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Artistic
Director
Ralph MacPhail, Jr.
Professor
of Theatre, Communication Studies, and English emeritus
Artistic Director, The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin |
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 Ralph
MacPhail, Jr., was born in Arlington, Virginia, on the 64th
anniversary of "the Pinafore Riot" at London's Opéra
Comique in 1879. (The task of calculating his age he'd rather
leave to you.) He received a B.A. in English from Bridgewater
College in Virginia, served in the U. S. Army in Viet Nam,
and then took his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre (Directing
Emphasis) from Virginia Commonwealth University.
In 1972, he returned to his alma mater Bridgewater College as Instructor of Theatre,
Speech, and English and Director of Theatre, and retired as Professor emeritus
in May of 2005. During that time he directed 66 full-length plays and musicals
at the college and many smaller productions as well.
In 1966, the original Gilbert & Sullivan troupe, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company,
visited Washington, D.C., and MacPhail saw three productions in one week. "My
life hasn't been the same since," he admits, "for I was totally smitten
with the colorful, tuneful, and traditional productions, and I promptly began
seeking books and records (and anything else for that matter) connected with
'G&S'."
 Five years later he put his new scholarship (and library) to work as a part of
his Master of Fine Arts thesis project at Virginia Commonwealth University; it
consisted of productions of the full-length version of Sir Arthur Sullivan's
first comic opera Cox and Box and Sir William S. Gilbert's Shakespearean burlesque
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. (The Cox and Box research was subsequently expanded
and published in 1974 in a small monograph on the history of Sullivan's comic
opera and the farce that formed its basis. The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern research
was subsequently expanded and presented as "Bab and the Bard: Gilbert's
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" at the W. S. Gilbert Sesquicentennial Conference
at M.I.T. in 1986.)
MacPhail directed six productions of Savoy operas at Bridgewater
College, but
most of his "G&S" directorial work has been done for other theatres:
Oak Grove Theatre, the Shenandoah Valley Choral Society, the Richmond Opera Company,
Barksdale Theatre, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of North Louisiana, and
most recently the Austin Gilbert & Sullivan Society, for whom he has directed
seven productions since the summer of 1998. In the fall of 2005, he was named
the Society's first Artistic Director, and he will return this summer to direct
The Pirates of Penzance.
Scholarship has taken him to the Gilbert & Sullivan Archive the Pierpont
Morgan Library in New York, Sir Arthur Sullivan's Diaries at the Beinecke Rare
Book Library at Yale, the W. S. Gilbert Papers at the British Library, and (thanks
to the permission of the Late Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte) the D'Oyly Carte Opera
Company Archive in London. "It was indeed a moving experience to take notes
from the 1885 promptbook for the original production of The Mikado--and to compare
this resource with the promptbooks subsequently used in revivals and by touring
companies in the decades that followed," he notes. Dame Bridget also made
available the brittle and yellowing Company "press books" containing
original reviews--gold mines of specifics regarding the original production.
 Other scholarly activities include an invitational book review
of Harold Orel's
Gilbert & Sullivan: Interviews and Recollections for English Literature
in
Transition: 1880-1920 and the "Gilbert & Sullivan" entry for G.
A. Cevasco's The 1890s: An Encyclopedia of British Literature, Art, and Culture.
During the several years, he has reviewed three Gilbert & Sullivan-related
book proposals and manuscripts for Oxford University Press, and his endorsements
appear on the dust-jackets of two of these books (and another published by Associated
University Presses of London, Canada, and the U.S.).
The Mikado has continued to be the focus of MacPhail's research. In addition
to annotating the original 1885 libretto, he has given much attention to The
Swing Mikado (the 1938-39 "black" production by the Federal Theatre
Project), The Hot Mikado (producer Michael Todd's competing production), and "The
Red Mikado" (Harold Rome and Joseph Schrank's satirical sketch on these
two productions which formed a part of the long-running revue Pins and Needles).
The results of this research were shared at the Basingstoke! Gilbert & Sullivan
conference at West Chester University and before a more diverse audience at the
Federal Theatre Festival at the Institute of New Deal Culture, George Mason University.
