Performing Arts Puppets & Puppetry
Gruff
A Musical for 2 Goats and a Troll
- Publisher
- Bayeux Arts, Inc.
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2018
- Category
- Puppets & Puppetry
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781988440262
- Publish Date
- Mar 2018
- List Price
- $10.95
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Description
The grass really is greener on the other side. But a hideous troll has taken up residence under the bridge, and the promised land is forever unattainable - if you're a goat born on the wrong side of the craggy chasm. The troll is soon recruited to join the side of the underclass, but when the revolution is won, the victors become tyrants, and it's up to the troll to find a way to break the cycle of greed. Finally, everybody agrees that the green grass is for everybody to eat - it's a timely parable about immigration, through the lens of the Three Billygoats Gruff, created by three celebrated Canadian theatre artists: Mercedes Bátiz-Benét, Brooke Maxwell, and Judd Palmer.
About the authors
Mercedes Bátiz-Benét is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and award-winning director. She was born and raised in Mexico and in 1997 she moved to Canada. Productions of her work include Faust: Ignis Fatuus, Shining Through, Cruel Tears/Lágrimas Crueles, and as co-writer, The Umbrella, The Secret Sorrow of Hatchet Jack Macphee, The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan, and GRUFF. In 2014, Mercedes won the Canadian Stage Award for Direction at the SummerWorks Festival with her play El Jinete - A Mariachi Opera, and in 2015 she was chosen as the Distinguished Alumna of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria. She is the artistic director of Puente Theatre in Victoria. Mercedes lives with Judd, the man of her dreams, and their son Maximiliano.
Mercedes Batiz-Benet's profile page
Judd Palmer is one of the founders of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, a Calgary-based company mostly known for creating puppet theatre for adults and sometimes children, but also operas or films or even occasionally regular theatre without any puppets in it. He also writes and illustrates children’s books, in particular a series called Proposterous Fables for Unusual Children, and in his wilder days he used to play the slide banjo in a punk blues band called the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. He lives with Mercedes, the woman of his dreams, and their son Maximiliano.
Brooke Maxwell is a freelance musician and music educator based in Victoria, BC. His introduction to the world of theatre was through Atomic Vaudeville, which eventually led to the creation of the acclaimed Ride the Cyclone. He has gone on to underscore and sound design several local and national works, including Gruff, And Slowly Beauty (Belfry Theatre, National Arts Centre, Tarragon Theatre), A Tender Thing (Belfry Theatre), The Glass Menagerie, Long Day's Journey into Night (Bluebridge Theatre), and Joan (Theatre SKAM). He'd like to thank Jess for her love and encouragement, and his parents for forcing him to stay in piano lessons.
