PHOTO CREDIT: Ashley Pettipas

JUNE 10

FAMILY STAGE CHILDREN'S THEATRE

DINOSTORIES: 3 PREHISTORIC FAIRY TALES

LIL VILLAINS THEATRE

A topsy-turvy dinosaur class gone wrong, complete with hilarious reimaginings of your favourite fairy tales!

Did you know that dinosaurs ate porridge? Or lived at the top of beanstalks?? Or liked wearing your granny’s pyjamas??? It’s all true! Join us for our "Super Special Theatrical & Musical Presentation For Tiny Geniuses And Their Families" and hear the most exciting stories of the prehistoric era! Dinostories has something for aspiring paleontologists of all ages (specifically 4-10, but also the young-at-heart)! Produced by the Lil Villains Theatre, and commissioned by Festival Antigonish!

ECMA nominated for Children's Entertainers of the Year.

DINOSTORIES: 3 PREHISTORIC FAIRY TALES, STAGES 2023

(Photo by James Arthur MacLean)

LIL VILLAINS THEATRE

Nova Scotia / Mi'kma'ki

The Villains Theatre is dedicated to creating transformative theatrical experiences. Our work is vibrant, provocative, and full of play. We collaborate with creators who inspire us as we strive to grow artistically and share our work with new audiences. We believe that the more accessible our spaces are, the better our theatre will be. We are committed to providing opportunities for artists of all levels of experience, addressing systemic injustices, and contributing to the national theatre landscape.

WEBSITE

CREDITS

Written and directed by Dan Bray and Noella Murphy

Music by Justin Gregg and Ranke de Vries

Featuring Dan Bray Professor Glasses and Noella Murphy as Dina O'Saurus

Geordie Hemlow as Stagehand

Production assistance by Colleen MacIsaac and Dorian Lang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Websavers

Festival Antigonish

ARTIST BIOS & HEADSHOTS

A white person with brown hair, a beard, and deep-set hazel eyes, smiles while wearing a dusty rose-coloured shirt and holding up a dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter. Behind him, we see green trees and grass.

DAN BRAY

Dan Bray (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist living in Antigonish. As artistic director of The Villains Theatre, he has written, directed, and adapted many shows (including International Waters, Shakespeare's Time Machine, Hansel und Gretel in: der Garten von Edible Horrors, Observatory Mansions, and Zomblet). He is a 9-time Merritt Award nominee, the 2022 Merritt Award winner for "Outstanding Adaptation by a Nova Scotia Playwright" (Hansel und Gretel), and a current East Coast Music Award nominee for "Children's Entertainer of the Year" (Dinostories). Dan has had the good luck of working with many of Nova Scotia's finest theatre companies - as an playwright, director, actor, and dramaturge - including Two Planks & a Passion Theatre, Shakespeare by the Sea, Festival Antigonish, Mulgrave Road Theatre, Workshirt Opera, Eastern Front Theatre, Terra Novella Theatre, Phyllis Rising Productions, Xara Choral Theatre, and Lions Den Theatre. Dan is the 2023 Merritt Co-Host/Producer, the former Vice Chair for the Halifax Fringe Festival, a two-time attendee of Playwright Atlantic Resource Centre's annual retreat, and a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. He received his MA from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama in 2009.

Noella - a white woman with curly brown hair up in buns, brown eyes, and wearing a red dino necklace - smiles while looking through a dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter.

NOELLA MURPHY

Tea Time Creation Co is a quartet of quirky clowns including Ailsa Galbreath (she/her), Gina Thornhill (she/they), James MacLean (they/he), and Kathleen Dorian (she/her). They occasionally perform wild and obscene adaptations of Shakespeare for a pub filled crowd. Or they write, devise, and create their own work including roaming performances, and other types experimental theatre.

Five people are standing around a red fabric chair. The person in the chair is wearing a black cloak covering their face, and holding a book. A woman with blonde hair, pale skin, dark nail polish and a ripped long-sleeve shirt and purple lipstick is crouching next to the chair, also holding a book. Above her is standing a smiling curly-haired woman wearing an embroidered dress in the style of Patsy Cline. Next to her lurking above the couch is a tall thin man in a dark blue button-down shirt and black tie with a feathery Venetian-style mask covering his eyes staring intently at the camera. Next to him is a tall curly haired woman with her leg up on the arm of the chair holding a book in one hand. She also has curly black hair, and is wearing a black dress with orange leggings and a leather jacket.

BINGLY AND THE ROGUES
JUSTIN GREGG + RANKE DE VRIES

The Dinostories music was written by two members of the ECMA/Music Nova Scotia award nominated children’s music group Bingly and the Rouges: Justin Gregg and Ranke de Vries. Justin Gregg (he/him) is an Adjunct Professor at St. Francis Xavier University, and a Senior Research Associate with the Dolphin Communication Project. He is author of the book If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal, a voice actor, and improv instructor for Antigonish Improv. Ranke de Vries (she/her) is a professor in the Celtic Studies Department at St. Francis Xavier University, a playwright, and children’s book author.