We tried to make ours enjoyable for the entire community. For the cursing, I had the actors say them under their breath or we would run the next line over it.
We performed the sex scenes as dances. For Bed Music (which my kids called "Sheet Music"), Pippin and Catherine performed a tango. The oops portion occurred by having Pippin attempt a dip and drop Catherine. They then tried again and Pippin successfully dipped her.
For With You, we performed couple waltzes. The dancing became more and more frantic and faster as the song progressed. It worked well.
Original Message:
Sent: 05-12-2015 07:01
From: Russell Paulette
Subject: PIPPIN
I just wrapped Pippin at the end of April.
As far as the "sex" scenes, they weren't too much of an issue -- as it's all in the staging. For "With You," we just suggested a lot of experimentation by having Pippin go from girl to girl, particularly in the "Giselle Dance" section. Then once the music changed to Parts II and III, the girls started dancing more and more exotically and evocatively (while being tame and without being inappropriate for high schoolers; honestly, we went with a "go-go" feel), so Pippin tried to keep up. When it was clear he couldn't more and more of the female players joined him and the dance leads on stage until they surrounded him and played a twisted "ring around the rosey;" he grew scared, and that's when he attempted to escape but couldn't. It was a "this is intriguing" into "this is scary" arc, which follows much of the show and his emotional states pre- and post- song.
For "Bed Music," we staged much of the beginning of the number leading into the 'premature' dialogue as "awkward make-out moments." Pippin leans in for a kiss, but gets his hand tangled in her hair; they try again, only he steps on her foot; they try again, but she has bad breath. When I asked the cast to give me ideas that followed this idea, the female student playing Catherine blurted "when my Mom almost walks in on me," which led to us having a cameo by the mother (we're a small, rural community, so we got huge mileage out of the recognizability factor -- and the mother's broad ad-libs), which we used to justify the 'premature' dialogue and put it in a more innocent context, while still preserving the intimacy of the moment.
Any of the other language I didn't receive complaints about -- Charles's lines, I cast an actor who had natural comic timing and we worked on how to undersell the language for maximum comic effect. He's the kind of student who would get away with it just because his delivery's funny, so I leveraged that (he's also an experienced senior, so lots of trust). We received complaints about Pippin's line "why did the g-d duck have to die" prior to performance, so we dropped the "g" part -- I'd advise going to MTI on that one, though.
As far as size of my cast, we topped out at about 32 or so. I reassured any players that I was going to be using them extensively, which was different ensemble work than we've done in the past -- much of our first month was spent exclusively on movement exercises, dance exercises, and trust exercises, which is a process that I haven't used before as it always felt kind of "hippy-dippy," but ended up paying dividends. Much of "The Finale" I didn't block explicitly, I just had the Players follow their movement exercises (we played "keep away from Pippin," essentially, but refined it and refined it so that a) they moved like a flock of birds -- if one person moves, the rest follow on instinct; and b) when they landed, they needed to be aware of clustering, height, and depth -- try to stand in triangles, look to see if others are standing, crouched, kneeling, et cetera, and add variation to what you're seeing), and it generally worked out, with very simple directions to the cast as a whole (following advice given in Hauser & Reich's Notes on Directing -- a book I highly recommend to directors of any experience), to whit: "on this line, Pippin's nice, so flock toward him; on this line, he's nasty, flee to the curtain-line," etc.
I managed to retain everyone I cast -- again, through the promise while they grumbled that everyone was getting stage time. I had choreographic leads (I organized the cast with playing cards) who were "Aces," and rewarded those who gave me strong participation during the month of movement/dance/trust with more prominent callouts -- and the Aces didn't get much of those moments at all. I also used them extensively from "Magic" through "Corner"; in "Glory" and "With You"; they did audience work in "No Time at All" (we hung tapestries in the house with the lyrics that the cast had to reveal); from "Morning Glow" through the end of Act I; and, of course, "The Finale," which is a one-act unto itself, practically.
Everyone got two or three solo moments (even if only for a line), and we managed to build a pretty strong ensemble, too, as the show lends itself tremendously to that.
Hope it goes well, and you break many legs! Let us know how it turns out.
Bonus: Here's two photos taken by Pippin's mother for "The Finale" -- one's from our first night, the other's closing night. Just to give you a sense of how we fit 32 people on a tiny stage.
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Russell Paulette
Rappahannock County Public Schools
Washington VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-11-2015 11:51
From: Cathy Archer
Subject: PIPPIN
I am currently working on Pippin. Did any of you have any issues with the "sex" scenes or the occasional language? Also how many did you have in your cast? Mine is looking to be 16 or so.... had one or two drop out when they got ensemble instead of lead!!
Thank you for your help
Cathy
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Cathy Archer
Rutland VT
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2015 17:32
From: Helen Dixon
Subject: PIPPIN
When we produced Pippin, we went for cute and used an almost cartoon like stuffed duck. We left part of the seam open in the back of the neck and put a rod or spoon through it so Theo could manipulate it. If you google Dilby Duck pattern, you will find a free pdf pattern that can be downloaded.
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Helen Dixon
Oakley CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-27-2015 09:53
From: Denise Connor
Subject: PIPPIN
When we did Pippin last year, we used baby ducks from a local farm. The trick is not to get them too early. I ordered ducklings and a student raised them...the thing got HUGE by April. Luckily, we had a family that loaned us some new ducklings for the show.
For the firebox, we build a large diamond-shaped front, stretched light material over the opening, and then used a strobe-light effect when the player demonstrated how it worked. We also had low-lying fog, which was cool.
I have a large Charlemagne's map (fabric banner) and Pippin: His Life and Times banner that I am looking to resell as well. Let me know if you are interested. Or, if you have any other Pippin questions. I could talk about that show all day. :) We absolutely loved it, and we ended up winning a regional award for best musical with it.
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Denise Connor
English/Drama Teacher
Montoursville PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-26-2015 14:17
From: Pam Ware
Subject: PIPPIN
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Pam Ware
Director of Theatre
Gainesville City Schools
Gainesville GA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-25-2015 07:37
From: David Valdes
Subject: PIPPIN
Anyone who has directed Pippin - what did you do for the Theo's duck? And, with fire regulations, how did you manage the torch that plays several times before the Grand Finale?
We just closed PIPPIN in December. We used a toy duck that the child playing Theo bought. It was perfect. For the torch we used a torch that runs on batteries with attached flame like fabric. I think we went online and finally found something that worked for us. Using a change in lighting to create the effect and suspense, it worked well. For "Morning Glow" we used battery operated candles that we got from WalMart. It really created the mood of the piece well.
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David Valdes
Director of Theatre
St. Paul's School
Concord NH
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