4 / Arts Productions

Gee ‘n Ess & “I” is  the idea of George Jarden, of Las Cruces, NM, a physician/musician who  “grew up with” Gilbert and Sullivan in his home in Rose Valley, PA,  during the 1940s and 1950s.  His parents were leaders in one of the  hundreds of G&S societies active in the U.S. and world wide in the  teens of the 20th Century, continuing to the present day. 

Jarden wrote the original script, edited the G&S score,  supervised the computer generated music (CGM) creation, sang the  recorded vocals, and acted the videos. 

Jarden plays the one-man  show as “I” – who performs live on-stage as himself and in G&S  roles, and is also seen on two large VIDEO projection screens in  pre-videoed acting and singing vignettes – some 70 characters in  all.   The VIDEO “I”- characters interact with each other, and with “I”  /Jarden on-stage live.

The show loosely ties together Jarden’s  pick of elements from eleven of the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas  of the late 19th Century.  (All but “Thespis” (whose score is lost) and  “The Grand Duke,” and “Utopia, Limited,” are represented.)  “I”/ Jarden  wove together portions of some 65 songs with complementing vignettes,  and voice/over and monologue links and segues, to capture “What appealed  to me in stream-of-conscious reflection on G&S,” he says.  All told  – “including one-liners” – some 65 songs are represented, played and  sung by “I”  - either live, or in video, or  as pre-recorded sound  track.

Three years of audio studio recording by “I”/Jarden and  Dave Wheeler (see below) resulted in creation of the various  pre-recorded choruses and solos with which the live “I” interacts; and,  the video shooting was completed over a half-year during 2009.  

For more on the creative process, see Creative Team Members, below.

For George Jarden’s reflections on Gilbert and Sullivan and Gee 'n Ess & “I”, see "I" / George's Insights.

Noted artist Flo Hosa Dougherty (www.artgally.com/bluegate, bluegateflodoc@aol.com) has created some 100 paintings/cartoons for the VIDEO, which complement the live on-stage action of Gee 'n Ess & “I”.  As  the show unfolds, her creations lend whimsy, insight, and  clarification.  Her fetching and vibrant and illuminating characterizations provide a refreshing take on the “what is it” of  G&S and, more importantly, of Gee 'n Ess & “I” !   They augment the stage and VIDEO action with instant insight for the  previously G&S-naïve, while injecting a refreshing “look” – to the sheer delight of confirmed Savoyards!

"It is with fond nostalgia that I find myself creating art work  for Gee 'n Ess & I.  The first live play I saw was Gilbert and  Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore many decades ago.  I stood during the whole performance because, when seated, I couldn't see over the chair in front of me."

"Now it's 'home again' with a familiarity of these eleven operas.  Singing nor acting is my thing but I felt the part of each role in the illustrations that came off my drawing board."

Modified cartouches or title cards include semblances of each particular opera.  Personalities and masks are represented as characterizations, some comedic and others as caricatures of George Jarden.
 

Presently I exhibit works in my Blue Gate Fine Art Gallery.   Having fostered art in young people and communities during my long  teaching career, I still have a penchant for doing so today. "

 Dave, former Programming Coordinator and Rio Grande Theatre Manager with the The Doña Ana Arts Council, is a life-long Las Cruces thespian talent, with scores of acting and directing credits. He is Director of Gee ‘n Ess & “I”.

He and George Jarden have worked on script editing and blocking for three  years, and the path to lighting and final stage presentation is getting  shorter! 

 Brandi has designed dance and movement choreography for Gee ‘n Ess & “I” which defines the essence of the whimsy, and the “commentary,” and the  “attitude” of Gilbert and Sullivan, while contributing her own sense of  the dramatic to “I” / Jarden’s  vision of “where he wants the show to go”… to make G&S approachable and fun for the “un-initiated,” while adding a freshness for die-hard Savoyards (while eschewing camp-ness or  the universally ill-advised attempts at  “spoofing the spoof”). 

 While a student at New Mexico State University, in the Winter of  2006/2007, Jason and “I”/ Jarden spent untold hours on this project.  Before Jarden “found” Stewart, there seemed to be no way to accompany Gee 'n Ess & “I”. Jarden  had lifted from the original Gilbert & Sullivan scores the music he  had chosen from 11 operas, and edited them to suit the show. (Songs  were:  shortened, truncated, segued to their act-to-act reprises, and so  forth, so that their very structure was changed. Then, tempos were  modified, keys were changed, dynamics changed.) The goal was to make  them more fitting to the flow of the show, but just as recognizable as  in the original, and, in fact, even more accessible to an audience of  non-Savoyards as well as G&S fans. But, to make music of this  patch-work score? Either to be recorded, or played live for the show! No  approach seemed workable. No keyboardest could play from such edited  music, and re-writing the scores for musicians would have required  resources unimaginable in money and personnel. The solution? Jarden gave  Jason Stewart his chopped-up scores, Jason entered them (note by note!)  into his computer, then, they both sat at the table for hours on end  (sometimes over five hours a song) and refined and refined and refined  the 60-some songs in the show. There is one song with 35 tempo changes,  sometimes three in one measure! Jason’s work on Gee 'n Ess & “I” has  been finished for over two years now, while the score is being  incorporated into the live accompaniment and the Video.  Jarden says,  “He was the right man at the right time with the right talent!” 

 Gee 'n Ess & “I” presents  some unique costume challenges.  Over 50 costumes (last count, 57) are  required for this “dual-pronged” (“live” and pre-videoed) show.  Some  were needed in two to three variations!...because “I” plays the  character in the prefilmed VIDEO in full regalia; then, the “LIVE” “I” -  on-stage - plays the character, usually in an abbreviated version of  the costume – sometimes in TWO  costume variations.  And, nearly all of  the “live” versions need to be quick-changeable – often instantaneously  or in matter of a few seconds.  When no way seemed possible, Terri figured out the way…and built it! 

 Dave’s career in digital sound is long and varied, including  movie-making. Because there is so much pre-recorded vocal work by “I” /  Jarden in Gee 'n Ess & “I”, the studio  recording work has been enormous.  For every chorus in the sound track,  “I” sang up to eight different voices, about half in falsetto “female”  -sounding register.  The digital mastering of this work is a major  studio effort, requiring lining up the repeat tracks accurately so that  the voices are “singing together.”  Jarden and Wheeler began work in  Spring, 2007, and the process of refinement – seeming never-ending –  continues still, well beyond 500 hours of studio work.  Wheeler also  recorded sound for the VIDEO portion of Gee 'n Ess & “I” – and performs the sound track during the live show. 

 Born in the boot heel of New Mexico, Ben,  started taking pictures at an early age. At age sixteen he won a New  Mexico Press Award for photography work he collaborated on in Hidalgo  County. He is Graduate of New Mexico State University's Creative Media  Institute and currently makes his living in the film industry.  

 Rajeev Nirmalakhandan is a writer/director with work that includes a  feature film, shorts, commercials, music video, promotional videos, and  documentaries. He teaches at a film school and founded Slant, a  production company.