From p00629@psilink.com Fri Nov 12 07:05:46 1993 Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 20:26:40 -0800 To: "Alex Feldman" From: "James M. Farron" Subject: CHORUS.ART Member Jane Stedman passed on the citation for this following article, about those neglected theatrical performers, the members of Victorian Choruses. Member Norman Vogt managed to get a copy of it for us through interlibrary loan, and S/A Cole abstracted it. As the title suggests, the author used the chorus at the Savoy Theater to analyse the nature of what we now know as choristers. Members interested in seeing the whole article should have little trouble getting a copy through interlibrary loan, too. Davis, Tracy C. "The Savoy Chorus." In Theatre Notebook 44 (no. 1, 1990): 26-38. 22 references. Victorian choristers are anomalies: they belonged to neither the demi-monde, the working class, nor the group of musicians nor actors. Although integral to most performed theater music, relatively little is known about them. Using the chorus's relationship to the D'Oyly Carte organization in the first fifteen years of Gilbert and Sullivan production to explore the chorus's socioeconomic characteristics and position within the acting profession invokes some of the questions of social and cultural history. An industrial interpretation of historical writing about the theatrical chorus would view theaters as "works" for producing fin- ished goods. Like factories, they employed large numbers of specially skilled workers: singers, dancers, and actors. The second interpretation arises from the term "chorus". Popular culture viewed it as being mainly feminine. The ballet girl and the chorister alike were viewed as morally dangerous. The public's willingness to believe better of the Savoy chorus stems partly from the exacting, decorous appearance of their work, partly from the Gilbert-Sullivan-Carte triumvirate's duenna-like reputation, and partly from perceptions that female choristers were sole wagearners for their families. Although choristers were integral to the operettas, for the most part, their names have been lost. Out of 1024 theatrical employees identified in the house-by-house census of six London parishes in 1881, only one of D'Oyly Carte's employees is named. According to the enumerators' instructions, a "chorister" was a clergyman, minister, or church official. So generalizing about choristers from the census is unreliable as well. The most promising lead is through tracing D'Oyly Carte's touring adult companies in the house-by-house 1881 census of provincial towns, conducted Sunday night, April 3, 1881. Census data shows that, among principals and choristers alike, women tended to be between 7 and 10 years younger than men, that men were more likely to be married than women, and that the majority of performers were born in London. Demographically, choristers were no different than actors. Touring choristers did not necessarily progress through the ranks to understudies, leading parts, and London. A chorister could be repeatedly shuttled between London and provincial engagements. Theater management saw good working conditions for choristers as being continued employment, not promise of promotion or wage increases. In 1891, the Actors Association had attempted to ensure respect by excluding choristers. The delay in the production of a new Gilbert & Sullivan opera following the Carpet Quarrel, and the resulting possibility of chorister unemployment, led to the formation of a new union, the Choristers' Association. Its first general meeting was held in February 1893, on the stage of the Savoy Theatre. Several D'Oyly Carte choristers were elected as officers, and Gilbert himself was made honorary president. By acting collectively, choristers could now pressure managers to pay fair wages and stem the influx of incompetent and inexperienced newcomers, as well as stand against the public's erroneous image of unscrupulous social climbers. Gilbert and Sullivan's association with the Choristers' Association showed they recognized that their professional circle depended on a well-trained chorus whose interest must be protected, although its identity was destined to be lost. [This article appeared in Issue 27 (September 1990) of Precious Nonsense, the newsletter of the Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Posted by permission of Sarah Cole, Society Secretary/Archivist. For information on Society membership write to: The Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society, c/o Miss Sarah Cole, 613 W. State St., North Aurora, IL 60542-1538.]