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The Third Annual Cooking Fire Theatre Festival: The Shows

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Zuppa Circus Theatre, Halifax - Open Theatre Kitchen: All Possible Futures

Created by the company

Directed by: Alex McLean

Performed by: Susan LeBlanc-Crawford, Ben Stone and Kiersten Tough

*Appears courtesy of the Canadian Actor's Equity Association

In a kitchen in a desert, a couple imagine a child into existence. Equal parts human and onion, mischief and mythology, The Zuppa Circus Open Theatre Kitchen is a generous, wild theatrical feast that celebrates an appetite for the world. The show has been performed in public spaces throughout Halifax as well as at the Wolfville Farmers Market, the Mosers River Stone Soup Festival and the SunRoot Farms Garlic Festival.

Find out more about Zuppa Circus Theatre at: www.zuppacircus.com

Drama of Works, New York City - On the Backs of Fishes

Written by: Crystal Skillman

Based on the ancient Japanese text: The Kojiki

Directed and Designed by: Gretchen Van Lente

Performed by: Amy Carrigan, Talaura Harms, Matt Jackson, Nancy

Nagrant and Gretchen Van Lente

Part two in the epic entitled WARRIOR, On the Backs of Fishes, tells the story of Jingo Kogo, Japan’s fabled Empress warrior. Pregnant with the heir-apparent, Jingo battles Korea, and as she brings the prize of a written language and a new prince home to her people, must also defend her title from traitorous stepsons. On the Backs of Fishes uses innovative humanette/rod puppets, toy theatre, overhead projection and storytelling to weave Jingo’s amazing tale. Puppet enthusiasts who have seen Fishes at New York’s Spaghetti Dinner and Estrogenius Festival, Providence’s Blood From a Turnip, Philadelphia’s Bumpin’ Big Top , and Finland’s Barents Region International Puppet Festival, have fallen in love with this piece. WARRIOR earned a special award for ORIGINAL ADAPTATION from the World Festival of Puppet Art, Prague, in May of 2004. The story of WARRIOR, which is essentially the story of Japan, is told by a mysterious song-singer/deity who moves through the pieces tying them together in history. WARRIOR was inspired by stories from The Kojiki, the collected legends of ancient Japan. It follows three generations of warriors who fight to protect their homeland of Yamato, losing faith along the way in the ancient traditions and the all-knowing Great Deity. As the land of Yamato grows older and evolves, so does the puppetry style change for each journey, reflecting the changing times.

Find out more about Drama of Works at: www.dramaofworks.com

Theatre SKAM, Victoria - Billy Nothin'

Written by: Sean Dixon

Directed by: Amiel Gladstone*

Songs by: Lucas Myers, Sean Dixon and the cast

Fiddle music compiled and performed by: Catriona Murphy

Stage managed by: Jennifer Swan*

Performed by:

Camille Stubel* as Melody and Patricia Garrett

Matthew Payne* as Billy

Amiel Gladstone* as Fergie

Michelle Monteith* as Molly

Greg Gale as Sonny

*Appears courtesy of the Canadian Actor's' Equity Association

Billy Nothin’ is an existentialist cowboy play with music in which horse trainer Billy None loses the 'cowboy way' so entirely that his best friends don't even recognize him anymore.

A quintessential western with more twists than a lasso. Trapped in a world of leather chaps and cowboy boots, five Wild West characters collide, encountering murder, metamorphosis, mayhem alongside a meta-whore who may or may not have the answers to set them free. Performed at the Foster's / Victoria Eye Care Courtyard, and the loading dock at Wonderbucks, Vancouver.

Find out more about Theatre SKAM at: www.skam.ca

Stranger Theatre, Toronto - Käthe Kollwitz

Written and Directed by: Kate Cayley

Designed and built by: Lea Ambros, Kate Cayley and Sarah Cormier

Performed by: Lea Ambros, Sarah Cormier and Sandy Gribbin

A new piece on the life and work of German Expressionist printmaker and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz. The puppet play explores her life in Berlin, her pacifism and her representations of working women, using text from her letters and diaries, songs, shadow puppets and toy theatre. Performed in the traditional Uzbekistani yurt at the end of the evening, this will be a delicate and thoughtful reflection on the extraordinary history of one of the twentieth century's most significant artists.

Find out more about Stranger Theatre at: www.strangertheatre.ca