The Gottabees- Squirrel Stole My Underpants

Join us Thursday, April 6th, 2023 for Squirrel Stole My Underpants: A poignantly silly adventure tale for families! Sneaky squirrel robs girl!

In this poignantly silly adventure tale for families, Sylvie is sent to the backyard to hang up the laundry. The moment her back is turned, a mischievous squirrel steals her favorite piece of clothing and runs off. When Sylvie gives chase, an entire world emerges from her laundry basket, and curious characters show her the way through mysterious lands. Featuring: physical theater, puppetry, and a giant pile of clothes.

“Talented performer-creator Bonnie Duncan brings her handmade puppets, fanciful sets, charming stage persona, and always imaginative flair to this family-friendly piece.” –Boston Globe

If you are interested in reserving a ticket or block of tickets for the Student Matinee performance (10 AM), please contact Director of Education, Julianne Nickerson. 

For Education Materials to review before you attend the show EMAIL Julianne, Director of Education at Jnickerson@sprucepeakarts.org.

“’Squirrel Stole My Underpants’ is very likely to steal your heart…There are so many visual delights you won’t want to blink, for fear of missing one.” –CBC News

About The Gottabees

The Gottabees are a Boston-based ensemble dedicated to creating inspirational, engaging, and empowering theater for family audiences. Our company is known internationally uniting simple-but-elegant visual theater with astonishing technique. We apply our interdisciplinary training in music, dance, acrobatics, theater, and design to share original non-verbal stories set to live music that weave together human and puppet characters in surprising ways.

The Gottabees’ stories reflect children’s everyday aspirations, concerns, and emotional experiences. We find it deeply satisfying to create this style of theater for families to giggle, gasp, sigh, and cheer together in 45 minutes or less. One of the things that makes us happiest is when we meet children who have seen a show and parents tell us how their child acted out the entire show for weeks after seeing it. This is the core reason why we make theater for young audiences:

The Gottabees want children to know in their hearts that they, too, can make theater wherever they are and whomever they are.

Our work earned a 2017 UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence and won the “Artistic Achievement Award” for Puppeteers of America’s Northeast Region in 2015. The Gottabees have performed all over, including the Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA), La MaMa E.T.C. (New York City), Detroit Institute of the Arts (Michigan), ICA/Boston (MA), Izmir International Puppet Days (Turkey), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland), and AHA! International Theater Festival for Children (India).

The Creative Team: 

Bonnie Duncan (creator/performer) has blended puppetry, dance, and physical theatre in surprising and delightful ways for the past 16 years. Her work has been described as “an artful world of silent dreams, mime, and dance” (Austin Live Theatre). She worked as one half of They Gotta Be Secret Agents with Tim Gallagher touring worldwide and winning accolades along the way. Prior to her work as a Secret Agent, Bonnie was a company member of Snappy Dance Theater for 8 years, collaboratively creating and performing sculptural, acrobatic dances internationally. Her movement was called both “breathtakingly simple” and “delightfully crafty” by the Boston Globe.

Brendan Burns (music) is a composer, producer & educator. He released his debut album, TimeStamp, in 2012 and was featured in the Boston Globe. Brendan is Chair of the Guitar Department at Brookline Music School, founder of Guitober, and produces Brookline Porchfest.

Tony Leva (music) can often be found on stages throughout the US playing songs or accompanying theater and puppetry with The Dylan Jack Quartet, Bury Me Standing, and Brian Carpenter’s Group, to name a few. He is also an active educator/collaborator at Tunefoolery, an artist collective of musicians in mental health recovery. He just earned a Masters of Music at Longy School of Music.

Dan Milstein (director/co-creator) is the founding Artistic Director of Boston’s Rough & Tumble Theater with whom he made over thirteen original plays. He holds fast to his quixotic belief that theater should be cheap, fun, and deeply satisfying.

Penney Pinette (costumes) is a Boston-based designer focusing on dance and theater. She has been a draper at Huntington Theatre Company and is currently Costume Shop Manager at Boston University. She has designed costumes for Boston Conservatory, Prometheus Dance, and Contrapose, among others.

Hamideh Rezaei-Kamalabad (set) is a jewelry maker who sometimes dabbles in theater when asked. She is a recent graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and works as a fabricator for local jewelers. She is currently working on a new line of her own art jewelry.