Anita Stewart, Artistic Director of Portland Stage, first approached FST in the summer of 2007 with the idea of co-visioning Peer Gynt. Anita has long desired to stage a production as rangy and ambitious as Peer, and this felt to her the right moment for PSC. Says Anita, "It's fantastic to think about collaborating with local artists whom I hold in great esteem. Watching Figures of Speech Theatre's work, I've learned that having a human 'operator' give life to various inanimate objects adds a level of imagination, of metaphor -- which feels absolutely appropriate to a piece like Peer Gynt."

Conceptual development for Peer Gynt began in earnest after the close of PSC's A Christmas Carol. Creative staff from both PSC and FST, with guest artist Michael Rafkin, met for the next six months to work on re-shaping the many versions of the script and developing a conceptual framework for the piece. We had an opportunity to try out some of our ideas during PSC's Little festival of the Unexpected in May, which was very instructive. We now have a collective vision of how each scene looks and feels, and an internal logic for when puppets (vs. actors vs. shadows, etc.) are used to amplify the drama. So this fall it's time to get to work building some fabulous beings!

Peer Gynt, featuring an ensemble of actors, puppets and a spectrum of other stage media, will open at Portland Stage on January 22, 2009, and run through February 22. For further information, visit www.portlandstage.com.