Date of Award
Spring 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Music (MM)
Department
Music Theory and Composition
Committee Chairperson
Robert Maggio, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Emily Bullock, D.M.A.
Committee Member
Mark Rimple, D.M.A.
Committee Member
Adam Silverman, D.M.A.
Abstract
A musical based on the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women that grew up in the early 18th century. Anne was born in Ireland to a father that dressed her as a boy in an attempt to provide her with more opportunities in life. Mary was born in England to a mother that passed her off as her dead son to receive inheritance money from her deceased husband’s mother. This musical begins when the two girls come of age and continue to use their ability to pass as men in order to better their position in the world. The two end up in the Caribbean for different reasons. Anne is swept away by the glamour of the pirating lifestyle. She leaves her husband and runs off with Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham. The two come across Mary Read, who they believe to be a man named Mark Read. They are both impressed by her and invite her to join their crew. Over the course of their short time together, the three pirates enter a dangerous love triangle as Anne and Mary fall in love with each other, all the while maintaining their own relationships with Calico Jack. In an effort to profess her love, Mary Read reveals herself to Anne as a woman. Anne’s response to this is an acknowledgment of the love they’ve been experiencing. Anne decides to let Calico Jack in on the secret that Mary is also a woman in order to keep his growing jealousy at bay. Their ship is ultimately captured by a pirate hunter working for the Governor of Jamaica. The three are put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to hang. At the final hour, both Anne and Mary are granted a stay of execution because it is revealed that they are both pregnant. Anne Bonny’s final words to the father of her child Captain “Calico Jack” Rackham were, “Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.”
Recommended Citation
Scheetz, Jared, "Bonny and Read: A Musical of Love and Pirates" (2020). West Chester University Master’s Theses. 117.
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/all_theses/117