Friendship no matter the form is the theme for the childhood favorite books, now a play at the Rose, "Elephant and Piggie: We are in a Play."
The musical is written by Mo Willems, who penned the book series about two friends: an elephant, Gerald, and a pig, Piggie. The hour long play is packed of sixty minutes of songs, dances, changing sets, and lifelong lessons. The show features a lot of kid friendly characters, from the dancing pachyderm and pig, to a letter carrier dog and ice cream penguin. They're flanked by the squirrelles, rodent back up singers, of course.
Elephant & Piggie: We Are In A Play incorporates stories from several of Willems' books. The production is most similar to the Elephant and Piggie book We are in a Book!, but fans of the series will also recognize plotlines from other favorite books such as Should I Share My Ice Cream, Elephants Cannot Dance, I Love My New Toy, I Am Invited to a Party and more.
"The theater is a magical place where artists start with nothing but a big empty stage in a huge auditorium filled with vacant seats and a bunch of crazy, creative ideas, and-under the most ideal circumstances-collaborate to create a live storytelling experience that transports the audience into another world!" says Director Michael Miller.
Miller throws open the doors of the theater and allows the audience a peek backstage. Throughout the play, audiences will see behind the scenes at all the components that make a theater tick: racks of costumes from former shows, piles of oversized props, backdrops that drop in at will.
"If you and your family are frequent visitors to our zany theatrical worlds here at The Rose, you might just recognize a few of the costumes and props and scenery that you see dancing around Elephant and Piggie as they discover the drama of the theater," says Miller.
And with all of that excitement, each of those stories comes with a message, a moral, a lesson.
"Each of them has a really great lesson about what it is like to be friends with someone who is different for you," Miller said.
Elephant & Piggie: We Are In A Play runs at the Rose through May 8th. For tickets and showtimes, visit rosetheater.org.
