.

This follows a tradition of flash opera taking place on campus. Dundee staff and students, together with Apex Acoustics, set a Guinness World Record in 2003 when they put together an entire performance of 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers' in the space of just 23 hours 30 minutes. This success was followed by a swashbuckling dash through the 'Pirates of Penzance' two years ago.

"Whilst it's great we set the record, we only did the 24-hour challenge for fun two years ago, and it's the same this time," explained Graeme Stevenson, music co-ordinator at the University.

"It was a lot of hard work last time but we got there in the end and managed to put on a fantastic show which was very well received and hopefully it'll be the same on Saturday.

"We will have a cast of over 40 people plus a band and crew, and all have to learn their parts and pull the performance together in the space of 24 hours. There is a lot of singing in this show and a lot to learn so we will probably not manage to have much in the way of breaks - it's going to be a proper through-the-night affair for most of us.

"This enables us to put on a show without it becoming a huge, time-consuming thing, which can be a problem for students trying to balance it with their studies. Going to the other end of the spectrum and trying to do it in as short a time as possible is a really intense but rewarding experience."

Graeme has experience of co-ordinating a 24-hour Mikado, as well as the runs through Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Pirates of Penzance.

The version of The Mikado the group will perform is Simon Gallagher's update of the popular comic opera.

Rehearsals for the chorus and band will start on Friday, 5th October at 7.30pm and the curtain will go up in the Whitehall Theatre at 7.30pm on Saturday, 6th October.

The show is being directed by Paul Murphie with Graeme acting as musical director.

Anyone who wants to buy tickets for the show at the Whitehall can get them at the door or through www.dundeebox.co.uk.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277