Elephant and Piggie Performances Extended by Popular Demand at the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine
Elephant & Piggie performances have been extended to ten more dates through Saturday 2/22 due to popular demand that sold out all of our January shows! Come watch this children’s play filled with fun and laughter about the importance of friendships! Grab your tickets while they last!
Director’s Notes-Reba Askari
During the final dress rehearsal of Elephant & Piggie, I heard the door to the theatre open and close. Open and close. Open… and close. I turned around. There was a boy, maybe around 8 or 9 years old.
Me: Hi!
Him: What is going on in there?
Me: We’re rehearsing a play -- Elephant & Piggie. Ever heard of it?
(He nodded, but then shook his head.)
Him: I have never EVER seen anything like that.
Me: A play?
Him: I’ve seen a play.
Me: Grown-ups dressed like East African elephants and barn-yard Pigs, running around skipping and playing ping pong?
Him: Yeah. I have NEVER EVER seen anything like it.
I have finally directed something that an eight year old boy has never seen the likes of. This is an artistic accomplishment!
The next day we brought Elephant & Piggie to Scarborough, to do two shows for the first grade. Yes! This show tours! And teachers all over Maine are calling to book it! Why? This is a clown show that has catchy tunes and gets to the very heart of any social emotional classroom curriculum. Elephant & Piggie demonstrate the importance of soft skills, and the maintenance required to have a best friend. Friendship is not always ice cream and trumpets. Friendships need constant work.
In an interview I found with Mo Willems in the New Yorker, he said “I wanted every adventure to be them reëstablishing their friendship, not just having fun, because that’s a different thing from friendship.” When Mo Willems remembered a formative friendship and creative partner in his own life: “We’d be shouting at each other over decisions all morning, then go have a great time together at lunch.” (Galchen, Rivka. “Mo Willem's Funny Failures.” The New Yorker, Feb. 2017.)
I didn’t grow up with Elephant & Piggie, but I wish I did. Not only do children read Mo Willems, but he reads children. He brings humor and joy to life lessons and relationships. He has a true understanding of what it means to be a friend. The best kind. The best best best kind.
Elephant and Piggie's We are in a Play is based on the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems, Published by Hyperion Books for Children. Script and Lyrics by Mo Willems, Music provided by Deborah Wicks La Puma. This play was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Elephant and Piggie's We Are In A Play is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com.