These guys look hauntingly familiar...

In the spring of 1975 and 1980, some leading lights of SLAC and Stanford trod the boards with the Stanford Savoyards in performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore. Subtitled "The Witch's Curse" this operetta involves a young baronet struggling to shake off a curse on the house of Ruddigore under which each heir to the title must commit one crime a day. The ancesors in the portraits hanging in the great hall come to life to torment the current heir. Made up of Stanford faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends, the Stanford Savoyards regularly produce the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

The Stanford Savoyards should be proud of their ability to find hidden talent among members of the University Community. Their recent production of Ruddigore included the above stage-struck acting hopefuls (right to left), Vice-Provost Arthur Bienenstork, Howard Sugarman of the law library, Prof. Arthur E. Bryson, aero astro, Dan Allan of SRI, President Richard Lyman himself, James Siena, legal adviser to the president and Prof. Richard Taylor of SLAC. -- Campus Report, April 23, 1975, p.14 (Photo by Chuck Painter, Stanford News Service, arc547)

Above are some of the ghostly 'ancestors' who step out of their frames: SLAC's Burton Richter, Human Biology Chairman Merton Bernfield, SLAC visitor Jim Allaby, and Dean of the Chapel Robert Hamerton-Kelly. The music is good, the plot funny, and the actors famous. -- Campus Report, May 7, 1980, p.26 (Photo by Chuck Painter, Stanford News Service, arc1273)

Did you spot (before you read the captions) Dick Taylor as Sir Desmond Murgatroyd, 16th Baronet, Archbishop and Burton Richter as Sir Gilbert Murgatroyd, 18th Baronet? How about Stanford’s President Dick Lyman as Sir Rupert Murgatroyd? Or Artie Bienenstock? Did you know that Rita Taylor, formerly of the SLAC Library, was a longtime Associate Producer for the Savoyards?

(Published April 1, 2010)

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