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<\/a>Of course, Biddle is not alone. One of the most iconic teams in musical theater history, librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan collaborated on 14 comic operas between 1871 and 1898 that have enjoyed international success, growing broader with time. The duo\u2019s operas\u2014especially H.M.S. Pinafore<\/em>, The Mikado<\/em> and The Pirates of Penzance<\/em>\u2014are performed widely to delighted sell-outs, and Gilbert & Sullivan clubs and societies abound worldwide.<\/p>\n But Biddle may be among the first to take her fandom to a higher level. As part of her senior honors thesis in theater, which examines the lives and works of Gilbert & Sullivan, Biddle wrote a full-fledged opera of her own, titled The Ladies of Gilbert & Sullivan<\/em>, using songs and excerpts from the team\u2019s works, and depicting actual scenes from backstage at the Savoy Theater, which was built in 1881 for the purpose of staging the operas.<\/p>\n Biddle coordinated and directs a stage production of The Ladies of Gilbert & Sullivan<\/em>, complete with a G&S-sized cast and crew and costumes provided by the Smith theater costume department. Performances are Friday, April 19 (open dress rehearsal); Sunday, April 21; and Sunday, April 28. Free and open to the public, performances will take place in Earle Recital Hall, Sage Hall, at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cI absolutely fell in love with the music, the witty dialogue, and the socio-cultural and political commentary,\u201d says Biddle about Gilbert & Sullivan operas. \u201cSullivan was a renowned classical composer, and Gilbert was the Shakespeare of his day. Put two and two together, and you get a Gilbert and Sullivan opera!\u201d<\/p>\n After her role in Pirates<\/em> as a sophomore, Biddle planned to step away from theater for a while, heading to Oxford\u2019s Hertford College for her Junior Year Abroad to study government and philosophy.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin a week at Oxford, I joined the Gilbert and Sullivan Oxford Society,\u201d she says. \u201cOn Wednesday nights we would sing through a different G&S opera while pub-hopping. They took their G&S operas very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Upon returning to Smith for her senior year, Biddle missed the G&S Oxford Society, and set to work researching the comic opera team, and how women are portrayed in their operas.<\/p>\n \u201cIn no time, I was writing my own script,\u201d she says, \u201cusing songs and excerpts from their operas as monologue songs and dialogues for the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Ladies of Gilbert & Sullivan<\/em>, actors portray real-life actors who premiered the operas as members of the D\u2019Oyly Carte Opera Company, the long-standing company that originally performed Gilbert & Sullivan operas, and promoted them into the 1980s.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the two-hour show, I span 25 years, covering all of the G&S operas,\u201d explains Biddle. \u201cAudiences will witness the invention of the electric light, the famous \u2018carpet quarrel,\u2019 and the final bows of Gilbert and Sullivan on the Savoy stage.”<\/p>\n