Program for – Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The Musical!

Rejection is, for better or for worse, a universal experience. Not getting the job after an interview; not getting the grade you hoped for on an assignment you worked hard on; not getting invited to an outing or event… and everything in between. And sometimes, these Nos come with little warning, and little meaning. Sometimes, these Nos leave us feeling like we are lacking, not knowing where to go next. With Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, based on Mo Willems’ 2003 picture book of the same name, I hope we can all revisit these Nos and rejections that we all experience, and look to ways to overcome them by celebrating our differences, diversities, and skills.  
I often come back to the idea that there is no such thing as common knowledge, or at least, not in the way that the phrase is often used. We are all approaching the world from different backgrounds, different upbringings, and different learnings. Something that might feel obvious to one person will have never been encountered by another. While one person may have spent time learning one skill, another will have used that same time to try something completely different. Everyone communicates in different styles and means, and not everyone will find themselves driving the bus.
How we get closer to a truer sense of “common knowledge” then, is by sharing our experiences, and even more important, listening to one another. Listening to each other begets learning, reframing, and growth. It is through embracing the needs and experiences of others that we can grow our communities, and build towards something better. This is especially within our current turbulent world where resources and connections can feel slim and fraught and tensions can feel high and worrisome. But just as our Bus Driver in the show slows down and listens to the Pigeon, reframing her “no” into a “no, but here’s how you can help,” we can all slow down and listen to each other and see that, while skillsets and backgrounds may be varied, we can all be a part of working towards a stronger community and a stronger tomorrow. 
In our musical, we see this in the Pigeon’s soaring warning of the bus’s late arrival combined with the Bus Driver’s know-how to fix the engine (a diversity of tactics if you will). We see facsimiles of craft supplies, larger than life on our stage, small things working together to make something bigger. In our own communities, this might be a sharing of resources, community alerts, getting to know your neighbors, and getting to know those with different communication styles than your own. It is all part and parcel of strengthening and celebrating the communities that surround and support us every day.

For our younger audiences and their adults, I invite the following questions for the ride or walk home: How does it feel when you are told “no,” or “because I said so?” How can we tell someone “no” in a different way? What are some other things you can say to each other (or the Pigeon) instead, to fill in: “no, but…_____”.
For everyone, I invite you to also look through the program bios and discover all of the hands that went into making Pigeon at OFT a reality. A show cannot be done by just one person, nor can it be produced digitally. It truly takes a community, and I thank you too, reader and audience, for being a part of that community.

– Nathan Groome