02/19/2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Show Contact: Frank Farrell | [email protected] | 773-307-4586
Festival Contact: Emily Owens PR | [email protected] | 917.208.6385
Frank Farrell Productions presents
WALT KELLY’S SONGS OF THE POGO
Written by Walt Kelly and Norman Monath
Adapted by Frank Farrell and Ben Masterton
Directed by Frank Farrell
Presented as part of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival
April 3-21 at the Wild Project in NYC.
Frank Farrell Productions will present Walt Kelly’s Songs of the Pogo written by Walt Kelly and Norman Monath and directed by Frank Farrell. The production will be presented as part of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York at The Wild Project (195 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10009), with performances on
Wednesday, April 10th at 6:00pm, Saturday, April 13th at 9:50pm, Thursday, April 18th at 7:40pm and on Sunday, April 21st at 1:30pm. Tickets are $25 and available for advance purchase at www.frigid.nyc. The performance will run approximately 55
minutes.
WALT KELLY'S SONGS OF THE POGO recreates the hysterical, imaginative and wonderful world of cartoonist Walt Kelly. In this musical r***e, suitable for the whole family, Kelly’s writings, songs and comic strip stories are mixed with his personal memoirs. WALT KELLY'S SONGS OF THE POGO is mostly based on Kelly’s 1956
book Songs of the Pogo and includes the popular tunes “Go Go Pogo” and “Deck Us All with Boston Charlie.” A company of six actors, tell stories and sing songs found in the songbook in this rip roaring and often gentle musical r***e.
"It's golly, I go goo goo, goin' go go Pogo!"
Producers and co-adaptors Frank Farrell and Ben Masterton created the currently running eight-episode podcast Songs of the Pogo https://sites.libsyn.com/451542. They both appeared in a live stage production of Songs of the Pogo at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater back in 1995.
“Ben and I look forward to seeing how Walt Kelly’s world of words sit with today’s audiences,” says Farrell. “The show has a timeless appeal, adorable songs, entertaining storytelling, some funny jokes with a fractured fairy tale sort of vibe mixed in,” he added.
“We want our audience to sit back, relax and be entertained!” said Ben Masterton.
When performed at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater in 1995 the press had this to say:
“Songs of the Pogo is a sweet introduction to the pixilated wit and wisdom of the late Walt Kelly, Pogo’s creator, and, as performed by its genial cast, it’s a beguiling mixture of gently spoofing autobiography, sophisticated small-town whimsy and low-key good humor.” Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune
“What a keen ear Kelly had for the American vernacular and what a Joycean delight he took in playfully twisting the language until the sense and nonsense were one. At a time of rising illiteracy, when language is reduced to mere text or, worse yet, ‘verbiage,’ Walt
Kelly’s intensely literate, word-drunk wit is a rare delight.”
Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader
The cast for this 2024 Actors’ Equity Association approved showcase production includes actors Danny Crawford*, Lee DeCecco, Aisha De Haas*, and Haley Karlich.
*Denotes actor are members of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.
WALT KELLY (1913 – 1973) (Words, Lyrics and Music) was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip Pogo. The title character's most famous quote: "We have met the enemy and he is us!" Kelly began his animation career in 1936
at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo. In 1941, he transferred to Dell Comics, where he created Pogo, which eventually became his platform for political and philosophical humor. The Pogo comic strip started in 1948 and
ran in daily newspapers till 1975.
NORMAN MONATH (1920 – 2011) (Music Composer) was a composer, known for The Muppet Show (1976) and The Pogo Special Birthday Special (1969). He served during World War II in the U.S. Army, and, at the request of his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Harry J. Collins, wrote the song, "There's a Rainbow in the Army," which became the official song of the Rainbow Division. As a composer, he collaborated with Hal David, Walt Kelly, Sammy Cahn and others, wrote songs for motion pictures, including "Second Ending" from Blackboard Jungle, and "Silent Voices" from Valley of the Dolls, and had his compositions recorded by many popular singers, such as Dionne Warwick, Jerry Vale, Burl Ives, Ethel Waters, and Burns and Allen.
FRANK FARRELL (Director, Adaptor and Producer) has been a Pogo devotee since he was a youngster and had a newspaper route. Frank Farrell has appeared as an actor in theaters all over the U. S. of A. and has formed seven theatre companies in Chicago, Michigan, New Jersey and New York City. He is an actor but also an independent filmmaker, director and producer. While in Chicago he directed and produced plays for the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Temporary Theatre, Shakespeare’s Herd, Steppenwolf Theater, Raven Theatre, Equity Library Theater Chicago, the North Lakeside Players, Citadel Theatre and Theatre-Hikes. His Zoom film In the Garden of Live Flowers recently won Best Biopic at the Green Academy Awards Film Festival.
