Pine Island Playhouse to present ‘The BFG’

By PAULETTE LeBLANC pleblanc@breezenewspapers com

Pine Island Playhouse has been workin hard on its upcoming production of “Th BFG (the Big Friendly Giant),” based on the book written by Roald Dahl

According to Playhouse founder and director Nichole Pichon, the production includes roughly 30 cast members, nine of w h o m a r e s t u d e n t s f r o m P i n e I s l a n d Elementary School, including the lead, Demi Khaleel, who plays Sophie.

Playhouse co-founder, actor and IT specialist Paul Pichon has been cast as the Big Friendly Giant, she said The show, which has been in rehearsal for approximately seven weeks, promises to be a good family friendly show, with a lot of laughs.

Pichon is excited to bring yet another great book to life on stage

“It’s a little girl’s birthday, her name is Sophie and her favorite book is ‘The BFG,’ so she convinces everybody at her party to act out the whole story,” Pichon said

The story, which is about an orphan, she explained, becomes more and more real as he show unfolds, with a 15-foot giant takng the stage during the second act It’s a eally fun show, she said, complete with fun ghting and props

“It’s definitely an interesting story Roald

Dahl is always interesting anyway he wrote, ‘The Witches,’ ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ ‘BFG’ lots of popular, strange stories,” Pichon said

She describes work on the production of this show as a really fun process, where the cast, other than (Paul) Pichon and Khaleel, haven’t had much rehearsal time, due to the large number of those cast in the show

“The kids all have a bunch of fun when they come to rehearsal They love to play with each other on the playground after rehearsal It’s a fun little group all my parents have been helping with building the props for it, so it’s been a really close-knit cast for it being so large which is always surprising,” Pichon said

“As always, Pine Island Playhouse is free to the public

See ‘THE BFG,’ page 11