Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1914-03-02
H. N. S. PINAFORE SAILS
MILDLY ACTORS CRUISE
Good Ship Launched on Sea Of
Popular'FavOr.
A NAUTICAL OPERA
With an All Midshipman Cast Pre-
scented BY "Ibe MasQueraden"

With flying colors and gaily bedeck
ed streamers II. NJ S. Pinafore was
launched upon the sea Of popular
favor at the Naval Acad amy auditor
ium Saturday night.
The popular nautical opera by Gill
bert and Sullivan again found favor
here, after lapse Of quarter Of a
century, and was presented with great
success by 1.-THE Masqueraders, the
dramatic organization of midshipmen
at the Naval Academy. Certainly
naval school can present nautical
opera better than any other, and the
middies in the cast proved this to the
abstraction of the large and fashion
abb audience assembled
A professional air even peryaded the
exterior of the auditorium, above
whose entrance there blazoned in
tlashlight the letters P.T-N-A-F-O.R.E
singiy and collectively, and one
thought he was entering a real thea
ire where real actors were 20 give
performance. But you cans tell the
merits Of book by it, cover, and the
tlashlight did not tell half Of the good
things in store for the audience pass
ing hereunder, for the MILDLY ANA
teur actors did much better than
many professionals.
1t was the lone Huhdr edith Night, 4"
which has ia the past year or two.
superseded the Christmas Show of
The Masqueraders given during the
Yuletide season, but now given Just
one hundred nights from graduation.
After a call which to landlubbers
means "stop, look and listen. but
in nautical phraseology probably
means "all hands on deck, make
ready, or some such thing, the cur
tain was drawn upon a stage setting
that revealed the deck OF ship with
al Of its appurtenances and accoutre-
ments. There were masts and spare,
rigging, u capstan, wheel, cabin, rail
of ship, end off in the distance.
water scene with another ship az
anchor, and a lighthouse hardly.
The program said the scene was on
the quarterback of the h. M. S.
Pinafore" lying off Portsmouth.
But whether it was Portsmouth, Va,
or Portmsoutb, N. H., or Ports
mouth, England, was left TO the imag-
ination, but, of course il was the
latter, as everybody knows. At any
rate the scene was a fttingly nauti-
cal one, and there was great care
given to all the details.
The following was the cast. Little
Buttercup Ga bumboat woman), r. o.
Davis, IA; Boatswain's Mate, Woth-
ers 2oon, Is; Dick Deadeye table sea-
mani, Z. B. Smith, is; Ralph Rack
straw table seaman), Corn, ID; Cap
tain Corcoran commanding II M. S.
Pinafore), Gearing, ID; Josephine
(his daughter), 0'Brien, "a The RI.
Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, X G. B. First
Lord of the Admiralty, Dickinson,
ID; Hebe, (his cousin, Perry, Ia;
officer of the Deck, Creighton, 10;
Quartz rmaster, Collins, 'l5.
Chorus-Short, Afford, Wqshburn,
Powers, Swain, Laycock, Maury, s.
F., Watson, Snellii g, duntoon, Ora
ham, Breed, Royal, Friend. Kirby.
Horn, Bowman, Chadwick, Grove,
Childs, Sprague, Hoops, Shelly.
Hogan, Furey, Hocombe, Waters.
Chapline. Grosskopf, Steele, Smith,
Simms, Howard, Wooster, Brewster.
Courtney, Matthews, Drought, Goen.
Lennon, Conyne.
The opening chorus, eve Sail the
Dee an Blue" made a hit at the start
The middies sang in good voice and
kept good time. Thex showed they
had been well trained. The male
characters were all we'll taken. As
Ralph Rackstraw, Midshipman Corn
was such handsome sailor lad that
one could not blame Josephine for
loving him rather than the supercil-
ious Sir Joseph Porter, X. c. b.
Midshipman Gearing, cast as Captain
Corcoran, commanding II. NJ. S. Pin
afore, gave an excellent iuterpreta-
ton of the role. He was every inch
naval captain and his military
bearing heightened the effect.
AS Little Buttereup Midshipmau
r. o. Davis was we'll cast and
entered into the spirit of the charac.
ter to the amusement and entertain
ment of the audience. He sang "I'm
Called Little Buttercup," with dash
and a charm that brought forth sew
eral encores.
Midshipman Corn gave a splendid
Interpretation Of the able seaman.
Ralp Rackstraw. He sang with good
effect 'The Nightingale Song" and
A Maiden Fair to See - Midship.
man Gearing had much TO do and was
on the stage (beg pardon, Ton deck ,
most OF the time. He sang with
pleasing effect I'm the Captain OF
the Pinafore" and several other selee.
/ tions in the opera.
But what of Josephine, the can.
| tsin's daughter. or "the lass tina;
loved sailor" She" was MiIship
man 0'Brien, the president of "Ths
Maqsqueraders, "and more winsome
fetching handsome girl you'd have
to go far and travel long to see. Al
Ralph Rackstraw truly sang A Mai.
den Fair to See, was "she. Mid
shipmaD o Brien's makeup was per