Massachusetts Premiere Of PIE Story Theatre Begins July 7 At WHAT

PIE Story Theatre debuted in Central Park in the summer of 1991. Now after a multitude of successful companies in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Los Angeles, it makes its Massachusetts premiere at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater and the Outer Cape beginning on July 7th at 3PM at the Larry Phillips Performance Pavilion. The program then tours the entire Outer Cape community with performances from Dennis to Provincetown at a variety of venues. All of the performances are free of charge. The current PIE Company is: Colby Bell, Alyssa Freeman, Terrence Rex Moos, Paige O'Connor and Aisling Sheahan.

P.I.E. (Projects In Education) Story Theatre is a collection of adapted fairy tales, fables, and original stories presented in the "story theatre" style of theater games and storytelling created by Viola Spolin and Paul Sills. Five stools, a few props and performers dressed in colorful t-shirts and overalls; using narration, mime and creative characters to present an exciting and fun world of stories. PIE was developed in the early 90's by Patrick Riviere who was involved in a similar program in college, as an arts-education assembly program that traveled to schools, community organizations, parks, libraries and other venues, introducing young children to theater and storytelling in a way that is educational, interactive and fun! Over the years the programming has reached thousands of children and families.

Some of the stories include: The Little Engine That Could, Casey at The Bat, The Richman and the Shoemaker, Ferdinand, and original stories written by our very own companies like The King of the Jungle, which deals with the important issue of bullying. The repertory of stories numbers over thirty and usually seven or eight stories are selected for each 45-minute program so audiences can see multiple performances and not see the same story set twice! The company also involves the children in warm ups, explains the use of mime in the stories and the importance of teamwork and stresses the importance of reading as an important tool for learning. In addition, there is always one story that the entire audience participates in. While great for younger children and students, adults seem to love it too!

Mary Shen Barnidge, critic at The Chicago Reader had this to say about PIE when it debuted at Theater Building in 1992, "One might expect a little 40-minute revue to flounder under the weight of these lofty goals, but the ensemble delivers uniformly tight, intelligent, well-rehearsed performances of original and adapted material that's devoid of the silliness and preachiness that plague so much kiddie drama." And Bob McGrath of Sesame Street who was honored by the PIE Company in 2004 when he received the Children and Art Award from All Seasons Theater Company, had this to say, "Considering what you have done, and what you intend to do, especially with the lives of children, I am very, very pleased. Certainly the arts are important in all of our lives but for children they're really vital."

For more information visit: http://www.what.org/pie-story-theatre/

Photo credit: Michael and Suz Karchmer

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