Sheryl and Bob Schirmer in cast of Findlay Light Opera Co., Gilbert & Sullivan's "Patience"

The Findlay Light Opera Company will end its 2014 season with an upcycled production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s "Patience."

And, two members of the cast are Bluffton residents, Bob and Sheryl Schirmer. Sheryl is featured as Ella, one of the numerous ladies who has fallen for Bunthorne. Bob is featured as the coach of the football team who is tired of dumb luck being the key to his success, and is ready to switch his game plan to win on his own merit. 

More about "Patience"

The indie-retro version of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic was adapted by Jason Ferratus and director Sandra Krueger, and tells the story of a traditional college campus hit by a hipster craze.  "Patience" will also mark the first Light Opera production to feature orchestral accompaniment and set construction since 2011.

In this upcycled rendition of "Patience" the fickle coeds of the local university are awash with unrequited love for their latest fan-girl obsession: a racy hipster poet named Bunthorne, played by Eric Hertenstein, who's taken the English department by storm.  Bunthorne, who happens to be an enormous fake, only has eyes for the Student Union’s coffee barista and latte artist, Patience, played by Esther Darmahkasih. 

While Patience makes a great cuppa joe, she has no idea what love is all about.  In fact, she’s only ever loved her great-aunt…and maybe that boy Archie she played with as a child.

The now grown up Archie, played by James Rice, happens to be Patience’s latest customer.  Archibold, the epitome of manly beauty, the embodiment of nature's perfection, and the most magnetic of personalities, reveals that he's never stopped loving Patience, which sets up a battle for her heart, and in turn the hearts of the entire female student body.

Throw in a football team of bewildered athletes who don't know where their girlfriends are, an introverted mascot, and an epic poetry slam confrontation - face to face and selfie to selfie – and you've got a rollicking evening of great music ahead.

"Patience" features - in addition to the Schirmers - Deb Shaffer, Tina Kelly, Maggie Hardesty, Jason Ferratus, George Rustemeyer and Talyn Foust. The Chorus members are Alicia Creger, Casey Rebal, Samantha Henry, Megan Meyer, Tammy Stevenson, Adam VanGorder, m. James Foust, and Joseph Rich. The show was conceived by and will be directed by Sandra Krueger.

Performance dates

Patience will be performed at the St. Andrews Fellowship Hall, 120 West Sandusky St., and will be run at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24, and at 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 26. 

Tickets are $10 and can be reserved at the Arts Partnership box office at 419-422-4624.  Doors will open a half hour before curtain time. 

More information on Patience, the Findlay Light Opera Company, and its upcoming productions of Forever Plaid (February 27-March 1, 2015) and the Eleanor S. Mitchell Performing Arts Scholarship Recital (April 12, 2015) is available online at www.findlayopera.org.

Findlay Light Opera Company
The Findlay Light Opera Company was founded in 1988 by Findlay residents with a love of the arts.  Since that date the Findlay Light Opera Company has strived to provide a venue for local performers to cultivate and showcase their talents while presenting the greater Findlay area with a high quality, professionally directed stage show with the aim of cultivating a love and respect for the grand tradition of operetta.

In 1990 the organization took a further step in their quest to enhance community awareness of musical theater and the development of local musical talent with the establishment of the Eleanor S. Mitchell Vocal Music Scholarship, an award traditionally presented each year to a student planning to advance his or her musical studies at the collegiate level.  In 2014 the award became the Eleanor S. Mitchell Performing Arts Scholarship and was opened to multiple performing arts – dance, vocal and instrumental music.

Patience – Gilbert & Sullivan
W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were Victorian era theatrical partners who collaborated to create 14 comic operas between 1871 and 1896.

Gilbert wrote the libretto, or the words, and used them to create absurd realities where society was turned on its head, featuring gondoliers who become monarchs, pirates who were noblemen gone wrong, and worlds where flirting is a capital offense. 

The societies and characters he created were often satirical, and in the case of Patience, commented on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and '80s in England.  This artistic movement was so popular, and also so easy to ridicule as a meaningless fad, that it made Patience a huge hit. 

Sullivan, in turn, composed the music which created memorable melodies that inexplicably conveyed both humor and sympathy at the same time.  Through their works Gilbert and Sullivan introduced numerous innovations in both content and form that directly influenced the development of musical theater during the 20th Century.  

Patience is Gilbert and Sullivan’s sixth collaboration. While it was first performed at the Opera Comique, it moved to the Savoy Theatre in October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the world to be lit entirely by electric light.

After the move, Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas would be known as the Savoy Operas.