Written and Composed by Josh Gross
Directed by Katy Curtis and Alyssa Marie Mathews
CAST
Forest Gilpin ……………………………… John Lagrasse
Alex Giorgi …………… Burt the Shoggoth / Cthulhu
Alyssa Marie Mathews ………….. Francine Thurston
Hunter Prutch ………………………… Captain Collins /
Henry Wilcox
Owen Webb ……………… Jenkins / George Angell
Music performed by
Josh Gross (guitar), Jen Scaffidi (bass guitar), and Anthony Combest (drums)
Projection Design and Sound Design by Aubry Hollingshead
Lighting Design and Tech Operation by Mads Hamilton
Puppets by Brooke Sharpe
Shadow Puppetry by Alyssa Marie Mathews
Marketing Manager: Sasi Brindle
MEET THE CAST & CREW
SASI BRINDLE
Jack of all trades, master of….ALL! …at least for this tour. You need something handled? Sasi will have a solution before the thought even finishes. Selling her soul to big tech for years drove her more mad than Cthulhu could even fathom, so when she switched to using her assets for good (the arts, marketing local bands, promoting small businesses) it was all joyful chaos from there! While working in the music industry her skills were noticed by the Puppeteers for Fears and she was taken on to bring her magic to this ever growing production!
ANTHONY “ANT” COMBEST
Drummer and fresh recruit of the Cthulhu “family”(definitely not a cult) accomplished sleeper, and future past life regressionist. Originating from the city of angels currently residing in the Rogue Valley where he can often be seen behind a bar or a bass guitar but somewhat elusive beside those occasions.
KATY CURTIS
Originally from Arcata, California, Katy Curtis moved to Southern Oregon in 2012, attending SOU for her theater performance education. This is where her hand held its first puppet, and the rest is history…. After performing in two Puppeteers For Fears shows and directing another three, Cthulhu: The Musical! will be her sixth production with the company. When she isn’t working with these talented weirdos, she’s playing music with friends or hanging with her adorable dog, Ghost.
FOREST GILPIN
What does he want? Where did he come from? No one knows when Forest exactly joined the group, a spectral outline theorized to be Forest can be seen in the background of Puppeteers photos dating back to 1846. His first recorded physical manifestation was in 2018 Cthulhu Tour and he’s been haunting the productions of Puppeteers For Fears ever since, murmuring poorly conceived jokes and bits to induce minor bouts of madness, despair and anger. “Ang-er? I Hardly know ‘er” He’d combat Cthulhu by explaining the man-made horrors we’ve already designed without him, kinda making him obsolete in this modern era.
ALEX GIORGI
Alex was once a normal college student who went to Southern Oregon University in Ashland to study Theatre. He grew up in the Portland (OR) area and had a history of messing around with the dark magic known as puppetry in the past. So one day, while in college, his curiosity led him to see a previous run of Cthulhu: The Musical. From the moment he saw that show, he was forever changed. He must wield this dark power, he thought to himself. After he performed in a few shows at the Oregon Center for the Arts and graduated with a BFA in theatre, he soon found himself performing in his first PFF show: Cattle Mutilation The Musical. Rumor has it that he moved back to Portland afterwards, but he has not been seen since… until now. He was spotted last year in in Cthulhu: The Musical – Back From The Dead Tour. Reports are now stating he is reprising his roles as Burt and Cthulhu for the Road To R’lyeh. Now that he has joined forces with Cthulhu once again, he may actually be unstoppable.
JOSH GROSS
Known loudmouth and ukulele hooligan. Olympic Gold Medalist in vocabulary and legendary fabulist. A recovering journalist with coffee for blood, Josh enjoys long walks on the peach and dubious spelling. When not on tour with PFF, he can be found fronting bands you’ve never heard of like Thunderchud and The Totes Adorbs and writing books you haven’t read like Summer of Smoke and The Pilgrimage. Don’t feed after midnight. Also, he wrote the show.
MADS HAMILTON
Mads is a Portland based stage manager and technician thrilled to be touring with PFF again after receiving the call to action to join forces against Cthulhu and the crew for a third time. Known for being their own creator of chaos, Mads is unfazed by Cthulhu’s rumored madness, and thinks they actually might have him beat. He may be an evil dictator with a plan to take over the world, but can he single-handedly run all of the tech for a touring rock puppet show? They’d love to see him try…
AUBRY HOLLINGSHEAD
Aubry has been with PFF since the dawn of PFF — first wielding a box cutter to craft cardboard-on-stick props for the inaugural Halloween show in 2015, then computering a computer to design digital projections and run sound for every show since. She also designed that logo on your shirt (…wait, did you *not* get a PFF shirt yet?) and dubbed the operation Puppeteers for Fears (narrowly overtaking the contending name suggestion, Hand-in-Butt Theatre). Aubry has been involved with every production of Cthulhu: The Musical, which means every hard drive she owns is riddled with Lovecraftian imagery and her tech is now exclusively powered by nightmares. So if anything goes wonk during the show, blame old man Cthulhu and his psychic temper tantrums.
ALYSSA MARIE MATHEWS
This is actually Alyssa’s 5th time being in Cthulhu: The Musical, and they say the 5th time’s a charm, right? That, or she’s just slowly going more insane as the years go on….. She is a long-time member of PFF, being involved in every show except one since 2016. The resume is too long to list, so she’s not gonna try. Being decently obsessed with puppetry, she holds a Masters degree in Puppet Arts(yes, that really exists) at the University of Connecticut and a BFA in Acting at Southern Oregon University. She currently resides in Portland, Oregon with official PFF groupie, Danny, and their two sweet cats. Alyssa uses any and all art tools to keep up her defenses against the nightmares Cthulhu brings.
HUNTER PRUTCH
Hunter Prutch is a Pacific Northwest native that found his way to Ashland, Oregon for his college career. During that time he studied and received a BFA in Performing Arts from Southern Oregon University. It was while treading through those treacherous waters that he was shown the eldritch horror that was Puppeteer for Fears. Since then he has been getting dragged further and further into rabbit hole having performed in other PFF productions such as: Robopocalypse: The Musical, Cattle Mutilation: The Musical, and The Cabaret At The End Of The World. You can find him scrawling eldritch runes on the inside of the puppet box, while playing dungeons and dragons, and laughing at his own jokes.
JEN SCAFFIDI
You may know Jen Scaffidi from such theatrical productions as “dancing at the grocery store” and “no seriously, where the hell are my keys.” A songwriter and musician based in Northern Nevada, Jen is having way too much fun on her first adventure playing bass in the puppet musical — the other members of her noise-pop band Blunderbusst wait patiently for her at home. If she approaches you in the parking lot, move slowly and speak in low, comforting tones. She’s harmless and probably just wants a hug.
OWEN WEBB
This is Owen’s first show with PFF and is so excited to join this welcoming and talented group on the Road to R’lyeh! They graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BFA in performance, and are currently based out of Portland, OR. They would like to thank all of their fantastic friends and family for supporting them on their journey as a performer and theatre artist.