BEN MASTERTON (Musical Director, Adaptor and Producer) has composed and arranged music for dozens of Shakespeare productions in Chicago with the Shakespeare Festival of Chicago, Free Shakespeare, and Body Politic, including Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Two Gentlemen of
Verona, Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice and All's Well That Ends Well. Other favorite productions include The Lennon Play, Dagon, The Lorenzaccio Story, A Dorothy Parker R***e, Dear Brutus, The Songs of the Pogo Podcast (with Frank Farrell), The Imaginary Invalid, The Successful Life of 3, The Snow Queen, The Crucible and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Raven Theater), Three Sisters (Commons Theater), and The Enchanted (Chicago Waldorf School). Ben has written over a hundred songs and currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.
DANNY CRAWFORD (Walt Kelly) His previous touring and regional theatre credits include Luke in The Lighting Thief, Brom Bones in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Angelo in Measure for Measure and Laertes in Hamlet to name a few. Film/TV credits include “Redrum,” “Scorned,” “The Perfect Murder,” and “Playbook 360” amongst
others. www.DannyCrawford.com
LEE DECECCO (Scottie) is a New Jersey based actor from the Boston area. They are very excited to be participating in this production of Walt Kelly’s Songs of the Pogo. Lee graduated with a BFA in Acting from Montclair State University and has been involved in productions in the New Jersey area. Lee has appeared in the online improv show Zlurp Zlorp as multiple characters. Most recently, they appeared as Lunch in Tin Cat Shoes at Nutley Little Theatre and appeared as many Shakespearean characters in Shakespeare’s Ladies at Tea and Shakespeare’s Deaths with the First Flight Theatre
Company as part of last summer’s Little Shakespeare Festival in NYC.
AISHA DE HAAS (Alice) Graduating from Columbia College Chicago, Aisha’s professional career began with Little Shop of Horrors at the Royal George Theater, Four Saints In Three Acts with Chicago Opera Theater and several productions at The Goodman Theater. She returned to New York, where she was cast in her first Broadway
show, Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk with Savion Glover. This was followed by the Tony Award Winning productions of RENT and Caroline, Or Change. Off-Broadway, Ms.de Haas was in Nora Ephron's Love, Loss and What I Wore, Stephen Sondheim's Road Show and the world premiere of SUFFS at The Public Theater. She toured North America as Medda Larkin in the 1st National Tour of Disney’s Newsies and is featured in the movie released in 2017. Television: Madam Secretary, Shades of Blue, Blue Bloods, Law & Order and The Today Show. Film: Across The Universe, RENT, The
Secret Lives Of Dentists and Marci X. Aisha has a Bistro Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist and has enjoyed several appearances with symphonies and music festivals around the country.
HALEY KARLICH (Cleo) Most recently appeared in First Flight Theatre Company’s reading in NYC of Maxwell Anderson’s play Saturday’s Children and a double bill Shakespeare’s Ladies at Tea and Shakespeare’s Deaths with the Little Shakespeare Festival in NYC. She is an actor and production assistant of live theatre and film; recent credits include Insidious 5, Nutley Little Theatre’s Tin Cat Shoes, Tiny Viking Production’s Ghost Light, Fleischmann & Campanella’s The Visitation Opera, and other projects. With a BA in Theatre Studies & Musical Theatre, she’s also an experienced
director, vocalist, combat and voiceover artist; appearing throughout the Radio Repertory Company of America’s Anne Manx audio series, as well as dramas produced by Cape Swoosh Productions. Haley’s currently working on another major independent film, by the writer of Green Book.
Frank Farrell Productions LLC produced a Zoom film in 2021 of Songs of the Pogo which was submitted to film festivals all over the globe winning several awards and prizes. That was followed by an eight-episode Songs of the Pogo Podcast which is currently available for listening wherever podcasts can be found or at
www.thesongsofthepogo.com. Two other Zoom films produced and submitted to Film Festivals: the play Salvador by Rick Young wining 6 awards and several prizes, and The Leaves Were Falling winning 2 awards and several prizes. Zoom films produced by FFP as benefits were Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ and the play Whisper Into My Good Ear benefiting Tacoma Older LBGT in WA. The company also shows and sells artwork by Rick Young (1954 – 2021) www.rickyoungart.com. Frank is the founder and current artistic director of the not-forprofit
First Flight Theatre Company.
New York City Fringe Festival is an open lottery-based theatre festival presented by FRIGID New York, which gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of
the Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artists whose work is being presented. www.frigid.nyc
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