They Were Called Trees deals with climate change, our dependency on plastic and fossil fuel products and our almost superhuman ability to ignore the truth about the lies our world is built upon.  It is set in the last days of humanity on Earth, after trees and animals are gone and the air is thin.  There is a “Family” (our five-person company of puppeteers) living in a cavern made from plastic bottles.  They are of all races, and represent all the faces of humanity.  They worship the sputtering machine that allows them to breathe, and try to keep their unstable "Father," Alder, happy.  Today, they perform a religious ceremony through puppetry – their story of how the world got this way – for the benefit of their young child, Seedling, who is full of questions… questions that will eventually cause Alder’s version of world events to fall apart and be revealed as lies.

The production pictured below featured Music by Joel Phillip Friedman, Movement by Lake Simons, Set Design by Tom Lee, Costume Design by Carla Gant, and Lighting Design by Federico Restrepo. It was presented in La MaMa's Jump Start evening of plays in development.


L-R: Max Gayford as Seedling, Anju Hippolyte as Cedar, Jonelle Robinson (on video) as The Chanteuse, Kevin P. Hale as Alder, Kervin Peralta (partly hidden) as Oakley and Kiana Lum as Ash.



The Family performs a ritual. L-R: Anju Hippolyte as Cedar, Kevin P. Hale as Alder, Max Gayford (seated) as Seedling, Jonelle Robinson (on video) as The Chanteuse, and Kervin Peralta as Oakley.



Seedling rides a gas-can-headed Brontosaurus. L-R: Anju Hippolyte as Cedar, Kervin Peralta (on all fours) as Oakley, Max Gayford as Seedling, and Kevin P. Hale as Alder.



The Family celebrates the mythical plastic city of "Plaslandia". L-R: Kiana Lum as Ash, Kevin P. Hale as Alder, Kervin Peralta (partly hidden) as Oakley, Max Gayford as Seedling, and Anju Hippolyte as Cedar.