The Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd. (
www.bht.org), the only musical theater group in New York City to donate its net proceeds to charity, celebrates its 90th season with Gilbert & Sullivan's "Ruddigore."
The production, with full orchestra, runs April 4-12, 2014 at El Teatro of El Museo del Barrio (1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street). Proceeds from "Ruddigore" will benefit Quality Services for the Autism Community (
http://www.qsac.com/ ). Tickets range in price from $28 to $100 and are available online at
http://www.bht.org/ or by calling
(212) 988-2012. Payment in excess of $20 per ticket is tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
Since its inception in 1924, the Blue Hill Troupe has produced a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta every spring with lavish production values and full orchestra, donating the net proceeds to a New York City charity. Over the years, the Blue Hill Troupe has donated an impressive total of $4 million. Prior charities include The GO Project, I Have a Dream Foundation-New York Metro, The Carter Burden Center for the Aging, The New York Foundling, and Inwood House.
"Ruddigore" is a delicious parody of Victorian melodrama, complete with a villain who carries off the village maiden; a hero in disguise; a snake-in-the-grass best friend; a madwoman out of the attic; and ghosts stepping down from their portraits to enforce a family curse. But in typical topsy-turvy fashion, Gilbert turns the moral absolutes of melodrama upside down, as good becomes bad, bad becomes good, and heroes take the easy way out.
Quality Services for the Autism Community (QSAC) helps children and adults with autism live meaningful and fulfilled lives in our society. The Blue Hill Troupe's donation will support QSAC's efforts to integrate augmentative communication and learning devices (e.g. tablets) in their educational programs for participants with autism. These tools will help their students to improve life and academic skills. Specifically, the use of a tablet helps our participants to improve communication and socialization deficits.
"Ruddigore" is directed by
Gary Slavin, whose recent Off Broadway credits include "Show Choir! - The Musical" and the hit political revue "Bush Is Bad." Musical direction is by Zachary Schwartzman, an assistant conductor with the American Symphony Orchestra.
In its 90-year history, the Blue Hill Troupe has produced the entire Gilbert & Sullivan canon, including the long-lost Thespis, with a new score by Grammy Award-winning composer and record producer
Thomas Z. Shepard. In 2005, the Blue Hill Troupe was honored with three awards at the 12th Annual International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, UK, for its innovative production of the G&S rarity, "The Grand Duke." The all-volunteer Blue Hill Troupe has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and appeared with The New York Pops at
Carnegie Hall. For fifteen years, they were a mainstay of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Concerts and Lectures series, and they continue to concertize in venues around the city.
For information about membership, advertising, donation, or becoming a charity partner, please visit
http://www.bht.org/.
