WHERE YOU CAN LEARN ALL ABOUT SANTA PIG'S HUMBLE
BEGINNINGS YOU'LL FIND HIS WHOLE HISTORY
HERE
~ SANTA PIG'S HUMBLE BEGINNINGS ~ You've heard the riddle: "Which
came first - the chicken or the egg?" Well, I
can't answer that one, but I will tell you that
in the case of THE LEGEND OF SANTA PIG the
egg came first. A two and a half inch tall egg
to be precise.
TADA!!! my pig in a red santa hat was born... and how did he become Santa Pig??? I Want To Learn More!
~ ~ Shortly after I had created the "pig in the red santa hat," I decided to christen him Santa Pig. Then one night, when it was slow at work, an idea popped into my head. I started playing around with the old "Twas The Night Before Christmas" by C. Clement Moore... T'was the night before Christmas, And all through the sty, Not a creature was stirring, Not even a fly...Before I knew it I had come to the end of my own Frumpled version of the classic poem. Now I didn't say it was Pulitzer Award winning material, but - hey! - we're talking about a pig in a red hat here... ANYHOW... I published it as a (VERY) small book which I sold along with my Santa Pig at the craft fair... Oh, by-the-way, I called my frumpled version of the poem "THE LEGEND OF SANTA PIG." I Want To Learn More! ~ SANTA PIG'S LEGEND BECOMES A CHRISTMAS CARD ~ The year after my little wooden pig and his Legend made their debut at the local craft fair, I decided to send a copy of the verse out as my annual 'I Made It Myself' christmas greeting. Copies went out to family, friends, people I had worked with in various theatre groups over the years and my publishers. ~ In a Christmas card that I got back from one of my theatre friends, he said that he thought "The Legend Of Santa Pig" was one of the best things I'd ever done - he loved it! It got me to thinking... I gave my publishers a call to see what they would think about a 'Legend Of Santa Pig' christmas play - - - or maybe a musical???
~ ~ When I pitched the 'Santa Pig' idea to my publishers, they said it was funny that I should call at just that time with just that sort of idea. It happened that they had just been thinking about having someone develope a play with an 'animals go to town' theme. They had even mentioned my name as a possible person to try writing such a play. Needless to say, they encouraged me to see what I could come up with. ~ Well as the story evolved, it became one about two young children who lived on a farm. They fall asleep on Christmas Eve and dream about their barnyard animals having a holiday party. The poem of "The Legend Of Santa Pig" is read to the children by Mrs.Cow (and acted out by the other farm animals) during the course of the festivities. The ideas for the various characters and plot flowed so easily that the play practically wrote itself. ~ I'm not sure exactly when the idea came to add the songs, but it naturally flowed from the Christmas party theme. Once I had decided to incorporate music, well it seemed that the songs fell right into place. ~ I decided to use the melodies from well known traditional songs and add my own original lyrics. This would make the show a musical that was accessable to a lot of groups who might normally avoid that type of show just because of the obvious demands. The Legend Of Santa Pig is a musical that can be easily produced with casts of almost any age. ~
As with all of my other Children's Theatre
scripts, I tried to combine various types of
humor. In this way the show can play on several
different levels at the same time, entertaining
parents and children alike. There's the broad
slapstick stuff for the kids and the more subtle
humor (and perhaps less than subtle puns)
for the adults. It's always been my belief that
this type of blending makes the best Children's
Theatre - ~ ABOUT THE PLAY: THE LEGEND OF SANTA PIG THE NEW
MUSICAL CHRISTMAS FANTASYby 26 Roles - 2M/8F - Others
Flexible ~ The show begins with an introduction by Fido, the 'P.C.' [that's Pet of Ceremonies], who "warms up" the audience. As the story unfolds, young Timmy and Beth MacDonald fall asleep with visions of sugar plums and farm animals sing and dancing in their heads. Combining songs that are easy to learn [all of the melodies are drawn from traditional tunes]; Dialogue that amuses both children and adults; A frantic chase [Will Cook catch Mr. Turkey in time for Christmas dinner - and do we really want her to?]; An audience sing-a-long & Extenside technical notes, The Legend Of Santa Pig is both easy and fun to produce! ~ A review
from The Pig Sty Sentinal sums it all
up: ~ THE REVIEWS: *************** "SANTA PIG" IS A SOLID HIT! Read What The Theatre Critics From All The Major Newspaper Had To Say About THE LEGEND OF SANTA PIG \\\\\///// "EGG-CELLENT!!!" }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ "BETTER THAN
A TRUCKLOAD OF TIN CANS" }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ "A
GALLOPING GOOD TIME" }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ "THE SONGS
ARE A MOOOOO-SICAL DELIGHT }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ "EWE'LL LOVE IT!" The Sheep Shank Shopper }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ "MORE FUN
THAN A HEN-HOUSE RAID!" }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ "FIVE
GOBBLES" }}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{ and maybe The Doggie Daily said it best: "IF YOU MISS SANTA
PIG, ~ DEFINITION: FRUMPLED: ~ A term that was coined when I wrote my first play, FRUMPLED FAIRY TALES, in 1973. Since that time I have found definitions for various forms of the word in assorted dictionaries, but they all seem to suggest something unattractive and/or undesirable. ~ My use of the term is meant to indicate a (hopefully) comical reshaping and retelling of some classic story, tale or legend. |
