The 2007-2008 season marks the Washington Savoyards’ 35 th anniversary season. We are proud that this auspicious season is the Company’s first full season in our new home, the beautiful Atlas Performing Arts Center.

The Company was formed in 1972 as the Montgomery Savoyards. From 1972-1980 productions were staged in the Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Montgomery Savoyards became the Washington Savoyards in 1979. This change in name marked not only the Company’s physical move to the Trinity Theatre in Georgetown but also its transition from a suburban based group to an organization reaching out to the entire metropolitan area. The Savoyards moved a few blocks north to the Duke Ellington Theatre in 1988 and in 2006 began performing in the not yet completed Atlas Performing Arts Center north of Capitol Hill. Its first main stage productions in the Atlas began last season with its first musical, Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate.

Following in the footsteps of founding director Audrey Shipp, the Savoyards performed the entire Gilbert and Sullivan corpus, including their lesser known operettas, Utopia Ltd. and The Grand Duke as well as Sullivan’s Cox and Box. In the 2004-2005 season, the Company expanded its horizons to perform Jacques Offenbach’s La P érichole. In 2006, it began successful annual runs of The Condensed Mikado, a one-hour version of The Mikado created for the Savoyards by Scott Kenison and David Simmons as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

he 2006-2007 season fulfilled the Company’s long-term plan by permanently expanding the repertory, mounting three main stage productions, and moving to a new theatre tailor-made to meet its needs.

Celebrating its 35th season, the Washington Savoyards is the light opera company of Washington. It performs comic and light opera, operetta, and musical theatre. The Savoyards seeks to make opera theatre accessible and enjoyable to all in the Washington metropolitan area.

The Savoyards holds a unique place in the Washington area’s cultural scene as the only professional performing arts organization strictly devoted to the performance of comic and light opera, operetta, and musical theatre.

Remembering its roots as a Gilbert and Sullivan company, it mounts at least one of their popular light operas each season.

The 2007-2008 season begins with two singalongs of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado. Friday evening, September 14, will include a winetasting and wine sale. Sunday afternoon, September 16, will be a full performance of the Mikado. Both occasions will feature the audience as the chorus, along with a small group of soloists. Both events are fundraisers for the 2007-2008 season with most of the ticket prices tax-deductible.

Launching a new Washington holiday tradition, the Washington Savoyards presents Babes in Toyland . In time for Leap Year Day, it produces Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, a light opera whose plot revolves around a Leap Year birthday. Its popular Condensed Mikado will again be a feature of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The Company will close its season in April with Man of La Mancha.

Focusing on opera and theatre professionals resident in the metropolitan area, the Company provides employment, training, performance experience, and artistic support to its performers and crew members.

Company is grateful for the funding and encouragement of the Fund for Maryland's Future, the Sprenger-Lang Foundation, MARPAT Foundation, the Meyer Foundation, the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Nora Roberts Foundation, and many corporate and individual donors. An important point in its growth as an organization came in 2004 when it was accepted into residency at Flashpoint, Washington, D.C.'s arts incubator.

It is fortunate to have received a challenge grant of $50,000 from a Company friend. This grant serves as the basis of The Savoyards at the Atlas Campaign, a fundraising campaign designed to help make the Company a strong and attractive partner of the stunning new Atlas Performing Arts Center, where it both performs and has its administrative office.