Arts & Entertainment

Author Discusses Letting Go in 'A Silent Night for Peef'

Tom Hegg's beloved story comes to Stages on Friday.

Author Tom Hegg has had a special place in his heart for A Silent Night for Peef ever since he wrote it in 1998.

The book tells the story of a stuffed bear that Santa made himself and sent to a lonely child. Santa later returns to check on his beloved bear, only to find him torn and dirty. Although Santa wants to help Peef become like new, the bear explains he’s well worn from love.

Starting Friday, Hegg’s beloved children’s book will be coming to a new medium. His son, Adam Hegg, adapted it into a musical running Nov. 18 through Dec. 26 at

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Hegg—who lives in Eden Prairie with his wife, Peggy—has taught drama at the for 30 years, a drama program his playwright son attended.

The author sat down with Hopkins Patch on Wednesday to discuss his personal connection to the story and how he feels about seeing it play out on the stage.

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(Click here to see show times for A Silent Night for Peef and to buy tickets.)

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Hopkins Patch: I had read that this is one of your favorite books that you’ve worked on. Why is that? What makes you enjoy it so much?

Tom Hegg: A Silent Night for Peef is the book I was writing at the time that my son was getting ready to go off to college. I guess I’d have to say that Peef is my son, Adam, in many ways, and I think of myself as the Santa Claus in the story. He’s really going. He’s really on his way. And Santa Claus worries, and he wants to intervene, and he want to help things out, and he wants to cut corners, and he wants to do everything that he possibly can in order to smooth the way for his son while knowing deep in his heart of hearts that that’s not the right thing to be doing—and that he’s got to let go. My wife, Peggy, and I used to love the television show Judging Amy, and there was one episode in particular got us: when Amy’s brother was getting ready to leave town, and she didn’t want him to go. And she and Tyne Daly, who played the mother, were sitting on the porch. And Tyne Daly said, “It’s not the letting go that hurts. It’s the holding on.” And I’ve never forgotten that.

Hopkins Patch: What did your son think of that? Does your son even know?

Hegg: He knows all about it.

Hopkins Patch: How did he react to being Peef?

Hegg: Fortunately, my son and I have a wonderful relationship, and he forgives me my excesses, which I’m very, very glad to say. [laughter] He knows exactly what I’m talking about now because he’s got a little daughter of his own who’s eight months old. Her name is Imogen. And she is the light of all of our lives.

Hopkins Patch: So it’s coming full circle—the circle of life and everything.

Hegg: [laughing] Peef Jr. Yep. Peef-ette perhaps.

 

There’s a lot of depth of character, and there’s an awful lot of fun in the show. So it’s going to be something that’s going to be delightful to people as well as moving for them.

 

Hopkins Patch: What role did you have in the stage adaptation.

Hegg: Zip.

Hopkins Patch: Have you seen it, read the script?

Hegg: I have read the script. Adam did show me the script because he wanted my blessing and my approval, and it just floors me. I think it’s tremendous. I’ve been in the theater all my life, but I’ve never written for the theater. Adam has, and he does so just beautifully. I’m just so proud of the adaptation he’s written. I don’t think that any artist gets much more delight in his life (than) by having something that he had a hand in creating to begin with (and) having the next generation making it into something new. That’s thrilling. I noticed that Stephen Paulus and his son did a piece at orchestra hall not too terribly long ago. There was a promotional piece about Stephen’s kind of music fusing with his son’s kind of music. It’s pretty amazing.

Hopkins Patch: How much of that giving up, letting go is in the stage adaptation that you read?

Hegg: Quite a lot. There’s a lot of depth of character, and there’s an awful lot of fun in the show. So it’s going to be something that’s going to be delightful to people as well as moving for them. But it’s one of those kinds of shows that does not shortchange the message of the book but augments it by all of the wonderful things that are going around it in terms of character and storyline and plotline. There’s all of this invention that Adam has brought to the story as well—things that I never would’ve seen.

 

The black printing that is on the paper is only one dimension of the story. It’s the white fire that surrounds the black printing where the full understanding of the story starts to come alive.

Hopkins Patch: I was going to ask: What are some pieces in there that wouldn’t be you?

Hegg: This is absolutely another reason my wife and I are so honored by what Adam has done. There is a little boy who is with Peef. His name is Wilbur, and Wilbur is named after my late father-in-law. And the little boy, Wilbur, is living with his Aunt Jeanette, and that is the name of my mother. There’s nothing like that in either of the books. There’s nothing about a little boy who’s in conversation with his mother about the phases that he’s going through and what things are going through his mind for this Christmas. That’s all of Adam’s invention. At Breck—where I teach, I’m on sabbatical this year—we’ve had the delight of having Rabbi Sim Glaser, the youth minister at Temple Israel, come and tell us about the creating of the Midrash—which is a story about a story. And he says the black printing that is on the paper is only one dimension of the story. It’s the white fire that surrounds the black printing where the full understanding of the story starts to come alive. And that’s precisely what Adam has done. He’s seen characters in here that I have never imagined. He’s given each of the individual elves, for example, names and personalities. One’s name is blue, and one’s name is red and another one is plaid. So all of these different things, that fabrics that appear on Peef, have been changed into characters—all of whom have a unique relationship with the bear. It’s unbelievably rich.

