Beekeepers

2022 / Performance, Port Credit, Streetsville

The Beekeepers

A project by Frog in Hand & Andrew Gaboury

Invited by the Streetsville Bread & Honey Festival to celebrate their 50th year anniversary, we took the theme directly from their name. Working with the Frog in Hand Summer Company, we created a wandering group of bee clowns and beekeeper clowns to showcase the importance and joy of taking care of pollinators. The curiosity of the lower-status bees requires constant attention from the higher-status and tireless beekeepers, who are always trying to wrangle a group that just gets easily distracted.

Keeping the spirit of the Caretakers (and of the Cyclops project before), the goal of the Beekeepers was to bring a little spectacle and whimsy to the quotidian. The clown is a perfect conduit for this: their childlike innocence and sense of play allows them to remain curious and respond to the realities of their environments. As the bees and beekeepers wandered the streets of Streetsville (and later in the season, Port Credit, including the Port Credit Farmer’s Market) you would find them interacting with local merchants – inspecting their wares, ‘pollinating their flowers’ – playing a game with adults and children alike, or perhaps you would hear them singing a song on stage, or dancing to live musicians or even walking a runway with their big queen bee energy.

Cast:

Katie Adams-Gossage
Morgan Caroll
Chiara Ghizzardi
Abby Silvera
Cailin Teranishi
Celeste Chiapetta

Assistant Costume Designer:

Kalina Popova

Stage Production Worker:

Makenna Martinez

Outside Eyes:

Colleen Snell
Alice Cavanagh

Big Thanks to:

Jessica Cen