project[Video Description]:
A series of hands in different locations flip through the images in the book.
One set of hands is in a tree, one is on an urban balcony, and one is cozied up with a cup of tea.
The first image in the book is of Pigeons flapping across the page to meet a tree that looks old and wise and of another world.
The second is of the old and wise of another world’s tree’s branches looking like a stained glass window.
The third image is of PJ and Wendy on the left page. PJ is on his boat, the S.S. Neverland. He has short, messy hair and is casually leaning with his hands in his pockets. Wendy’s hair is in her face and she is knelt down in front of birch trees, adjusting her high heeled flip flop. On the right page Wendy is standing triumphantly barefoot on a branch of a tree that is large and gold and sprawling. There is a suggestion of a moon in the distance. Wendy is reaching for PJ, who is looking decidedly less triumphant.
For Mature Audiences
Adventures: The Book is inspired by the fisher price cassette tape books that I’d get at garage sales growing up. The set was a cassette tape and a book, that came in a Ziploc bag that I would store under my bed. The tape had chimes in it that would tell you when to flip the page. I wanted to share that Ziploc, cassette tape picture book magic with you.
Get ready to press play, get cozy, and be carried away in a story that is for the hopeful and the hopeless.
One of Jen Bulthuis's Illustrations from Adventures: The Book [Image description]: Two boys, one with a lighter skin tone, and one with a darker skin tone have their arms draped around each other while sitting in the grass. They are looking at the deep blue water colour sky with scattered stars.
Part fairy tale part gritty-real-life tale, ‘Adventures’ invites us to the roots of the Mother Tree to witness the stories of PJ and Wendy, two teenagers on the edge of a life altering moment
PJ lives on a boat with his boys and it’s called S.S. Neverland cuz its Never-On-Land. Wendy likes to wear high heeled flip flops while running through the woods at night. Mother Tree, our solo narrator, is a 300-year-old tree. She plays the parts of PJ and Wendy as she tells the story of how they got to be standing on her tallest branch, deciding whether they’ll fly or fall if they jump off.
Text/Concept by Gillian Clark
Composition/Sound Design by Jackson Fairfax-Perry
Illustration by Jen Bulthuis
Performance by Ann-Marie Kerr and Gillian Clark
Performance Direction by Christian Barry and Sadie Laflamme-Snow
Co-Conspired by Gillian Clark, Sadie Laflamme-Snow and Christian Barry
Land Acknowledgement Consultation by William Johnson
Adventures with Image Description Consultation Daphnée Sorel-Coupal
Composition/Sound Design Mentor Aaron Collier
Produced by Laura Vingoe-Cram and Gillian Clark (Keep Good (Theatre) Company)
Print Design by Alex Mann
Web Design by Justin Thomas
Title Graphic Design by Colleen MacIsaac
Recorded at Village Sound (and in Sophia Black’s closet)
Printed at BookArt
After purchasing a copy of the book you will receive a unique download code that includes the audio of the piece as well as:
Adventures with Image Descriptions Audio File
Jen Builthuis’s images are described throughout the story woven into the audio performed by Ann-Marie Kerr and designed/composed by Jackson Fairfax-Perry.
These descriptions have been crafted by Gillian Clark in consultation with Daphnée Sorel-Coupal.
HTML transcript
A transcript of the audio which also includes notes from composer Jackson Fairfax-Perry.
This transcript gives you the option to read along with the images by Jen Builthuis and also gives you exclusive insight to the composition.
After purchasing a copy of Adventures: The Book, you will receive a unique download code to access the audio. The book audio is availble for download as an audio file in it’s original form, as well as with audio image descriptions and an HTML transcript.
Keep Good (Theatre) Company gratefully acknowledges funding from the Canada Council for the Arts to make this project possible.
Keep Good Theatre Company would like to thank Mitchell Cushman and Outside the March for the early development of Adventures. We would also like to thank Tarragon Playwrights Unit, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, EFT Stages Festival, National Theatre School of Canada and 2b theatre for the continued development and support of this project.
This book was conceived in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal Although, Tiohtià:ke is the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, Wendat, and the Abénaki Nations, the people of the Kanienkéha:ka Nation (Haudenosaunee) are now the caretakers of the land and waterways here. The interactions between settler and Indigenous societies in Tiohtià:ke is regulated under the treaty of the Great Peace of Montreal. The audio for this project was recorded in Kjipuktuk/Halifax which is the territory of the Mi’kmaq People, which is under the Peace and Friendship treaties. These treaties do not surrender the land or its resources. The book was designed in Tkaronto/Toronto which is the territories of the Wendat, Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee. This is the ancestral lands of The Dish With One Spoon Territory which governs how to share resources of the land and water. It is also Treaty 13 territory, an agreement made with the Mississaugas of the Credit (Anishinaabe).
Land acknowledgement Resources:
http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100028574/1529354437231