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
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:
Justin Miller
The staff of the Tarragon Theatre
Celeste Percy-Beauregard
Sonia Vaillant
Keith Brown
Brendan James-Boyd and Reese Scott - Puppet Stuff Canada
Jhess Knight - The Puppetsmithery
Mike Petersen
Ontario Presents
Annemeike Wade

Biographies:

Adam Francis Proulx
(creator, performer)

Adam is a theatre creator and puppeteer. He has worked on stage and screen around the world. For his performance as Emilio, he was nominated for a 2024 Dora Mavor Moore award.

Adam’s award-winning solo shows have played across North America, 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).

Other shows include How to Hug a Porcupine the virtual theatrical production, and most recently, Ferry Tale, which will live on as part of an exhibition at the Sault Ste. Marie Museum. But let's be honest: what people seem to care about most is Spencer Stays Inside, his pandemic-era web series.

Also a sought-after puppet builder, Adam has designed and built puppets for companies like Young People's Theatre, WhyNot Theatre, Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Rogers TV, ABC Family, CBC, and Nickelodeon. He has been a puppetry director/consultant for The Grand in London, The Capitol Theatre in Port Hope, and many others.
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Adam holds an honours degree from the University of Waterloo in Theatre and in Arts and Business. He 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.
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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 and Byron on tour in Northern Ontario with Emilio after their flight was cancelled and they had to drive a Uhaul 12 hours to the next venue. Having a ball.

Adam - This show is dedicated to a little kid I saw lip-syncing to  Beyoncé in a sequin blazer and a bowtie in Vancouver 2019.

I wrote Emilio’s a Million Chameleons in residence at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, where it started as a material exploration of flip-sequin fabric. I didn’t start with much more than that. Even the title and basic concept came later. But I knew I wanted to be about transformation. This is a show for kids and adults alike… a fun, loving, and chaotic reminder that we all have some magical sparkle in us, and it’s our job to let it shine. I had the sequin blazer kid in mind the whole time. Their's was an authenticity that stopped me in my tracks. To the point where the friend I was with asked me, "Is that little you?" To which I responded, "I wish it had been!"

I am so grateful to Byron for co-creating this show with me, and to Chris for agreeing to write the music and lend his beautiful voice to the show. I never planned to make this show – it just kind of happened. And it’s been a gift from moment one.

When I get random videos from parents of their kids singing the theme song months after seeing the show, or putting on puppet shows, or when I hear that the staff of the Tarragon Theatre occasionally bursts into song now, it fills me with a lot of joy. Before a show, as I shove confetti, a bouquet, and a top hat down my pants… I am reminded how lucky I am to do this. And wonder if maybe I’m just a bit more like sequin blazer kid than I had originally thought.

Byron flyering at Edmonton Fringe Festival with a puppet, taken by Adam who is sitting inside a coffee shop... did we mention Byron has a PhD?

Byron - Someone wise once said that “less is more.” In the case of Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, that is both very true…and 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, changed. So yes, I like stuff… but then I don’t often have to sort 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?

Often, I find we try to achieve this by adding more, which is so often not the best idea. 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

Photos:

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