The UF Opera Theatre will present “The Pirates of Penzance” this April at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, featuring an all-student cast and a free outreach performance for Alachua County schoolchildren.
Director Tony Offerle, a professor of voice and opera at UF, selected the production based on the strengths of current students in the School of Music and the School of Theatre + Dance.
“[It] gives them the chance to be on stage and further their careers and feature not only a great production for the community, but also an educational experience for our students,” he said.
The operetta, written by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, premiered in 1879 and follows Frederic, a young man mistakenly apprenticed to pirates instead of ship pilots due to a misunderstanding. After reaching adulthood, Frederic attempts to leave piracy behind, but a contract tied to his leap-year birthday forces him back into service.
The production features no guest artists. Principal roles use double casting to provide additional performance opportunities.
The show marks the first fully in-house collaboration between UF Opera Theatre and UF Performing Arts, bringing together students from the School of Music and the School of Theatre + Dance.
Instead of renting scenery, the production team designed and constructed its own set, including a large pirate ship built in Gainesville.
“It’s ours,” Offerle said. “We did it ourselves.”
The production includes more than 40 student performers and a full orchestra, with the UF Symphony Orchestra performing the complete score under the direction of conductor Tiffany Lu.
As an operetta, “The Pirates of Penzance” combines elements of opera and musical theater, incorporating spoken dialogue alongside sung music.
Ethan Garrepy, a 22-year-old UF musical theatre senior who plays Frederic, performed in an independent production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in February while preparing for this role.
Garrepy rehearsed for “The Pirates of Penzance” alongside “Hedwig,” balancing separate rehearsal processes and performance demands.
“This has been one of the most difficult roles I’ve ever done,” he said. “I normally perform as a musical theater rock singer, so doing something really classical has been very challenging — but also very rewarding.”
The production includes graduate voice students trained in classical opera.
Lily Mancini, a 24-year-old UF graduate student in vocal performance, plays Mabel, the lead soprano and Frederic’s love interest. Mancini said the operetta’s format allows performers to combine elements of opera and musical theater.
The show, performed in English with a comedic tone, differs from many traditional operas that rely on foreign languages and tragic storylines.
“There really is a lot of theatrical elements in opera that I think play really well from what I learned doing theater,” she said.
In addition to its public performances, UF Opera Theatre will present a free educational performance for Alachua County students on April 9 at 10:30 a.m. at the Phillips Center.
The outreach program includes classroom materials such as lesson plans, activities and a comic book competition designed to introduce students to opera and live performance.
Public performances of “The Pirates of Penzance” will take place April 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Phillips Center. Alternating casts will perform across both nights.
Following the Gainesville run, the cast will travel to Ocala for an additional performance in partnership with the Ocala Symphony Orchestra at the Reilly Arts Center.
Contact Aaliyah Evertz at aevertz@alligator.org. Follow her on X @aaliyahevertz1.
Aaliyah is a second-year journalism student in her second semester at the Alligator. She is the Avenue's spring 2026 entertainment reporter. In her free time, she enjoys reading and baking.