Subsequently, he shared his researches on these shows at the first Gilbert & Sullivan
Festival Symposium in Buxton, England; with the Gilbert & Sullivan Society
of London; at most recently at the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester.
In retirement, MacPhail hopes to pull all of these scripts and their histories
together for a book called The Mikado: Red, Hot, and Swing!
His interest in The Mikado has led to interesting adventures and surprising phone
calls. He was invited by the Curator of the Gilbert & Sullivan Collection
at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York to help with the initial selection
of treasures to form the basis for the 1985 exhibition "The Mikado: A Centenary
Celebration," and one day he received a call from director Peter Sellars
who was planning his contemporary interpretation of The Mikado for the Lyric
Opera of Chicago. Several years ago, British film director Mike Leigh's researcher
Rosie Chambers called MacPhail from London seeking information on the original
production of The Mikado while preparing background information for Topsy-Turvy,
Mr. Leigh's acclaimed film on Gilbert & Sullivan and their sometimes-tempestuous
creative process. His current Midadoings include preparing to stage the comic
opera for the Virginia Commonwealth University Opera Theatre in Richmond, Virginia,
during the spring of 2008.
 MacPhail also carries on an extensive correspondence with Gilbert & Sullivan
scholars, performers, collectors and enthusiasts throughout the English-speaking
world. And for five years in the 1990s he hosted SavoyNet, the International
Gilbert & Sullivan Internet Bulletin Board, from the information technology
center at Bridgewater College. He is also serving on the editorial board of The
Gilbert Edition, an ambitious project with the goal to bring all of W. S. Gilbert's
writings together between covers of a multi-volume set--and perhaps "publish" the
same in CD-ROM format, and in April 2007 he was invited to join the Editorial
Board of Broude Brothers' critical edition of the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan.
MacPhail taught Gilbert & Sullivan Elderhostel courses for five years at
Bridgewater College in the 1980s, and next fall he will return to the Incarnation
Center in Ivoryton, Connecticut, for the fourteenth year to teach two
courses: "Gilbert & Sullivan and Iolanthe," which will
culminate
in a concert production of highlights from this G&S opera. The following
week, he will offer "Gilbert & Sullivan and Pira-Mika-Fore." Since
retiring from Bridgewater College, he also traveled to Medford, Oregon, to teach
this course twice at Rogue Valley Manor. He lectured on The Mikado at
the University of Michigan for the Fulbright Society, and closer to his home--two
blocks away,
in fact--he taught a course for the local Lifelong Learning Institute on H.M.S.
Pinafore. He also enjoys making informal presentations to local community
groups
interested in the Savoy operas.
In February 1999 he spoke at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on the
Gilbert/Sullivan/D'Oyly Carte collaboration--the last of a series of three lectures
celebrating the 75th Anniversary of New York's Blue Hill Troupe. This led to
an invitation to return to New York several weeks later to participate in a symposium
on updating Gilbert & Sullivan. The symposium was a part of the New York
Gilbert & Sullivan Players' 25th anniversary, celebrated on Broadway at Symphony
Space.
In addition to directing and scholarship, MacPhail continues to build an extensive
collection of memorabilia connected with Gilbert & Sullivan. Several years
ago he exhibited items from his collection and gave two presentations at the
Gilbert & Sullivan Collectors' Symposium and Showcase at the State University
of New York, Purchase. He enjoys exhibiting portions of his collection to enhance
his theatrical productions.
Ralph MacPhail, Jr., lives in Bridgewater with Alice, his college sweetheart
and wife of 39 years, in the Victorian house that once belonged to his mother's
family. Their son, Alexander, who graduated from Bridgewater College in 1997,
is an Episcopal priest; he and his wife, the Reverend Karin MacPhail, are parents
of Peter Alexander MacPhail, born December 30, 2005. Alexander is a third-generation
Savoyard, who studies and sings Gilbert & Sullivan as if to the manner born,
for indeed he was! He also shares another hobby with his father: he enjoys performing
as a magician. He leaves, however, the collecting of Howdy Doody memorabilia
to his dad.
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| December
2007 |
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