News

Sam and Pig are heading to sunny LA with the Culver City Public Theatre soon! Get more info and tickets here!

While Sam and Pig’s Australia tour has been postponed until 2021, Montana Repertory Theatre innovated a new way for kids to get some theatre!

They partnered with a variety of resources including an eSports team to create a digital version of the play where children could click to make choices and interact with the play.

Among other things, a unique Covid moment is that to allow for social distancing the play was shown at Ogren Baseball Stadium.

(Photo borrowed from MRT’s Instagram)

Thanks to some partnerships, they’ve been able to make it possible for any kid in Montana to see Zombie Thoughts. And we were also able to pass on the production during bug testing which allowed me to share the production with some 6th grade classes in Florida and another friends’ kids.

We are super excited that Zombie Thoughts will be presented and tour Sydney, Australia in fall of 2020 with Riverside’s National Theatre of Paramatta. They are touring the three person version and we are so excited by the fun publicity photos. There might be a few changes– apparently root beer floats are not a thing in Australia. Live and learn!

Sam and Pig are on tour in the Washington DC area this summer with our friends at Building Better People Productions, and today they were in Maryland. Lynne was nice enough to send us some photos. It appears the kids picked a cowboy hat (do we have “Old Town Road” to thank for this?) and Henry the Hedgehog. Everybody loves Henry. If you’re in the area, you can contact Lynne to have Sam and Pig come hang out with you!

I’m a little behind on updating with Sam and Pig news, but back in February I wrote an article for online journal Howlround arguing that TYA plays should regularly center youth writers. It also explains the process Ollie and I used to write the play.

There are lots of interesting, thoughtful TYA plays being written by adult playwrights out there. But I argue that the best work for youth de-centers adult voices (no matter how awesome) to let kids speak to kids.

We weren’t able to make it to the Chicago reading with Off-Key Anthem Collective, unfortunately, because I hear it was amazing. Still, our Aunt Karol went for us and got us this fabulous picture of Sam and Pig! That is indeed a superb looking sandwich.

The Utah production of Zombie Thoughts has been getting an enormous awesome amount of press. Here are some of the stories:

A KSL Feature story on the authors and the play.

Slug Magazine says “Zombie Thoughts earns the right to speak to children because its playful, earnest energy just radiates.”

The Utah Review calls the play a “smashing success.” 

The Utah Theatre Bloggers say “Comparing anxiety and other disorders and disabilities to the special abilities of an avatar was genius.”

The local newspaper, The Standard-Examiner, did a wonderful story previewing the show.

And The Utah Review did an extensive, awesome preview article. 

And Ollie and I wrote some essays about the play that were included in The Catalyst. 

The Plan-B Tour of Zombie Thoughts hid the road on Monday going to 50 elementary schools! Here’s one of our first audiences. We hear tell of players repeatedly killing poor Sam and Pig (while giggling), talking about their own fears, and advising you if you have anxiety to get yourself a rubber chicken.