CATERWAUL THEATRE

In winter 2019, Caterwaul Theatre collaborated with the Canadian Children’s Opera Company on the re-imagining of their original 1993 production of The Snow Queen. Caterwaul constructed a 15 by 30 foot Snow Queen puppet, operated and voiced by the show’s young cast.

Directed by Rob Kempson.

Musical Direction by Teri Dunn.

“If you're looking for a fairy tale, fable, or thinly-veiled metaphor to make you feel better about how life works sometimes...this isn't it.

But let’s pile into a blanket fort and get through it together.”

In August 2014 Caterwaul Theatre presented the first full production of Erin Fleck’s Unintentionally Depressing Children’s Tales at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival, with visual design by Sarah Fairlie and direction by Maya Rabinovitch.

The sold-out run featured five individual puppet tales unfolding around their audiences, inside a blanket fort built to the scale of the Lower Ossington Studio Theatre.  The Tales were a theatrical bedtime story like no other, a top pick of the festival, and earned the show’s team of designers the National Theatre School’s Design Award at the SummerWorks closing ceremony.

Development for the Tales supported by the Ontario Arts Council. 

In 2016, Caterwaul created live visuals for Georgina Beaty's Extremophiles in the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. Through film, shadow play and a giant water tank on stage, Caterwaul brought "Baby" to life.

"Writer and performer Georgina Beaty undertakes dual female roles in this absurd, dark solo show. With global warming devastating the earth in the year 2020, April, an anthropology student, joins a remote outpost near the Arctic to complete her dissertation. This micro-community consists of six male doctors and a quarantined woman named Margaret, possibly the world’s last fertile female, who has given birth to a surprisingly different sort of baby.

The story reveals itself through alternating monologues from each woman’s point of view and although the script doesn’t fully explain Margaret’s predicament, it does contain much dramatic tension. Beaty clearly distinguishes the two characters by altering her tone and mannerisms, and it also helps that director Megan Watson lights each one differently. Christopher Stanton’s eerie music and splashing sounds heighten suspense.

Integral to the production are Caterwaul Theatre’s visual effects; their representation of the baby adds poignancy and humour." - Critic's Pick, NOW Magazine

Caterwaul Theatre returned to SummerWorks for the 2015 Music Series, in a collaboration with Germaphobes and special guest ANAMAI.

A Shadow Puppet Pop Performance, through the shadows of our digital consciousness.

For “J”, today, everything is business as usual.  Wake up, get dressed, make coffee, and start uploading…herself.  Mundane facts, stupid jokes, forgotten memories…nothing is overlooked, nothing is left behind.  It would be impressive…if everyone wasn’t already doing it.

But while “J”s busy saving her mind for the future, what happens when she ignores the present and its very broken radiator?

Original Music by: Paul Erlichman and Neil Rankin

Puppet and Set Design by: Sarah Fairlie and Erin Fleck

Concept by: Paul Erlichman, Neil Rankin, Sarah Fairlie and Erin Fleck

Performed by: Paul Erlichman, Neil Rankin, Sarah Fairlie, Erin Fleck and Joanne Sarazen with a special opening set by ANAMAI.

All photos: Bryanna Reilly

In January 2016, Caterwaul joined a group of collaborators including Shannon Lea Doyle, Shira Leuchter, Nilan Perera and Glisse on Ice to create a giant interactive Snowglobe for the HarbourKIDS Festival at Harbourfront Centre. Caterwaul created a combination of shadow puppets and projection (both analog and digital) as part of the 8 hour live exhibition.

All photos: Brian Medina

Seen at events for Summerworks, Girls Art League and the Fresh Ideas in Puppetry Festival, Caterwaul's Photo Booth is an interactive puppet installation.  

With an overhead projector, screen, and large assortment of Caterwaul puppets, participants create puppet worlds and place themselves into their creations, while Caterwaul, the participant themselves, and their friends document with photos or video. We encourage participants to instagram, tweet and facebook the pictures, videos or gifs that they create and tag us with #sadpuppets or the event hashtag.

Photo Booth is a personal puppet show, that becomes its own digital story outside the live performance. One participant's creation can be documented and distributed by anyone. These internet-based images are a piece in and of themselves, to be consumed by an audience that wasn't present for the live performance.

Caterwaul is proud to have been a part of the first ever Camp Wavelength Music Festival at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Ants from Space camped out all weekend, alongside festival goers and an amazing line-up.

Ziggy Space Ant returned to Wavelength for their #ICYMI Retrospective art show, celebrating 16 years of the Wavelength Music Festival.