SCR/Party Play with Ann Conway

Actor Brad Fleischer, Director Martin Benson, Playwright Greg Kotis

Paul and Jillian Glowienke, actor JD Cullum, Nancy and Kim Kelley, Gabrielle and Tom Windsor

John and Sue Murphy and actor Blake Lindsley

PARTY KEEPS FIRST NIGHTERS 'DOWN ON THE PIG FARM'
By Ann Conway

Never mind stately floral bouquets and silky cloth overlays.

South Coast Repertory’s reception following the Jan. 12 opening of playwright Greg Kotis' hilarious romp, Pig Farm, featured vases filled with sprays of untrimmed carrots and tables topped with cotton cloths cinched with rope.

How else you gonna keep SCR First Nighters down on the farm?

Up for grazing at the hay-filled bash staged in the slick lobby of the Deloitte building: ham and brie perched atop honey biscuits, crispy pigs in a blanket, juicy fried chicken, country mashed potatoes, cornbread with honey butter and neck-kerchief red candy apples—all from Mark's Catering.

There was even a real piggy—Carnita, by name—on hand to mingle with guests.

"I don't know if I'll ever eat bacon again," mused Olivia Johnson after seeing the farcical play on the Julianne Argyros Stage that had the taped sounds of snorting pigs setting the porcine mood.

For Kotis, 41, who mingled with a gleeful throng that included the play's actors—JD Cullum, Steve Rankin, Blake Lindsley and Brad Fleischer—the party was the culmination of a thrilling performance. "I really liked the way director Martin Benson gave the actors the freedom to goof off," observed Kotis, who won two Tony Awards in 2002 for Urinetown, a musical he co-wrote. "It's a real credit to Benson and the actors to employ that much freedom."

What inspired Kotis, a former Chicago Improv comedian, to pen a lusty play about farmers struggling to hold on to a herd of 15,000 slippery pigs—with the help of a hired hand, fresh out of juvenile hall—as an officer with the Environmental Protection Agency arrives to inspect the operation? "Newspaper accounts in 1999 of Hurricane Floyd, when it ripped up the coast of North Carolina, flooded pig farms and killed about 110,000 pigs. I read about that from my apartment in Brooklyn and it really made an impression on me," Kotis said.

For Benson, co-director with David Emmes of SCR, the opportunity to direct Pig Farm resulted in a trough of fun. "We laughed, we fell down, we knocked things over and had a wonderful time," he said. And yes, Benson encouraged freedom of interpretation. "I invited the actors to come up with any kind of idea," he said. "And we kicked out all of the rules and went wild!"

Among the First Nighters and guests down on the farm:
Larry and Dee Higby, Betty and S.L. Huang, Bob and Mimi Holcombe, Virginia and Robert Close, Nola Schneer, and Bob and Betty Plumleigh.

Phil and Philomena Mark, Linda and Tod White	Catering by Marks
Actor Steve Rankin and Laurie Smits Staude	Cherylrene Rendes, Director of Operations & Education, and pot bellied pig Carnita from Wonders of Wildlife and Olivia Johnson
Playwright Greg Kotis, Philomena Mark	John and Sue Murphy, actor Blake Lindsley, Sally Anderson and Tom Rogers
Actor JD Cullum; Nancy and Kim Kelley	Kim and Nancy Kelley, actor JD Cullum