Two animals, different in size, shape and personality, are best friends in Mo Willems’ children’s book series "Elephant and Piggie."
In Cardinal Stage’s production of “Elephant and Piggie’s ‘We Are in a Play!’,” the characters come to life beneath the flashing lights of a vaudeville stage.
The show combines stories from six of the “Elephant and Piggie” books, each of which discuss friendship and feelings.
“Friendship is not a child issue, it is a people issue,” Willems said in the Monroe County Public Library’s study guide for the play. “Since children are, in fact, people, it seemed an appropriate topic for a few funny stories.”
Music Director Ryan O’Connell said Cardinal Stage is making sure to treat children as people. They want to meet children at their level.
“It’s really easy to put on this helium voice in children’s theater,” said O’Connell, a 2011 IU Jacobs School of Music alumnus, said. “We don’t want to do that here because we feel like that’s talking down to kids.”
Although they avoid a condescending tone, cast member Lola Kennedy said they do exaggerate their movements and songs to make it comedic for the children.
“It’s always so great seeing how happy they are and seeing their reactions,” Kennedy said. “Sometimes adult audiences just sit there. When you have kid audiences, they’re always laughing.”
Child audiences will be especially engaged with Elephant and Piggie because they are such beloved characters, O’Connell said. When Reid Henderson, who plays Elephant, went to the library to research the books, all 60 were checked out.
Set designer Shane Cinal said the bright, happy tone of a children’s show is a breath of fresh air for him. A 2009 IU alumnus, Cinal’s scenic design background was opera and dark, harsh show atmospheres.
“I have the book source material to draw inspiration from, but a lot of it is talking with the director and seeing how we can bring this story to life,” Cinal said. “There’s not a full illustrated set within the book, so it was fun to fill in the gaps and be very referential to the story without copying exactly what you see in the pages and putting it onstage.”
The bright colors and whimsical shapes were inspired by the book, Cinal said. The set is the first thing the audience sees when they walk into the theater, and he wants it to make them smile.
The characters in a children’s story run the gamut of emotion in a way that is big and bright, O’Connell said. The full-fledged emotion and clownish aspect of the silly characters make the show appealling to all ages.
“The characters’ emotions are so pure and earnest,” O’Connell said. “With grownup shows, there are a lot of difficult complications and the characters have to subtly convey emotion. With this show, it’s all right at the forefront. The characters tend to go full force in whatever they’re doing, and there’s a certain joy to that.”
