The Company’s association with the Hyde Park community and the University of Chicago goes back to its beginning in 1960, and subsequent incorporation in 1964. In 1962 it began a 21-year relationship with the Parents’ Association of the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Proceeds from the shows benefited the Lab School’s Adventurers in the Arts Program. Since 1983 the University’s Department of Music has sponsored the Company’s productions, with net proceeds helping to fund the Department’s performance programs. In 1991 the University Chamber Orchestra began playing for the performances.
Over its 60 years, the Company has performed every work in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon. The Company has a policy of alternating the signature operas with the obscure, taking into consideration anniversary years and programming by other local companies. H.M.S. Pinafore has been performed eight times, The Mikado, The Gondoliers, Iolanthe, and The Yeomen of the Guard have each been produced seven times. The Pirates of Penzance and Ruddigore have each been produced six times. Princess Ida and Patience have been produced four times; The Sorcerer three times; Trial by Jury, twice; and Utopia, Limited and The Grand Duke once each. In 2019 the Company took a temporary break from the traditional canon, presenting Merrie England by Edward German and Basil Hood, the designated successors to Gilbert and Sullivan.
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