Rating: 4/5 stars

Locals of all ages packed the Oswego County Courthouse as spectators came to not to a dramatic trial, but a dramaturgical one. The Oswego Opera Theatre brought to life the vintage classic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta with “Trial By Jury,” which featured several SUNY Oswego students and faculty.

Despite “Trial By Jury” being the primarily advertised show, it was preceded with another work of composer Arthur Sullivan, “Cox and Box” a short, yet entertaining one-act operetta following two men with now-obsolete careers: Cox, a hatter and Box, a newspaper printer, who have unknowingly been renting the same room. Vincent Gover and Matthew Youngblood were hilariously whimsical as the two main characters, while Benjamin Spierman served as the landlord, Bouncer, in an equally hilarious and light-hearted counterpart. Although the setting was inconvenient for “Cox and Box,” making it difficult to see the performers when they were lying down or sitting, it allowed for closer intimacy with the audience, as well as the Oswego Opera Orchestra, conducted by director of choral activities for SUNY Oswego, Ben May. May was almost like another character in the show, breaking the fourth wall to interact with the performers and play along with the plot.

Eloni Zepeda of Mu Beta Psi attended the Sunday matinee of the two shows and enjoyed the setting, despite the limitations. “I thought it was interesting,” said Zepeda, “it was the first time I saw something like that at a courthouse.”

Among the level of audience and atmospheric intimacy assisting in a stronger connection with the audience, current local and well-known allusions were made, such as the paper mentioned in the show as being “The Palladium Times”, Oswego’s local newspaper and receiving a letter from a Nigerian prince, in reference to the common scam known to plague the email inboxes of unsuspecting individuals. The most exciting was the double entendre of the two men closing the show by realizing they are “long-lost brothers.” However, the actors’ actions leading up to and succeeding in the realization acted as a subtle allusion to a romantic relationship between the two, suddenly making Box’s previous claim of being “defunct” for the last few years, followed by a fae hand gesture by Youngblood.

The first show ended abruptly, making way for a surprise presentation on the group’s final performance at the Sunday matinee. Longtime member of the Oswego Opera, Juan La Manna was honored with a collage of 11 shows he participated in. He was thanked for his decades of service by Spierman in a brief speech, kicking off the intermission before the main production.

“Trial By Jury” had a much larger cast than “Cox and Box,” yet still featured the latter’s actors Gover, Youngblood and Spierman as the Judge, Defendant and the Foreman. The show saw a charming performance by Oswego State senior Thomas Gilbo as the Plaintiff’s Counsel. Gilbo’s voice carried well and struck a chord with audiences despite lacking the technicalities and tone of a traditional opera performer. Regardless, his expressions, acting and musical theater-esque touch made him an outstanding addition to the cast.

Alongside Gilbo’s Counsel was junior Lizzy Dunn’s Plaintiff, a disgruntled bride that captures the hearts of all except the Defendant (Youngblood). Dunn previously appeared in the Oswego Opera’s last season production of “La Traviata” and the university’s musical “The Addams Family” last spring and has a background in classical music and opera, which bolstered her performance.

“It was a little intimidating at first,” Dunn said on coming into a community program outside of the university, “but everyone was just so wonderful and so welcoming.”

Dunn credited Oswego State faculty members Amanda Li and Ben May with her involvement with the local group. As her voice teacher, Li assisted Dunn in learning her parts of the music, which she received only a month before the show.

“We only had two weeks of rehearsals, so when we came everybody knew the music. It was mostly just trying to get it to click with each other and balance our sound and then doing the staging,” Dunn said.

The lack of preparation time only makes the performances of the cast more astounding. Each member, especially of the principal cast, professionally executed their musical performance. With such little time for it all to come together, one would have never known. Not only was the cast finding their dynamics together, but also learned their blocking in a makeshift courtroom. According to Dunn, they had not been able to rehearse in their performance space until two days before opening night. In retrospect, the inconvenience of the courtroom is a minor flaw covered by the undeniable talent and showmanship presented in the three shows for the Oswego Opera Theatre.

Image by Oswego Opera Theater