Playwright Colby Day and director Daniel Johnsen of Pipeline Theatre Company answer our Fringe Asked Questions on "Felix & The Diligence" which can be seen at The Connelly Theatre, New York City from September 23 to October 8. Ticket info and performance times are available here.

BTF: Will you tell us about your show? 

CD: Felix & The Diligence follows the story of a young, bookish dreamer as he gets his first taste of adventure–and adulthood–on board an old fishing vessel. Alongside a cruel captain, superstitious sailors, and another young boy who looks suspiciously just like him, watch young Felix fall in love with mermaids, chat with sea monsters, and fight Nazi spies during the greatest play about fishermen in the 1940’s you’ll ever see. Felix tells the very funny story of how difficult it is to grow up without losing your sense of wonder and joy in the world around you.

BTF: How and when did it come about?

DJ: We wanted to do a show that took place in an impossible setting, so we came up with a boat. It then became an old wooden fishing vessel that was onstage the whole time. One of the first characters Colby came up with was a depressed sea monster, and we kind of went from there. Names are very important to us, so when we decided to name the title character Felix, which informed him immensely. We also shamelessly took plot devices from Twelfth Night, and every adventure story we were ever told from Crusoe to Melville. We used standard conventions and myths when they were helpful, and made up our own when they weren’t.

BTF: What's your story?

DJ: Our company actually began as a class project and has since grown into a full-blown business. We were tasked by the Atlantic Acting School (where most of us trained through NYU) to build a company from the ground up, and it was the spark that we needed to come together and create our own work. Felix started during a trip to the laundromat, on a stranger’s stoop, and was filled in over the course of two years through many lunches, workshops, and now this rehearsal process. It is still changing, as we are shaping these characters with our immensely talented actors and designers.

BTF: Just how bare bones is your show?

DJ: "Bare bones" is what we do. If we can put an old wooden ship onstage for .00025% of what a Broadway show costs, and solicit people’s imaginations to fill in the rest, then we have done our job. This play encourages the audience to use　their imagination—just like when reading a story—and　explore the play with us. BUT we do want a splash zone, and that costs money–so hopefully not too bare bones.

BTF: Do you have any influences?

CD: Our influences are ones you could find on most high school MySpace accounts: Shakespeare, David Wain, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Tennessee Williams, Walt Disney, Herman Melville, Homer, The Lonely Island, Louis C.K., and, perhaps most importantly, Nicolas Cage’s later, crazier work.

BTF: If you were meeting your prospective in-laws for the first time, how would you describe the work you do? 

CD: We put on epic, fantastical, and hopefully funny plays that say a little something about how we view life. We think stories need to be told sincerely whether they’re funny or sad, and should always be a little bit of both. Life is incredibly fun, but we still wish we were kids again, so we try to avoid any of the cynicism that can suck the joy and wonder out of things for "grown-ups."

BTF: What shouldn’t an audience expect from you?

DJ: Comedy without deep, true emotion. Every time something got sadder in this play, we got excited because it got funnier, and vice versa. It should feel like an R-rated comedy that also appeals to your Walt Disney-loving inner child.

BTF: So why do you do it?

DJ: We do it because it is what we want to see onstage. We want to see a comedy with strong acting that is still moving, and has fantastical characters, events, and the unexpected. We like the spectacle that theater can be—and we love to throw buckets of water all over the stage.

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