Petrushka and the Caterpillar
Directed by Joy Powers, Joshua Shack, Edward Speck, & Bonniejean Wilbur
What happens when your favorite stories need a new ending? Everyone's favorite clown upends iconic fables and fairytales in our signature storytelling style – with tons of imagination, humor, and heart. Join Petrushka and the gang as they retell old stories for our times!
May 11 & 12, 2024 at 2:00 pm
May 18 & 19, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, MA
2024 program
Creative Team
Directors …. Joy Powers, Joshua Shack, Edward Speck, & Bonniejean Wilbur
Puppet Design …. Bonniejean Wilbur
Costume Design …. Bonniejean Wilbur
Puppet Theater Design …. Gordon Przybyla, Edward Speck,
Poster Art …. Joy Powers
cast
Petrushka … Joy Powers
Ensemble … Cailin McFarland, Corey Owens-Beauchesne, Sierra Gitlin, Katie Formosi, Edward Speck, & Bonniejean Wilbur
Show details
What is pay-what-you-will?
Pay-what-you-will is a fee structure that was inspired by our sister company Seven Stages Shakespeare which allows us to keep producing free theater in spaces like Maudslay State Park while acknowledging the hard work and talents of our actors, designers, and directors. There are no tickets or reservations required for this show—we encourage our audiences to enjoy our theater the way you always have. If you are inspired to do so, making a donation to this production helps us pay our artists and allows us to produce more theater in more places. Make a gift here!
Location and Times:
Presented at Maudslay State Park, 76 Curzon Mill Road, Newburyport, MA, 01950.
Parking is $5 for MA plates, $20 for out-of-state vehicles. Follow the flags from the parking lot and allow for a ten-minute stroll to the performance site.
May 11 & 12, 2024 at 2:00 pm
May 18 & 19, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Meet the Cast and Creative Team
JOY POWERS AS PETRUSHKA/Director
Joy Powers has been clowning since age 15, and has toured and performed with Circus Smirkus, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, Cirque Us, The Piccolini Trio, and Hideaway Circus. This is her first Spring outdoor show with TitO, and she is SO excited to be working on this original material with such a wonderful cast and creative team. Joy works year-round as a therapeutic healthcare clown at Boston Children’s and Hasbro Children’s Hospitals as a proud member of the Laughter League. Joy is also an artist, sculptor, print-maker, and large-scale muralist: you can find her creations on Instagram @joypowersart! Her favorite things are dogs, Cheez-Its, nature, flowers, making art, and laughing with friends. And exclamation points!!!
Previous TITO appearances: The Nutcracker Panto! (2016, 2021), A Cinderella Panto! (2018), and Through the Wardrobe: A Winter Wonderland Panto! (2017, 2022) and A Christmas Carol Panto (2019)
Corey Owens-Beauchesne as ensemble
Corrie is a graduate of Shakespeare & Company’s month-long intensive in Lenox, Massachusetts. She also recently graduated from Hampshire College, earning her BA in Stage Acting and Theatre Education, where she focused on applied theatre techniques, theatre of the oppressed, and children’s rights. Recent credits include Belle, Caroline, Fred’s Wife, and Mrs. Dilber in A Christmas Carol at the Player’s Ring, Jackie and Yellow Bile in Doctor Doctor by Catherine Stewart at the Player’s Ring, as well as Viola and the Girl Who Found Fear in Generations at New Hampshire Theatre Project. She hopes you enjoy the show!
Previous TITO appearances: Macbeth (2023 & 2024) and A Cinderella Panto! (2023)
Cailin Mcfarland as ensemble
Cailin is a Newburyport-based actor, educator, and costume designer.
Previous Theater in the Open credits include Metamorphoses (2021), Julius Caesar (2018), Antigone (2017), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2017), and POE (2017).
Sierra Gitlin as ensemble
Sierra has been working with Theater in the Open as an actor since 2017, performing in Antigone, The Tempest, Metamorphoses, and POE. She has appeared as Medea and in several pantos. Sierra serves on the Board of Directors of Theater in the Open and is passionate about the community-building power of storytelling and the arts.
Previous TITO appearances: Antigone (2017), Medea (2018), A Cinderella Panto! (2018 & 2023), The Tempest (2019), A Christmas Carol Panto (2019), Metamorphoses (2021), A Nutcracker Panto! (2021), and Through the Wardrobe: A Winter Wonderland Panto! (2022)
Katie Formosi as ensemble
Katie is a paraprofessional in a 6th-grade classroom. Katie has been working with Theater in the Open since 2018 as an actor and instructor. Along with Theater in the Open, she has performed with Shawn Terenzi’s Academy of Dance, Northern Essex Community College’s Top Notch Players, UMass Amherst’s Student Theatre Guild, and Dive In Productions. As a student through UMass Amherst’s University Without Walls, she is studying Foreign Language Education.
Previous TITO appearances: A Cinderella Panto! (2018, 2023), A Christmas Carol Panto! (2019), Adventures in Zoomland (2020), A Nutcracker Panto! (2021), Through the Wardrobe: A Winter Wonderland Panto! (2022), and Petrushka’s Flying Puppet Circus (2023)
The Creative Team:
Joshua Shack, Director
Joshua Shack has been directing for Theater in the Open since 2014. Petrushka and the Caterpillar is his 19th collaboration with TitO. Josh decided to become a clown when he was just three years old. As a teenager, he spent his summers touring with Circus Smirkus, and then toured nationally with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
He is a co-creator and performer of The Piccolini Trio and directed their critically acclaimed stage show Circus in a Trunk. Other directing credits include Out of Orbit at The Theater at Saint Peter’s in New York City; and Nothing but Nonsense, a variety musical comedy at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI. He served as creative consultant for The King Stag at Boston College, and Cirque Us’s Ragtag.
He is a teaching artist-in-residence for Circus Smirkus and has served in a dozen different roles with the company, including Production Manager, Director of Programming, and Associate Artistic Director. Josh is co-directing the Circus Smirkus 2024 Big Top Tour production Imaginarium.
Edward F. Speck, DireCTOR/Ensemble
EDWARD F. SPECK has served as the Artistic Director of Theater in the Open since 2009. He has been seen in TITO shows for the past 25 years, including Metamorphoses, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Medea, and Much Ado About Nothing, and every Panto the theater has produced. He is a proud member of Exit Dance Theatre.
Bonniejean WIlbur, DireCTOR/Ensemble
BONNIEJEAN WILBUR is an actress, director, costumer and maker of props and other whimsical things. She has worked with TITO for 30+ years with a hiatus here and there. Bonniejean is happily married to actor, director and teacher Paul Wann. Her favorite project is always the one she is working on right now!
This production is presented thanks to the generous support of the Local Cultural Councils program, a program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. We thank the Amesbury Cultural Council, the Merrimac Cultural Council, the Rowley Cultural Council, the Georgetown Cultural Council, the Newbury Cultural Council, the Salisbury Cultural Council, and the West Newbury Cultural Council for their incredibly generous support.