Past Event
Nov 19—23, 2014
The Old Manand The Old Moon
Pigpen Theatre Co. / NYC
The endlessly imaginative PigPen Theatre Co. comes to Boston with a luminously lo-fi spectacle that elevates traditional storytelling to high art. Their fantastical, song-filled tale takes us to the end of the world when an old man abandons his duty of filling the moon with liquid light to search for his missing wife. With a rollicking array of ever-changing characters, inventive theatrical effects and an infectious contemporary folk sound, these seven young actor-musicians transform the seemingly ordinary into sheer wonder.
Info
Venue
Emerson Paramount Center Mainstage
559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111
“The cast members hurl themselves into the enterprise with an imaginative zeal that makes use of ordinary objects — a sheet, burlap, a length of cloth, flashlights, bottles, umbrellas — to create striking theatrical and musical effects.”
“A beguiling, family-friendly tale”
“Likably big-hearted”
“The PigPen lads know how to tell a story”
— The Boston Globe
“A transcendent theatrical experience for all ages”
“Infectious”
— Time Out New York
“Extraordinarily imaginative, wonderfully written, beautifully produced”
“A rare example of true theater magic”
“Toe-tapping indie-folk music, accomplished puppetry and shadow play, and a touching story”
“An immensely satisfying, illuminating production”
“The stage fills with a whole new kind of magic”
— Theatremania
“[PigPen] asks us to appreciate the finer arts of wild storytelling, while speaking to the childish mind in all of us”
“The production comes up with an eye-popping series of special effects”
— The New York Times
“Rousing, silly, sweet and bursting with good songs”
“I’m crazy about PigPen and soon you will be too”
“If you saw it before, you’ll want to see it again. If you haven’t, now’s the time”
— The Huffington Post
“If there is one show not to miss this fall, The Old Man and The Old Moon is it”
“Watching The Old Man and The Old Moon is like visiting the best times of your childhood”
— Examiner.com
“Immerse yourself in the folk music and storytelling theatrical magic of The Old Man and The Old Moon”
“T he PigPen guys will draw you into their imaginative world of shadow puppets, sailboats, and swordplay ”
“A good, old-fashioned story presented in a good, old-fashioned style”
— Broadway World
“It’s a great little piece to introduce kids to the theater.”
“Shadow puppets, mops as dogs, basic projections all form part of the easily engaging storytelling.”
— WBUR's The Artery
“The Old Man and The Old Moon is outshining some of the neons on 42nd Street”
“It’s inventive and fun, but B.Y.O.I. (Bring Your Own Imagination)”
— Playbill
“Every once in a while, a new group of absurdly talented young performers band together and show us how delightfully uninhibited, how effortlessly inventive, how unapologetically and unpretentiously playful theater can be”
— Vulture
“A group of handsome, musically talented young men”
“Anyone with teenage daughters or granddaughters [should] order an extra ticket”
“Tuneful and potent”
— Chicago Tribune
“A joyous evening of visual and sonic beauty”
“Charm, innovation and a folksy, sincere jubilance”
“Their sound evokes the rolling, retro-raucous harmonies of the Lumineers or Mumford and Sons”
“The ballads are steeped in a gorgeous melancholy that makes the heart ache”
— Chicago Theater Beat
“Seven very attractive, distinctive-looking twenty-something ones who can act, spin a story, sing and play musical instruments”
“A clever…whimsical, artfully handcrafted show”
— Chicago Sun Times
“Loaded with charm, inventiveness and visual wit”
“The performers’ versatility, both in their acting and their mastery of multiple musical instruments, is as impressive as their undiluted earnestness”
— Time Out Chicago
“This epic fable is imaginative storytelling at its best”
“Visually and audibly stunning”
“An adventure well worth taking”
— Chicago Critic
“This Old Man is Animated by Troupe’s DIY Aesthetic.”
— The Boston Globe
“The Old Man and The Old Moon” — An Old Story, Entertainingly Told.”
— Arts Fuse
“Pigpen’s “Old Man”: Lo-Tech, But Highly Entertaining.”
— On Boston Stages
“A Story Worth Telling: ‘The Old Man and the Old Moon.'”
— The New England Theatre Geek
November 21, 2014
Interview with PigPen Theatre Co. members Ryan Melia, Arya Shahi, and Matt Nurenberger
Corey Ruzicano is a senior at Emerson College in their BFA acting program program. She is participating in the Creative Producer program inside the Office of the Arts at Emerson...
Read MoreNovember 20, 2014
On Folktales and Meeting Freshman Year
“The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are unreal, they are not untrue…” —Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales When I met...
Read MoreNovember 19, 2014
PigPen’s Musical Muses
No one knows how to grab inspiration from one another like artists, and Pig Pen is no exception. Here is a list of some of the musicians that inspire this...
Read More