Writers Theatre to Kick Off 2013-14 Season with THE OLD MAN AND THE OLD MOON, 9/3-11/10

Writers Theatre opens its 2013-14 season with the Midwest Premiere of The Old Man and The Old Moon, a new play with music by PigPen Theatre Co., directed by Associate Artistic Director Stuart Carden and PigPen Theatre Co., and presented by Writers Theatre and TOMATOM LLC. The show runs September 3 - November 10, 2013, at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe.

The Old Man and The Old Moon creates an epic new mythology, centered on a man whose job is to collect spilled light to refill the leaking moon. When his wife unexpectedly leaves home in pursuit of much-needed adventure, he abandons his post to follow her, throwing the world into chaos as he searches for his lost love, his fading memory and, ultimately, himself.

A blend of resonant storytelling, spirited indie-folk music and inventive puppetry creates a theatrical experience that will win audiences over with its wit, style and depth of emotion.

Writers Theatre is thrilled to collaborate with the young men of PigPen Theatre Co., who bring the story of The Old Man and The Old Moon to such brilliant, vibrant life that its New York production earned a coveted spot on multiple "Best of the Year" lists.

The Old Man and The Old Moon was developed in part at New Writers. New Plays. at Vineyard Arts Project: Ashley Melone, Founder and Artistic Director.

The Old Man and The Old Moon features music from the debut album "Bremen."

The cast includes PigPen company members Alex Falberg, Ben Ferguson, Curtis Gillen, Ryan Melia, Matt Nuernberger, Arya Shahi and Dan Weschler.

The designers are Bart Cortright and Lydia Fine. The sound designer is Mikhail Fiksel and MerEdith Miller is the Props Master. The production stage manager is David Castellanos.

"PigPen Theatre Company formed, in no small part, owing to their work with Stuart Carden at Carnegie Mellon," comments Artistic Director Michael Halberstam. "I was delighted to learn that, despite their enormous success with this production in New York, they wanted to continue their work on the piece. Despite numerous offers from some of the nation's most venerable dramatic institutions, they were most engaged by the notion of returning to collaborate with their former teacher at Writers Theatre. Following a writing workshop, two weeks at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and a full rehearsal process in Glencoe, PigPen and Writers Theatre are thrilled to present a newly improved version of their The Old Man and The Old Moon. A celebration of creativity, music, poetic text, this is a marvelous fusion of the word and the artist and a superb way to begin our final season in our current space."

"We began writing The Old Man and The Old Moon during our sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama," says PigPen Theatre Co. "It was the second play we had ever tried to write together, so in the spirit of trying to define our very young aesthetic, we were searching for inspiration in all of our classes. We found some in our movement, acting, and dramatic literature classes, but were hugely inspired by a directing course taught by Stuart Carden. He taught us to take ownership of our work in a way we hadn't thought possible. Making theatre in his class evoked a playfulness we fell in love with, so we kept doing it. We've since graduated, written and performed several original plays all over the country, and have begun telling our stories in different media. Being re-united with Stuart and working with the lovely, intelligent, and passionate artists at Writers Theatre feels like the final step in creating a world we began imagining 6 years ago. We can't wait to share it with Chicago."

"Reconnecting with the guys of PigPen Theatre Co. and developing further their epic and playful new work, The Old Man and The Old Moon, has been invigorating and a whole lot of fun," said Associate Artistic Director Stuart Carden, who co-directs the piece. "The PigPen guys are an infectious group of theatre artists that spin their own highly original brand of storytelling, bringing together indie-folk music, surprising and elegant shadow play and an energized physicality. All this in the service of a story that is both hugely entertaining and beguiling in its exploration of duty, memory, love and the tricky work of making change in your life. With this piece, they have created an original myth that rather ingeniously explains how the moon came to be and why it waxes, wanes and goes through its changes. I think this story-and the inventive way that this incredibly talented group of artists tell it-will strike a chord in our audience, as it has in me, and leave them seeing the moon in an entirely new light."

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