`HMS PINAFORE' SETS SAIL SATURDAY, SUNDAY

The last time Southeast Missouri State University's Department of Music staged a musical production it was Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" (All Women Are Like That) and that was seven years ago.

Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore," a lighthearted operetta about a British sailor who falls in love with his captain's daughter, has the honor of revitalizing the tradition.

Performances will be presented at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday in Academic Auditorium. Tickets are $5.

The full-staged production mixes members of the music faculty, music students and community members. The costumes are rented but the sets were built by the production crew.

"We are poor but we can do this with the community's help," said director Louisa Panou-Takahashi, an assistant professor of music.

Christopher Goeke, an instructor of music, is the musical director and also plays the role of Ralph Rackstraw. Sara Edgerton, an assistant professor of music, will conduct the orchestra.

Also appearing in the cast are music department Chairman Sterling Cossaboom as Dick Deadeye; Jason Shaffer as Sir Joseph; Thomas Lowery as Capt. Corcoran; Lance Lancaster as Boatswain; Alvin Hillis as Boatswain's Mate; Lori Shaffer and Donna Smith as Josephine; Delisa Hedspeth as Cousin Hebe; and Laurie Pierce and Patti Miller-Hunt as Little Buttercup.

The sailors' roles will be played by Joshua Rhine, Chris Hayes, Mark Williams, Joe Domian, Dan Lancaster, John Ginther and Sarah Goeke.

Playing the cousins will be Sherri Bates, Johanna Sutton, Kelly Flamm, Sherri Blasingame, Jennifer Venker, Jennifer Kovace, Shannon McCreight and Laurie Pierce.

Panou-Takahashi, who is in her second year teaching at the university, wants to establish such musical productions as an annual event at the university. "We are negotiating with the theater department to do one every other year. We want to do it every year," she said.

Panou-Takahashi had a 20-year career as an opera singer in Europe before coming to the U.S. She began directing in 1989, and now returns to Rome yearly to direct performances during a summer festival.

This year she will direct Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and will take along two Southeast students who will appear in the production.

The director also is choreographing "HMS Pinafore," but she will not appear in it.

"I cannot be in it because of my accent," said Panou-Takahashi, whose English is distinctly Italian. The operetta's accents are distinctly British.