Note from the playwright --
The show you are about to see began as an inside joke written for my Mom and Dad.
Like Heidi, I also collected stuffed monkeys as a young child.
Each night 8-year-old me would carefully line up my monkeys on the shelf in front of my bed.
One night a noise woke me up. I turned my bedside lamp on just in time to see my stuffed monkeys leap from their shelf and lunge towards my bed. I shrieked and buried my head under the covers. By the time my parents had rushed into the room, the monkeys were laying still at the bottom of my bed. I spent the next several weeks sleeping on the floor of their bedroom. They promised to get rid of the monkeys.
Of course, no one believed me. I was the kid who was pulled out of line to go to recess to discuss my "delusions" with the school guidance counselor. Over time what I had witnessed would become part of Lysiak family lore, chalked up to an overactive imagination. I used to often wonder who possessed the monkeys and if there were any more experiences.
A few years ago while exploring my parents basement I found, in box in a far corner under some crumpled up newspapers, three of the my old monkeys. Guess my parents forget to get rid of all of them. Or maybe they just had a way of survivng.
Those three monkeys are being used in this live performance. Last year a clarvoyant who investigating the monkeys concluded that one of them (the dark black one) was possessed by a dark entity and had caused the others to move for reasons unknown. I remain unconvinced.
Those of you who saw Heidi's Monkeys last year are in for a big surprise. See, I like to think of this show as an evolving process. Every year is going to revolve around a single premise, a young girl trying to decifer the message from her stuffed monkeys, but the rest is up to the whim of my twisted imagination. Don't want to give to much away, but this year's show offers a new take on a very old brand of evil.
I am overwhelmed by the talent that came together to make this show. Director, Desirae Ashilene Mausteller is a rare talent. Enjoy her work while we still have her in this area. Hat tip to Bridget Reddan, who put this talented cast and crew together all the while homeschooling four daughters and managing her quarky writer husband. Stefany VanKirk Ditty, whose family put their heart and soul into this production. And Brynn, because what would a show be without sass?
Here it is. The 2016 version of Heidi's Monkeys.
No one may have believed me, but I know what I saw that night many years ago.
And what began as an inside joke from a son to his parents also serves the purest form of revenge decades in the making..
For Gina and Arthur Lysiak....
