By our reckoning, this is David's 25th G&S show with the Sudbury Savoyards. He joined the group in 1980 as Assistant Director of Music under Will Sherwood. In 1981, for Pirates, David took up the baton and continued for seven consecutive years as Conductor. Michael JJ Cashman served as stage director for five of those early shows with David, and makes this observation about David and their work together.
"David is the man who first brought the orchestra to the high level of excellence we expect. Some may not recall the Herculean efforts David went through to get the pit and the stage to start playing the music as written as opposed to 'how it was always done.' In the pit, on and offstage, David has made a huge difference to the company."
In 1987, David recognized problems with the technical disciplines in the Company, and in 1988 moved from the pit to take and largely define the role of Technical Director. Many of you will recall that in those years, we ran our show on only one weekend, and strike took place after the closing curtain on Saturday night. David developed the plans that let us disassemble everything, lights, sets, costumes, and makeup from the high school and return it to the church and elsewhere before 2:00 (sometimes 3:00) in the morning, before the cast party could begin. The core of David's put-in and strike plans guide our tech efforts to this day.
For four consecutive years, David was Tech Director, and during those years he still managed to hold three named roles in the operettas, served as rehearsal pianist during three of those shows, was once playbill ad sales, playbill typist, and playbill typesetter, and once was set construction chief.
David returned to the pit in 1992, and served as Conductor for three of the next four shows, missing only the year the Company last previously to this year performed Pirates, when he showed up at auditions claiming to have been "born to play the Pirate King," a claim he proceeded to prove.
Since 1996, David has been an actor, tech director, production designer , master electrician, stage crew member, lighting designer and operator, set builder, music consultant, and has had many unrecorded roles.
But these roles almost pale in comparison to David's contribution as a visionary for the Company. When the Savoyards were in organizational flux in the mid-'80s, David, with his late wife Sally Osborn, whom we honored in last year's Yeomen inductions, was a major contributor to the creation of our organizational structure and the concept of Task Lists, both of which persist in the Company today.
More visibly, it was David who drove the Savoyards to institute a summer season, both as founding producer of the Summer Show, and the impresario who created what started as "Stupid Savoyard Tricks" and has become "The Savoy Club."
David has been a ruthless recruiter of talent into this organization over the past 25 years. It's likely that if David didn't bring you into the group, you were introduced to the group by someone he did.
The Sudbury Savoyards are not just another community theater group, and David C. Larrick's contribution to the status we have inherited is immeasurable.
Congratulations, David, and thank you.
Tom Powers |