broadwayworld.com: Critically acclaimed theater troupe PigPen Theatre Co. celebrates its move to New York City with the October 4 opening of its brand new production, The Old Man and The Old Moon, co-produced by Britt Lafield/BKL Productions and SoHo Playhouse, Inc. at The Gym at Judson (located in the iconic Judson Memorial Church). The only company to win top honors at the New York International Fringe Festival two years in a row (in 2010 for The Nightmare Story and in 2011 for The Mountain Song), PigPen’s seven members met as students at Carnegie Mellon University and officially formed the company in 2008. See below for full production details.
3 comments:
The men in PigPen are hands down some of the best performers to watch. They have an absolute love and passion for what they do, and have a unique way of taking the audience member on an amazing journey. I think that its because they are truly masterful storytellers, as well as being talented musicians. They are in a way, a great role model for all CMU drama students regardless of area of study. Because, they made this themselves, through Playground and just ran with it, which is amazing and something that we all know is within reach especially since just this past year we had 3 groups go from Playground to Fringe. I am so happy for PigPen and know that they will continue to soar.
There's another article on the blog this week about marketing for fringes. While PigPen utilizes internet advertising, on the back of every fringeNYC program was a full page advertisement for The Old Man and the Old Moon. They know their audience.
I think the fringe was a great place for PigPen to get their start. The small theater community of NYC have all heard of PigPen, and are welcoming them to the scene.
I'm so happy for all of them, as well as the CMU design team! Lydia Fine, Josh Smith, and more. It's wonderful to hear about a successful group from CMU bringing everyone they worked with on the road to larger stages.
I was speaking with Arya earlier this summer, and he said that this production is unlike anything they've ever done because it has to be so long! They've had to flesh out the story to fill the producer's requirements, and the show does not resemble the original production. So basically, everyone go see the show over Mid-Semester Break!
It was really neat over the summer to hear a little bit about the workshopping process and, as Ariel mentioned, fleshing out the 45-minute PLAYGROUND piece into now a 2.5 hour epic. I also noticed Equity Principal Auditions on the web for the 7 cast members... it looks like they may be considering re-casting some (if not all) of their roles and being just writers, or writer/directors. I'm very curious to see what comes of this as they head toward rehearsals and beginning previews next month.
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