Extracts of Butterfly Dreams

In ancient Taoist Chinese philosophy, there was a sage, Zhuang Zi, who had a dream that he had become a butterfly and derived pleasure from flying. After he awakened, he asked wether he was a man who had dreamed he was a butterfly or if he was a butterfly that was dreaming that he was a man.

Butterfly Dreams is a series of vignettes dealing with different forms of dreaming - sleeping, waking, desires, etc. Each of the the pieces presents the essence of an idea that gives the audience a broad invitation for interpretation and discovery.

The production was produced by US company, Visual Expressions. It was directed by Bart Roccoberton and features Celi Clemens, Josph Jonah Therrien, David W Regan and Penny Jo Benson. I filmed extracts of this beautifully choreographed production at the 21st UNIMA World Festival of Puppetry in Chengdu, China earlier this month.