Hopkins Patch: You’re obviously older now than when you were working on Peef—

Hegg: Oh, yes.  

Hopkins Patch: —what have you learned that you would add in if you could go back and do it again?

Hegg: Actually, there’s nothing I would change about it at all. It came to me in a pretty good fashion, and I think I got it right.

Hopkins Patch: How did it come to you?

Hegg: An artist is never really charge of where things come from. They well up. I’m doing some very, very different work these days than I did back in that period. I’m going in an entirely new direction. Kevin Cannon, also a former student of mine at Breck, has illustrated a book (of mine) called Little Dickens: A Droll and Most Extraordinary History. I’m a big Dickens fan, a huge Dickens fan. His 200th birthday is approaching. It’s Feb. 10 of next year. A couple summers ago I was just thinking about that, being a huge Dickens fan. I once played Charles Dickens in Barbara Field’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater when I was an actor when I was young. I wanted to mark that event in some way, shape or form. So I looked at my bookshelf and I saw my copy of A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist. And I thought what if I take a character from here, maybe a couple from here, and put them into a new story and add some characters of my own—see what comes out of it. And I’m absolutely tickled with the result.

Hopkins Patch: You said you were an actor. If I was a director, what should I hire you to be in Peef?

Hegg: [laughing]

Hopkins Patch: Would you be Santa?

Hegg: I think I’m finally old enough for the part. I kind of look like Santa a bit. I look like maybe his younger brother Chip—a Chip Clause. But I think I’m pretty close to the part now.

Hopkins Patch: Have you met the little boy yet? The actual actor who’s playing—

Hegg: I have not. That’ll be an opening night surprise for me. I love the surprise element of all this, so I’ve kept my nose out of it. A) Because I trust the artists who are here and everything that is going on. I don’t feel they have to be watched or shepherded or anything like that. And b) I love the element of surprise.

 

The thing that’s so marvelous about putting it into another medium is ... it’s bringing the story alive in your mind, in your ears, in your heart, putting tunes to it and going from two dimensions to three.

 

Hopkins Patch: Have you ever had one of your works adapted before?

Hegg: Yes, several times. I did a book called the Mark of the Maker, which has been turned into a straight play (and) a musical several places around the country. That’s the one that’s most frequently adapted, and I always give my permission to do so. A number of people have done kinds of stagings of A Cup of Christmas Tea. A few years ago I heard that David Letterman’s mom did recitation of A Cup of Christmas Tea with her hometown. I think it’s Columbus, OH, and it was the Columbus symphony orchestra or philharmonic or something like that. This is a number of years ago. But Dave’s mom did A Cup of Christmas Tea along with the orchestra several Christmases ago. Oh, and Peef, he’s had quite a career.  If you look at TV Land, he’s a regular on Everybody Loves Raymond. Look in the background, in the living room set. When all the fur is flying, there’s Peef there. He’s ubiquitous. They actually have several bears on the set. He was on for several years.

Hopkins Patch: Beyond what we’ve talked about—circle of life and whatnot—what do you hope people get from your play when they come to see it at Stages?

Hegg: The thing that I love about the talks that I’ve had with people is instead of coming up and saying, “Oh, what a clever story. Oh, wasn’t that nice,” they’ll immediately start to talk to me about their own rabbit, their own teddy bear, their own stuffed kitten that they had and how they saw that character, the things are the most profound about what we’re doing in childhood—that is learning about who and whose we are in this world. And one of the ways that quickens that whole process is the ability to relate to a little stuffed animal who is that person’s confessor. He’s absolutely without agenda, 100 percent in support of that child, and love is unconditional. I think that’s the most important lesson we ever learned about Christmas, that is the unconditional love of God for his people.

Hopkins Patch: If someone has read your book and loved your book, why should they go see the play?

Hegg: The thing that’s so marvelous about putting it into another medium is that—going back to the metaphor that Sim Glaser used—it’s bringing the story alive in your mind, in your ears, in your heart, putting tunes to it and going from two dimensions to three, which I think is always advisable.

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Book signings

A Silent Night for Peef author Tom Hegg, illustrator Warren Hanson and playwright Adam Hegg will sign books following the 7 p.m. Dec. 9 performance at

Tom Hegg and Little Dickens illustrator Kevin Cannon will sign books from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 21 at the HarMar Mall Barnes & Noble (2100 North Snelling Ave, Roseville).


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