This was my first post, but I just realized that I messed up the blogs earlier and it didn’t post on the group one, but my individual one? I don’t know but here it is!!
Pigpen theatre co. is an upcoming group of seven fantastic young men who joined together to create stories that are heartwarming, fierce, and utterly embracing. Arya Shahi, Ben Ferguson, Dan Weschler, Ryan Melia, Curtis Gillen, Alex Falberg, and Matt Nuernberger started the project while studying acting at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh Pennyslvania. The Mountain Song, The Nightmare Story, The Old Man and The Old Moon, The Hunter and The Bear are four of their stories.
Pigpen entered the New York National Fringe Festival last year and won for general excellence which jumped started them on their move to New York City. I don’t know if I recommend reading the entirety of the article attached, most of it seems somewhat frivolous to me and doesn’t focus on what pigpen actually does. It does give some information though, and some validity to what I’ve already stated.
Pigpen’s use of shadow puppetry is mystical and makes you feel like your twelve years old again. They all accompany the show with their own live original music, which is outstanding to say the least. They use their bodies and light to really create the stories and bring them to life. They obtain such great sense of play, youth, and imagination that is a gift to everyone, not just children or grandmothers or critics. I feel that those elements have been missing in the theatre I’ve seen recently. And I speak only from experience, I know there is a lot out there that I haven’t seen. Their drive to be something and to carry on their work they started years ago is so inspiring to me. They really stretched the border of what theatre can become and the different ways it can reach out and impact everyone who witnesses it. They reminded me why I wanted to be involved with this art to begin with. And like all theatre, I really think you just have to go and see for yourself how amazing it is.
Pigpen will be performing “The Nightmare Story” throughout the month of October at the Irondale Arts Center in New York. Go see it.
