TEMPE – Who doesn’t want a puppy for the holidays? This year, families across The Valley can celebrate the season with six lovable pups as P.D. Eastman’s book Go, Dog. Go! leaps from the page to the stage at Tempe Center for the Arts. Childsplay Theatre brings this musical adaptation to Tempe Center for the Arts weekends Nov. 25 through Dec. 23, 2017.
“We want to instill wonder and imagination to the children as they’re watching the show, and we tried to implement as many details of the book as we could,” said Director Andrés Alcala. “Here they are using their imaginations in a different way than reading the book over and over, or re-enacting it in their bedroom.”
Tickets start at $12 and are on sale now at www.childsplayaz.org or at the Tempe Center for the Arts Box Office (480) 350-2822 (ext. 2). The play is recommended for ages 3 and up. Tempe Center for the Arts is located at 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe, Ariz. 85281.
The story of Go, Dog. Go!, which only uses 75 different words to make up the 515 total word count, is transformed with musical numbers, audience participation and quite a bit of physical comedy.
“My approach is using physical comedy in a clowning way, to get a lot of the story across in places where we don’t have words,” Alcala says. “The physical comedy in the show is so universal that grandmas, grandpas, daughters, mothers, even teens are going to laugh at the absurdity.”
Go, Dog. Go! features Jon Gentry as MC Dog, Caitlin Dhuse as Yellow Dog, Brynn Lewallen as Green Dog, Jennie Rhiner as Hattie, Adam Sowards as Blue Dog and Michael Thompson as Red Dog.
Director: Andrés Alcalá
Music Director/Sound Design: Rob Witmer
Assistant Music Director/Assistant Sound Design: Tommy Strawser
Choreographer: Caroline Wagner
Scenic Design: Aaron Jackson
Costume Design: Kish Finnegan
Lighting Design: Cody Soper
Stage Manager: Courtney Rasor
Assistant Stage Manager: Jonesia Smith-Williams
Go, Dog. Go! was written by Allison Gregory and Steven Dietz, based on the book by P.D. Eastman, Music by Michael Koerner.
The 1 p.m. performance on Saturday, November 25 is a special $12 Storybook Preview performance, sponsored by The Steele Foundation. Each family that attends this General Admission preview performance will receive a free book. The American Sign Language (ASL) performance is Sunday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m.
For interviews or media appearances, please contact Samantha Johnstone at (480) 921-5703 or [email protected]. High resolution images are available for download from Childsplay’s website at www.childsplayaz.org/press.
About Childsplay:
Childsplay, Inc. is a nonprofit theatre company of professional, adult artists who perform for and teach young audiences and their families. The mission of Childsplay is “to create theatre so strikingly original in form, content or both, that it instills in young people an enduring awe, love and respect for the medium, thus preserving imagination and wonder, the hallmarks of childhood which are keys to the future.” For more information, visit www.childsplayaz.org.
