"Not the same old, same old.” That’s how Endless Mountain Music Festival conductor Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser describes the upcoming stage production of Peter VS. the Wolf, a theatrical-concert comedy remake of the well-loved children’s classic symphony, Peter and the Wolf, coming to Williamson High School in Tioga, Pennsylvania, on August 2 as part of the 2018 Endless Mountain Music Festival concert series (visit www.endlessmountain.net for ticket information).

Using the original 1936 score by Sergei Prokofiev, the sorta-kinda sequel by writer/former Boston Pops bass player Justin Locke, with actors and instruments, takes the audience from the symphony’s original forest glade setting into a modern courtroom where the notorious duck-eating wolf, who has at this point escaped from jail, finally gets a chance to tell his side of the story. The new work brings in a (rather dizzy) judge, a district attorney, and witnesses for the prosecution and defense in a funny, clever, and engaging musical show that reviews and reexamines the original story, tells a new story, and, like the original, provides a classical music education of sorts as each instrument of the orchestra is demonstrated and explained during the production.

Peter VS. the Wolf has been performed across the United States, Europe, Australia, and South America to rave reviews, garnering comments like, “absolutely hilarious,” “...a great time,” and “...the liveliest introduction to orchestral instruments I’ve ever heard.” This Northern Tier rendition is the result of a collaboration between the Endless Mountain Music Festival and Hamilton-Gibson Productions, Wellsboro’s own local performing arts organization. EMMF orchestra members take on the music, and HG players take on the acting under the guidance of Thomas Putnam, Hamilton-Gibson Productions artistic director. Both Putnam and Gunzenhauser are excited and enthusiastic about the opportunity to work together, especially on such a unique and imaginative project.

With the assembled talents and energies of both organizations, the production promises to be an entertainment triumph—a first-rate partnership delivering, as Putnam says, a “madcap, crazy, corny, clever, fun creation.”