Credits:
Emilio's A Million Chameleons was created in residence at Tarragon Theatre as part of the Greenhouse Festival.
Co-Created by: Adam Francis Proulx and Byron Laviolette
Performed by: Adam Francis Proulx
Directed by: Byron Laviolette
Music by: Chris Tsujiuchi
Additional Instrumentation: Alex Baerg
Script, Lyrics, and Puppets by: Adam Francis Proulx
Assistant Builder: Alexander Mantia
Additional Costuming: Leeland Mitchell
Graphic Design: Kurt Firla
Production Photography: Dahlia Katz
Special Thanks:
Britt Lafield and the Soho Playhouse
Justin Miller and the Tarragon Theatre
Tempestt Halstead and the Orlando Fringe Festival
Celeste Percy-Beauregard
Sonia Vaillant
Brendan James-Boyd and Reese Scott - Puppet Stuff Canada
Jhess Knight - The Puppetsmithery
Mike Petersen
Ontario Presents
Roseneathe Theatre
Sandman Hotel Group
Annemeike Wade
Biographies:
Adam Francis Proulx
(creator, performer)
Adam Francis Proulx is an internationally celebrated theatre artist and puppeteer whose work can be seen on stage and screen. He was nominated for a 2024 Dora Mavor Moore Award for his performance as Emilio in Emilio’s A Million Chameleons.
Adam’s award-winning solo shows, including BAKER’S DOZEN: 12 Angry Puppets (Best Solo Show, Montreal Fringe; BC Touring Council Award) and THE FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mystery (Best New Play, London Fringe; Best Original Script, Orlando Fringe), have toured extensively across North America, earning critical acclaim. On others' stages, Adam has appeared in the first Canadian casts of Avenue Q (Princeton/Rod) and Disney’s Frozen (Olaf). Also a sought-after puppet designer and builder, Adam has created puppets for companies such as Neptune Theatre, CBC, and Nickelodeon. He has been a puppetry director/consultant for The Grand Theatre in London, The Capitol Theatre, and countless others. Adam spent three seasons as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, and has been an artist in residence with The Puppetsmithery in Australia, Ontario Culture Days, and Tarragon Theatre. He was a 2023 nominee for the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. Currently he can be seen on Lido TV on CBC Gem (official selection, TIFF), as well as The Fabulous Show with Fay & Fluffy on Family Jr. (Canadian Screen Awards Winner) as Fuzz the hamster. He also contributed as a writer for the series. AdamFrancisProulx.com |
Byron Laviolette
(co-creator, director)
Byron is a director with over twenty years experience working in the arts, the agency, the academy and the arcade. He is the resident director with Adam Francis Proulx’s Pucking Fuppet Co, having directed THE FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mystery, Ferry Tale, Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, as well as the short film How to Hug a Porcupine. He also works with the Dora and Canadian Comedy Award winning clowns Morro and Jasp and with the Summerworks Festival’s Audience Choice Winner Pearle Harbour.
He was also the Creative Director of The Mission Business, the Digi award-winning experience design agency whose clients included Microsoft, Autodesk, Starbucks, CBC, MetroLinx and NASA. He has designed courseware and games with a number of organizations including OntarioLearn and Ubisoft. Byron holds a PhD in Interactive Theatre and Pervasive Transmedia Fiction from the Theatre and Performance Studies Department at York University and his criticism/art journalism has appeared in Scene Changes, EYE Weekly, AdBusters and IN Toronto magazine. He also directs audio books , including the Headphone Award winning Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline and the Audie Nominated The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart, host of the hit podcast Morbid. Most recently, he has taken on the role of Artistic Director of Toronto’s newest live entertainment festival - What The Festival. With WTF, he seeks to present and promote puppetry, bouffon, clown and drag artists to new audiences looking to discover the very best in weird, wild and wonderful theatre. You can learn more the work WTF is doing at www.wtfestival.ca |
Chris Tsujiuchi
(composer, voice of Juan)
Performance credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Capitol Theatre Port Hope), An Incomplete List (Toronto Fringe), Box 4901, Recurring John (Summerworks Festival), and The Rocky Horror Show (Hart House Theatre).
