Company Carolina's production of "Pippin" provides a comforting parallel to students who are faced with the question of what to do with their lives after college.
Despite indulging in moments of fantasy, Betsy Scarisbrick, director and former writer for The Daily Tar Heel, said she chose the musical because it's real to life.
"In the show, Pippin has just graduated from college, and he's in a place where he's asking where can I find my place and where can I find my fulfillment," Scarisbrick said. "The whole show is about his journey trying out different things.”
Scarisbrick said she believed that the character of Pippin would resonate strongly with students.
“The whole thing about Pippin is that he could be any single person in the audience," Scarisbrick said. "That’s what makes it so relatable. People can find pieces of themselves in aspects of their lives in Pippin. Not only would actors get something from it, but the audiences will, also.”
Although there is a 2013 adaptation of "Pippin" that heavily featured circus-like elements including acrobatics and stunts, Scarisbrick felt as a student production that they could more closely emulate the original from the 1970s.
“We tried to take more from the entertainment aspect of the play," Scarisbrick said. "We did a lot with choreography, trying to play up the aspects that were feasible for us.”
Despite the limitations, they found the play to their advantage as it was easily adaptable, allowing them to create a similar experience while still leaning heavily on the original choreography by Bob Fosse.
“Because 'Pippin' is more of an abstract show, you can kind of take it in the direction that you wanted," Scarisbrick said. "It makes it a lot easier for student theater to adapt and make it more minimal and focus more on characterization and the artistic aspect of it, like colors and costumes.”
