World Puppetry Day: what that has to do with mental health
I wrote a children's show about S.A.D. and it's finally having a public reading!
Ten years ago I wrote a short story about a little girl named Annabelle who had Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) every November… in fact she turned into a NovemBEAR
It was born off of a joke about my husband Jason getting SAD with the winter months and him basically wanting to do everything a bear would like to do: hibernate, eat carbs, stay at home, and acting a bit growley… all like a bear! So I made this story up inspired by his SAD of Annabelle turning into Annabear as the seasons changed.
I worked a bit with artist Christopher Yao on the concept art of it and soon after I realized I wanted to take Annabelle off the page to the stage where I am most comfortable. And it HAD to have a puppet because obviously. It’s been in development and waiting for funding support for the past decade and thanks to a Recommender Grant from Roseneath Theatre a few years back, then most recently the Ontario Arts Council and Government of Canada supporting a workshop and public reading of it!
So for World Puppetry Day I present the public reading of Novembears:
I’m excited to have Sodienye Waboso Amajor as Annabelle, myself as Teddy (the puppet), and Trevor Rines as The Narrator.
With original music by Jason Martorino, and Teddy puppet by Kristi Holt.
Check out the event here: https://novembears.eventbrite.ca