We Are Presenting an Early Version of our Buddies Residence Play at the 2012 Rhubarb Festival. It's called Settlers.

When I (A) was very little, I used to have recurring nightmares that monsters would come down through the closet in my parents bedroom. They were called DeeckaWalkas and they looked like the monsters in the muppet show. If they caught you, they would erase your face, and you would eventually degenerate into a Mennonite doll.

Puritan Girls

Our friends entertain lots of butter-churn fantasies; flushed cheeks, a bit of lace rustling around the shoes, facing down a bear if you had to. See how great Cara and Nika look in their outfits at Nuit Blanche Deveraux? Allison took this picture, and Sean made then their bristol board bonnets.



My (Aurora's) boyfriend asked me if I wanted a puritan dress for Christmas. He was referring to these, because they are everywhere on all kinds of women. And of course they look great, and of course I would want one. I would belong to a secret convent with you and who ever else. Everyone looks like a class act in a high neckline. It sets off the chin.


Enduring fashions that keep coming back and back again, like our belief in the Devil and God.

Suspicious Man

Cotton Mather believed in witches.

"That these Witches have driven a Trade of Commissioning their Confederate Spirits, to do all sorts of Mischiefs to the Neighbours, whereupon there have ensued such Mischievous consequences upon the Bodies and Estates of the Neighbourhood, as could not otherwise be accounted for."
-Cotton Mather

Here he is encountering Tituba, the woman accused of bringing witchcraft to Salem, their leader, Head Witch. Note that he is standing up straight and she is hunched over. Note that his face is calm and unlined and that she is having a fit. What do you think she is going to do with those leaves?

Tituba used to crack a raw egg into a glass of water and use it to predict the identity of a young woman's future husband. The yolks and whites would make up the face of the man a girl would marry. I did it just an hour ago and guess who I saw?

In Residency at Buddies in Bad Times

We are more than just a little bit thrilled to be in residency at Buddies, where we are currently hatching plans for a new play.

Witches, Wendigos, Bears with blood on their teeth and the occasional Woolly Mammoth are our current obsessions...

More news to come soon.

A big SummerWorks Thank you!

We just wanted to send out a big thank-you to everyone involved in our SummerWorks show, The Physical Ramifications of Attempted global Domination. Thanks to the festival, our amazing audiences and our brilliant cast and crew. We are very proud to have received NNNN's in NOW and to have made their BEST OF THE FEST list for outstanding production, set design and ensemble!!! We feel very lucky.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=182177

http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=182235

xoxo

Birds and Swans

SummerWorks!

Hi Friends,

We are really excited that we have a show called The Physical Ramifications of Attempted Global Domination that we will be performing at the SummerWorks Festival in August. Here are some details:

Hitler foamed at the mouth, Napoleon suffered from extreme eczema and every so often, Pol Pot would go blind. In exploring the mysterious and bountiful medical ailments suffered by many of history's most aggressive global dominators, we will get under the skin to probe the pitfalls of political fortitude.

A set made of balloons and filled with party supplies sets the stage for eight dictators to battle it out in competitions of physical strength and fortitude, tests of wit and balloon crushing races. This show continues our exploration of the most power hungry of leaders such as Napoleon, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Hitler and Chairman Mao that began as part of Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH program in 2010.

Written and directed by Nika Mistruzzi and Aurora Stewart de Peña, with an ensemble cast including Donna Maloney, Cara Gee, Rebecca Applebaum, Meghan Swaby, Lauren Bride, Sheelagh Darling Pletsch and Jessica Salgueiro. With set and Balloon Explosions by Allie Marshall and Hanna Puley, costumes by Erin Alexa Freedman, lighting by Remington North and original music by Matt King of dd/mm/yyyy.

August 5 – 14, 2011

Aug 5 – 5:30pm; Aug 6 – 3:00pm; Aug 9 – 10:30pm, Aug 10 – 5:30pm; Aug 12 – 8:00pm; Aug 14 – 12:30pm

Tickets $15 ($16 in advance)

Box office: 416-504-7529 or artsboxoffice.ca

We had a big long rehearsal for Family Story today.

This happened. Also, Mark Aikman ate a pulled pork burrito.