Sunshine Club

Leisure World Orchestra Art Director Linda DeRungs will speak to the Sunshine Club on Friday, May 9, in Clubhouse 3, Room 2, at 10 a.m.

DeRungs will speak to the club about the rollicking operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, the theatrical pairing that anticipated modern musical theater, but whose fame, visibility and influence eclipsed contemporary writers of musicals. Their Japanese-themed “The Mikado” premiered in London on March 14, 1885. On a single day in October that same year, 150 U.S. theaters had the work on their stages. American women adopted what they thought were Japanese hair styles; strolled in kimonos; and started eating chop suey, a Chinese-American concoction they believed originated in Japan.

The LW Orchestra will include “Mikado” selections during its June 7 concert.

Since her teens DeRungs has performed in, conducted, directed, and designed sets and costumes for numerous Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. At the Louisville-area high school where she was fine arts chair, she directed “The Pirates of Penzance” set on a distant planet. Another of her school’s Gilbert and Sullivan performances starred Josh Dallas, who played lead characters in the network television series, “Once Upon a Time” and “Manifest.”

DeRungs also was the soprano soloist for Ars Femina, a Baroque chamber group. One of the group’s six recordings was named among 1994’s top-10 CDs by the BBC. Ars Femina was also featured on NBC’s “Sunday Today” show and on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” for their groundbreaking discoveries of women composers.

All shareholders are welcome. Sunshine Club requires no membership fees, but donations are welcome. Refreshments will be served. People are asked to arrive promptly, those who are late for the meeting should quietly use the back door so as not to disturb the presentation.

For more information, contact Anna Derby at 562-301-5339.