EPISODE 1
“Hines has tapped into the confusion and alienation unique to our age and mined a work of gossamer charm and deadly power. Pochsy is part of the light that keeps us laughing as we plunge into the darkness.” (Simon Houpt, EYE)
POCHSY’S LIPS SYNOPSIS: Alone in her hospital room, Pochsy muses on her job at mercury packers, dances with her i.v. pole, fever-dreams about her doctor, and transforms complex consumer obsessions into gossamer fantasies. The comedy is dark. The outfit is adorable. Not for children.
PRODUCTION: Pochsy’s Lips premiered in 1992 at the Orlando Fringe Festival and went on to tour around North America and in Germany. Written and performed by Karen Hines, directed and dramaturged by Sandra Balcovske, Score by Greg Morrison, David Hines.
POCHSY POD EPISODE 1: Author and Theatre Critic Kathleen Oliver with Karen Hines. Web design by Cory Ingram. Sound design and poster art by Peter Moller. Performance by Karen Hines as Pochsy and Greg Morrison on keyboards.
ALTERNATE TRACK
This is a recording of Pochsy’s Lips at the Victoria Fringe in 1992. The audience is much bigger than the Poor Alex audience, and really vocal – it’s offered up for comparison. It’s a super-rough recording, but a great example of what is discussed in Episode One in terms of audience presence, and how audience can shape the show.
ARTIST BIOS
Sandra Balcovske (Director and Dramaturg) spent many years at The Second City, where she taught classes and directed the Touring Company and eight Mainstage shows. It was there that she met Karen Hines and started collaborating with her on the “POCHSY” plays and films. Sandra was director and dramaturge of Linda Griffiths’ The Game of Inches, Spiral Woman and the Dirty Theatre, and the third iteration of The Drowsy Chaperone. Sandra has been nominated for a Canadian Comedy award and three Dora Mavor Moore awards for directing. Currently working with Justin Miller on Pearle Harbour’s Chautauqua, and other shows upcoming.
Karen Hines (Pochsy) is a writer, performer, director and magazine writer. She is the creator of The Pochsy Plays, and the director of adult horror clowns Mump & Smoot. She has acted in many Canadian films and television shows, and played assistants in numerous “Canada-for-Hollywood” television shows and films.
Kathleen Oliver (Conversationalist: Episode 1) is a dormant playwright, retired theatre critic and current English instructor at Langara College in Vancouver. Her life was changed when she saw Pochsy’s Lips at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 1992. (Ed: She continues to write in her slim off-time and is working on several new works.)
Cory Ingram (Web Designer) is an acclaimed poet and novelist with two new books in the works.
Peter Moller (Sound Designer and Graphic Artist) has run Egg Press Co., a Calgary-based graphic and sound design establishment, since 1976. As the recipient of a number of Betty Mitchell and Elizabeth Sterling Haynes awards and nominations for his theatre sound designs, it has been his good fortune to collaborate with many widely diverse theatre companies across Canada. Recent work: Modern Times Redux, Tales O’ Calg’ry & S’roundin’ Reejuns, an exhibition of recent artworks at cSpace King Edward, and 1958 a tone poem representing his family’s move from Denmark to Calgary playing at the Arts Common +15 Soundscape. To see and hear Peter’s works please visit eggpress.ca
Greg Morrison – Composer and Performer (The Pochsy Plays and these Pods) is a Canadian composer and writer best known for his work on the Tony Award winning musical The Drowsy Chaperone, written with songwriting partner, Lisa Lambert. The Drowsy Chaperone was their first collaboration. Greg is a graduate of the Humber College Jazz program in Toronto. He began his theatre career as musical director for the touring company of The Second City in Toronto. As well as working for The Second City, Greg composed and performed scores and musical direction for a variety of Toronto artists, most notably, playwright Karen Hines, powerhouse horror clown duo, Mump and Smoot and Canadian theatre icon, Linda Griffiths. He continues to write for theatre as well as writing songs for television and film.