In our Montreal chapter we focused on Concordia based climate justice initiatives and built puppets and felt-maps on food justice walking the streets of Montreal asking the up and aboves for an end to the Energy East Pipeline. During the ANTI- Austerity movement of 2015 we took to the streets dressed as clowns and danced down the political upheavals using humor and dance. Our puppets were in solid
arity with the student strikes fighting against the atrocious student fees. We were a collective based on external politics and brought our narratives to the streets. The Toronto chapter is lead by artistic director, Molly McGregor, a mad, non binary , queer who grew up in Kensington market. The collative re-surfaced after this summer's Bread and Puppet Apprenticeship where Molly met Alex Rideout, after the two of them had fallen madly in love with the land of strange and very large puppets: the two of them wanted to bring this energy back to Canada. Coming back to the city the collective grew as more and more radical queerdos and weirdos wanted to dance with a 12 ft Sun and Moon. The stories grew from externally political to internally political as the collective began to work with what the world looks like after the radical shifts the pandemic took in all our lives. The WhaleBone has emerged into the understanding that the Personal is Political. In our current work we are creating large puppet shows about home and community involvement after having survived years of isolation. Our current show "Market Rat" explores these themes. Our project in development "Impulse vs Intuition" explores the way we function in intimacy post-pandemic and how our attachments and their styles have changed and shifted in our adult lives. Mostly we ask: what's next and how do we get there with love? The WhaleBone collective seeks to bring people of all skillsets and disciplines to contribute to derived theatre creation using experimental puppetry as a medium. The collective welcomes everyone who wants to join, and welcomes everyone at different capacities, we understand that everyone has something special to bring derived theatre creation and we include everyone as best we can. If you are interested in joining us please message: Molly McGregor and join us at our next meeting!