Musical Direction credits include Escape to Margaritaville (Theatre Calgary), Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats / MTYP), Into the Woods (Talk is Free Theatre / Winter Garden Theatre), Parade (Toronto Musical Concerts) The Last Five Years (YRG Productions), and Onegin (Musical Stage Company/National Arts Centre/Arts Club Western Canada Tour). Chris has worked as an accompanist and teacher at Sheridan College, TMU, Randolph Academy, and George Brown College. He has toured extensively with Sharron Matthews, and can also be seen performing in Asian Riffing Trio (aka ART) and his own “Chris-terical” series of Cabarets. |
Notes from the Creators:
Adam - This show is dedicated to the little kid I saw at a drag bar in Vancouver in 2019, lip-syncing to Beyoncé in a sequin blazer and a bowtie.
I wrote Emilio’s A Million Chameleons during my residency at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. It started as an experiment of flip-sequin fabric—just a material exploration with no title or concept yet. But I knew I wanted it to be about transformation and authenticity. This is a show for kids and adults alike—a joyful, loving, and chaotic reminder that we all carry a bit of magic inside us. And it’s our job to let it shine. Throughout the creative process, I kept thinking of that little one in the sequin blazer. Their authenticity stopped me in my tracks – so much so that a friend I was with asked, “Is that little you?” And I replied, “I wish it had been.” I’m so grateful to Byron Laviolette for co-creating this show and to Chris Tsujiuchi for composing the music and lending his gorgeous voice. I never planned to make this show—it just kind of happened. And it’s been a gift from the very beginning. When I get random videos from parents of their kids singing the theme song months after seeing the show, or when I hear that the staff of the Tarragon Theatre occasionally bursts into song, it fills me with a lot of joy. Before each performance, as I tuck confetti, a bouquet, and a top hat into my pants, I remind myself how lucky I am to do this. And maybe, day-by-day, this show is teaching me to be more like that sequin blazer kid. We should all be so lucky. |
Byron - Someone (wiser than me) once said that “less is more.” In the case of Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, that is both very true…and sort of not.Let’s start with the lie. Adam always wants his shows to fit into a single suitcase, but with my clown background, I’m always pushing him to add more, more, more. More puppets, more tricks, more bang (I did manage to sneak a confetti cannon into this show - you’re welcome). I love a change of state on stage, proof to the audience that something happened here. Something moved. Something, or someone, evolved. So yes, I like stuff… but then I don’t often have to sort through it or store it after the run is over.
But Adam is, in his own way, also a lover of more, especially when it comes to the sheer amount of jokes and joy he bakes into his work, and Emilio’s is thankfully no expectation. This show is a wonderful, and heartfelt exploration of what it takes to be yourself, despite pressures from family, work and the world as a whole. And this story - like most of what Adam writes - is about belonging. How do we fit into places and spaces we find ourselves, and how do we give ourselves permission to be who and what we are? Now for the truth. I find we try to achieve this belonging by adding more. We add and add in an attempt to cover up, or fit in, or stand out, but I’ve found that it is usually when we strip away all the trappings that we can truly show what we are, without the artifice and armour. Sure, it keeps us safe, but it also keeps us hidden. And hiding is not something Adam and I have done much of lately. As the fifth show we have worked on together in the past four years, (BAKER'S DOZEN: 12 Angry Puppets, How To Hug A Porcupine, THE FAMILY CROW: A Murder Mystery, and Ferry Tale), I think what I love about Emilio’s is its simplicity despite all the stuff, all the zaniness. And all the chameleons… If you’re reading this before you’ve seen the show, then I hope you enjoy it. We certainly did while making it. And, if you’re here afterwards, then I hope you’ll see what I mean when I say that sometimes, despite our best intentions, less really is more. |
What Are Folks Saying?
“Delightfully Vaudevillian.”
“Truly suitable for all ages.”
“Proulx’s puppets, using flip-sequin fabric, are adorable.”
“I guess everyone can relate to finding — or being — “special friends filled with sparkle.”
Orlando Sentinel, Matt Palm
“Big smiles all around”
“Fabulous family-friendly foolishness.”
“Enough energy and charm to make it one of the best G-rated shows at this Festival.”
Orlando Weekly, Seth Kubersky
"I highly recommend this show for all ages. Adam truly is the greatest showman."
FringeReviews.ca
"An intelligent, fast-paced, funny and engaging show about the importance of being true to oneself. With audience participation and inspired puppetry, we laughed a lot and learned something too."
Celeste Percy-Beauregard
Parent, Writer with bylines in Today's Parent, SavvyMom, The Toronto Star
“The show was great. If this was online I would rate it with five stars.”
Sloane, age 7