Aubrey Plaza and ‘12 Angry Pigs’ at the Actors Co-op
Aubrey Plaza (center) with Pete Postiglione and Val McAdoo at the Actors Co-op in Swarthmore. Photo: Jordan Postiglione
The Actors Co-op has only been open since October, but already they’ve had their first celebrity visit.
Aubrey Plaza, who is probably best known for her role as April Ludgate in the TV show “Parks and Recreation,” stopped by to talk with members and guests in a hastily organized gathering on a Sunday afternoon in late December. The Actors Co-op offers classes in film and television acting for adults and children.
Casually dressed in an oversized sweater and sneakers, Plaza, who is from Wilmington, Delaware, spent close to three hours in the second-floor suite at 100 Park Ave. She talked about her career, actors she has worked with (like Robert De Niro), and the film and television industry in general.
Actors Co-op co-owner Val McAdoo was thrilled by Plaza’s generosity and by her positive response to the afternoon. Plaza took questions on everything from how she got her start as an actor to her role as the voice of Grumpy Cat in “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever.” Afterwards, she posed for selfies and offered the ultimate compliment: “I’m definitely coming back.” There are tentative plans for Plaza to teach a workshop at the Actors Co-op in the future.
Movie Premiere
The Actors Co-op’s other big event of the season was its January 5 premiere of the film “12 Angry Pigs” at waR3house3 in Swarthmore. Adapted from a stage play by Wade Bradford, this spoof of the classic “12 Angry Men” featured a cast of 18 kids, age 7-16, from Swarthmore, Wallingford, Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the area. The movie was made entirely in three Saturdays and was filmed by a professional camera crew.
“We wrote some parts in,” said Actors Co-op co-owner Pete Postiglione. “We wrote extra dialogue. We wrote some jokes in. And we turned it into a movie.”
“I’ve never seen kids cooperate like this and give it their all,” McAdoo added.
The premiere had a pomp and glitz not often seen in Swarthmore. The cast walked down a red carpet to a waiting limousine, which circled the town center several times, “music blaring, lights going,” as Postiglione described it.
The cast was then delivered to waR3house3 for the screening, where their parents and other fans were waiting to cheer them.
