Redlands Bowl 2001 Season
August 21st 
Programs start at 8:15 p.m. 

"The Mikado" by Gilbert & Sullivan. Frank Fetta, producer/music director; Christopher Harlan, stage director. Famous popular comic operetta full of charming melodies and tongue-twisting "patter songs.
"

The Town of Titipu Returns to Redlands for August 21

The Redlands Bowl stage will become the town of Titipu on Tuesday, August 21, at 8:15 p.m. when the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival presents "Mikado". Replete with all the intended nonsense and folderol, this nineteenth century Gilbert and Sullivan operetta will be fully staged with live orchestra.

"This is the first time the Bowl has produced a full-length version of Gilbert and Sullivan since I've been here," explained Frank Fetta, producer and music director for the play. "We are reviving a long-standing tradition of bringing this wonderful work to the Redlands Bowl."
The play, musically built around men lusting after a woman, missed opportunities, and misunderstandings, covertly ridicules the limitations of governments to exercise common sense. After all the dust settles, the
right guy gets the right girl, and everyone lives--at the moment--happily. Working with Fetta for this production, Richard Kuller will serve as stage director. Kuller is a movie director and currently has two films contending at film festivals. "We were very lucky to get him," said Fetta.
Redlands Bowl veteran Michael Paul Smith, whose Bowl credits include "Aida", "The Magic Flute," and a solo performance with the symphony, will play the Mikado of Japan who happens to be the beleaguered father of Mathew Edmondson's character Nanki-Poo, the run-away son (running away from a pending marriage with an elderly lady) who has the hots for someone else's betrothed. Edmondson, who has sung with the Fresno Opera and the Toledo Opera, will be making his Redlands Bowl debut. Playing Yum-Yum, the object of Nanki-Poo's affection, Deborah James-Chang makes a return appearance at the Bowl, having performed in "Magic Flute" and "Madame Butterfly" in past summers. Among other activities, James-Chang did the voice-over work for Maid Marion in Mel Brooks version of "Robin Hood".

Katisha, the stood-up elderly lady, will be played by Marylou Basaraba from Canada who turned to opera after a career on major Canadian television programs. She has sung with the Montreal Symphony and the Victoria Symphony.

Ko-Ko, who takes the brunt of trouble as Yum-Yum's original future husband and as Nanki-Poo's potential executioner, will be played by Timothy Leon who has sung at Redlands Bowl in "The Magic Flute" and "La Traviata".
Leon's chorus, the Marina Singers, will be the play's chorus of school girls, nobles, guards, and coolies.

Stepping out of character, Redlands' own Curtiss Allen Sr. plays the corrupt and proud public official Pooh-Bah, AKA Lord High Everything Else, who becomes an accomplice in the plot to pair-off Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum.

As the story weaves from silly to ridiculous, other characters take part in the farce. Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo, Yum-Yum's sisters, will be played by Nancy Endres-Eaton and Nora Jana Pericone respectively. Eric Castro, who has performed in musical theater in the United States and
Europe, will play Pish-Tush, a Noble Lord.

Also returning to work at the Bowl, Julia Ianetta, who did the costuming for "Madame Butterfly" and "Aida", will do the costuming for this production.

Despite the singing and acting commitment of Curtiss Allen Sr., the regular leader of the Community Sing, the 7:20 Sing will go on as scheduled. During intermission, Florence Beeler, Program Consultant for the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc., will speak to the audience. Intermission ushers will be members of the Redlands Evening Kiwanis and Redlands Morning Kiwanis.

The Children's Festival Workshop will be presented by Frank Fetta on Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2 W. Olive Avenue in Redlands.

Continuing the tradition begun in 1924, this and all Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival events are open to the public at no charge, and a free-will offering will be collected at intermission. For more information about this concert, call the Redlands Bowl office at 909/793-7316 or visit the web site at www.redlandsweb.com.

To reach the Redlands Bowl between Eureka and Grant Streets in Redlands, enter the Redlands area on I-10; from the west, exit at Orange Street, turn right at the end of the ramp onto Eureka Street, proceed across Redlands Blvd. and Brookside Ave. to the Bowl area; from the east,
exit at Sixth Street, turn left at the end of the ramp onto Sixth Street, proceed to Pearl Ave. and turn right to Orange Street, turn left on Orange to Brookside Ave., turn right on Brookside to Eureka Street, and turn left on Eureka to the Bowl area. Parking is on streets in the area, or in the church and public parking lots.