Katie Nowak | Actor & Stage Manager
The Old Man and The Old Moon
Perry/Ensemble
by PigPen Theatre Co. | dir. Emily Ritger | Spring 2023
Content Warning: contains references to death and violence
Reflection
During the Spring 2023 Semester at Loyola University Chicago, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a cast member in Loyola’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts production of The Old Man and the Old Moon. This is a story about finding oneself in old age and chronicles the life of the man who fills the moon with light after his wife goes missing. This show was originally produced by PigPen Theatre Co., a company that sprung out of college experience at Carnegie Mellon University in Philadelphia. The production was well organized, provided me with new performance skills, and was a step outside of my comfort zone as an artist.
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From a social justice point of view, the utmost attention was paid to making sure that everyone in the room felt welcome and provided for. We spent much of our beginning rehearsal time putting together regulations surrounding cast treatment, and as a result, we had an equitable system to fall back on should a conflict arise. This connected me to the mission of caring for the whole person not just by caring for myself, but being held accountable to care for others as well. We created a little family within our rehearsal room because respect was expected from day one. I was appreciative of the time and energy given to making sure that The Old Man and the Old Moon was a justice-based space.
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From a performance aspect, this production allowed me to get outside of my comfort zone. The character I played, Perry, was meant to be a once successful sea captain who had gotten swallowed by a tuna fish and lived in its belly for decades. As a result, this man was relatively not well in the head. I got to yell and jump around on boxes in a strange way that I have never really let my body do before, as most roles I play tend to be tamer than this. I never sweated so much when just doing a two-hander scene.
On top of this, I also tapped into a new style of vocal performance that I had not trained in before. The world of The Old Man and the Old Moon is based on folk music, so all of our vocal styles needed to reflect this. We embodied a reckless, folk-style band that felt compelled to sing these songs. Most of the musical numbers were not necessarily in the context of the play, and this provided added challenges. I had to search for motivation from places that the lyrics did not provide, but in the end, I think I found a good medium between emoting to the lyrics and understanding they are separate from the show.
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In a civic sense, this show inspired me to pursue more community-based work. The things that came out of the rehearsal room when we all worked as a team to create beautiful on-stage art. The show would not have been as magical as it was had it not been for the constant collaboration of every single ensemble member on the Newhart Stage. No other production of The Old Man and the Old Moon will ever look like ours, because this group of people will never have the opportunity to create it from scratch again.
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In conclusion, my experience of The Old Man and the Old Moon was highly positive, as it allowed me to work in a community-based space where I was pushed outside of my comfort zone every single day. The family built in this production is not something I will soon forget, and it is also something I will not see an exact replica of again in my career. This production pushed me to be a better artist in every aspect.