Fun House to Mount Original Play About Barack Obama's Presidency

By: Jul. 27, 2016
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Twenty-five young actors aged 6-17 will bring Jeff Swearingen's original allegorical satire, Old McDonald's Farm: A Children's Fable About the Obama Presidency to life August 19-27.

As part of Fun House Theatre and Film's groundbreaking political season, the young cast has taken a hard look at the last eight years of America's political ideology and under the direction of Swearingen, and through his writing, present a play about where we were when the candidate of change took office, what we would should have learned during his presidency and where we are headed as a country. Framed against the backdrop of a simple story of a farm and its animals and produced to resemble a child's grade school pageant, this cautionary fable about the dangers of polarization, fear based nationalism and rigid extremism is designed to work on many levels. With young Audience members in mind, the concepts are simplified and made easy for them to grasp while adult Audience members will be able to draw the deeper parallels between the elementary tale and what it and its characters represent historically.

When Old McDonald (George W. Bush) leaves The Farm in the charge of New McDonald (Barack Obama) the concept of change causes the animals to react in very different ways. From conservative cows to liberal sheep, a conspiracy theorist goat to a patriotic pig family, when this new era for The Farm is ushered in they must all find their place in it. Where does the hard working horse fit among a new wave of immigrant squirrels and mice? What happens when the Fox (Fox News) escalates the bumps in the road on the way to progress? What about the fear inducing wolf always at bay (the threat of terrorism), what will New McDonald do about that? Through the use of allegorical symbolism, political satire and even a bit of schtick, Jeff Swearingen weaves a story that strips away the identities of our political figures, removes our cultural stigmas and takes our modern problems out of the human realm to get to the core of what is behind our differences, what motivates our reactions and forms our opinions and what happens to us as a society when common ground becomes more and more illusive.

IF YOU GO:

Old McDonald's Farm: A Children's Fable About the Obama Presidency

Produced by Bren Rapp

Written and Directed by Jeff Swearingen

Animal Headpieces Designed by Gabrielle Grafrath

Show Dates and Times:

7:30 Friday, August 19

2:30 Saturday, August 20

7:30 Saturday, August 20

2:30 Sunday, August 21

7:30 Thursday, August 25

7:30 Friday, August 26

2:30 Saturday, August 27

7:30 Saturday, August 27

All tickets $8.00. Advanced ticket purchase recommended @ www.funhousetheatreandfilm.com.

All performances take place at The Black Box Theater and Plano Children's Theatre, 1301 Custer Road, Plano 75075.

Pictured: Blake Martin as New McDonald. Photo by Chuck Marcelo.



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