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!
Boston Fringe Festival | The Rockwell, Davis Square Theater
May 11 at 11:20 am | Tickets Available Here!
May 17–25 | Saturdays & Sundays, 2 PM
Pay-What-You-Will
Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, MA
2025 Program
Creative Team
Directors …. Joy Powers, Joshua Shack, Edward Speck, & Bonniejean Wilbur
Stage Manager …. Lydia Brendel
Costume & Puppet Design …. Bonniejean Wilbur
Puppet Theater Design …. Gordon Przybyla, Edward Speck
Backdrops …. Joshua Shack & Belle Struck
Poster Art …. Joy Powers
Script …. Edward Speck
Cast
Petrushka …. Joy Powers
Madame Wildheart …. Bonniejean Wilbur
Ensemble …. Cailin McFarland, Corey Owens-Beauchesne, Sierra Gitlin, & Edward Speck
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), Through the Wardrobe: A Winter Wonderland Panto! (2017, 2022), Cinderella in December Panto (2018), and A Christmas Carol Panto (2019, 2024)
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. A former member of the Board of Directors of Theater in the Open, Sierra 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), A Peter Pan Panto (2019), Metamorphoses (2021), A Nutcracker Panto! (2021), and Through the Wardrobe: A Winter Wonderland Panto! (2022)
Joshua Shack, Director
Joshua Shack has been directing for Theater in the Open since 2014. This production of Petrushka and the Caterpillar is his 21st collaboration with TITO.
Josh decided to become a clown when he was just three years old, and at age nine, he began performing his solo show at many local events. As a teenager, he toured for four summers with Circus Smirkus. He then toured nationally as a clown 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; Nothing but Nonsense, a variety musical comedy at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI; and the Circus Smirkus 2024 Big Top Tour, The Imaginarium. He served as Creative Consultant for Ragtag (Cirque Us) and The King Stag (Boston College), and Associate Director of Pagliacci (Opera Vermont.)
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.
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!
Lydia Brendel, Stage Manager
Lydia Charlotte Brendel is a North Shore based actor, director, and stage manager known for co-founding Castle Hill Productions in Ipswich, MA. She is a graduate of AMDA’s New York conservatory program and Los Angeles BFA program. Backstage credits include International Thespian Society Award Nominee The Door (Director), Massachusetts Thespian Society Award winner Tracks, (Co-Director), Castle Hill Productions Romeo and Juliet (Co-Director) and Arcadia (Props Manager), Boutcher Theater Company’s Red (Stage Manager), and most recently, Player’s Ring Theater’s A Funny Thing… (Stage Manager). Onstage credits include Olivia in Twelfth Night, Leslie Casewell in The Mousetrap, Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility, Victoria in A Bold Stroke for a Husband, and Juliet in Elsewhere Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
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.