ABOUT US

Through music, dance and poetry, we lead audiences on a theatrical voyage of self-discovery.
We call upon the imagination to guide us into an exploration of our human place in the natural world, to marvel at nature and understand our human journey.

The Butterfly Ship, founded in 2013, is a performing arts ensemble that centers our work around an original fantasy story. Our founding crew includes writers, actors, musicians, artists, and dancers who together created a magical full-length musical. This performance tells the story of a girl named Ever, who embarks on a journey through the light spectrum to save her lost world.

Our goal is to awaken the imagination of our audience members, adults and children alike, in different types of performance settings, celebrating live art & creativity as an important means of expression. 

In addition to our musical show "Ever & the Butterfly Ship", we also conduct unique performances, workshops & parties that feature thematic material from The Butterfly Ship. We have performed in theaters, gardens, schools, health centers, farms, and restaurants.

One day on a Gray Planet...
​
A girl embarks on a journey 
​to save her friend, and her lost world.

Along the way, she journeys through
each of the 7 colors of the rainbow.

Her name is Ever.

We have welcomed many artists, actors, musicians, builders & writers aboard The Butterfly Ship since we began in 2013. We are ever thankful for their contributions, and the collaborative creations they make possible!

Some of their work has been generously donated to our project in the interest of cultivating inspiration in ourselves, each other, and our communities. Some of the organizations that have supported our work with donations of time, space and services are:
Craft & Quail, P.O.S.T. Wellness by Design, Creators' Equity Foundation, Room With a View Studios, Arts in the Garden School, Peterson's Farm, Water Street Bistro, Ear to the Wild, Sonoma Academy, Jonathan Burnside Producer, Michael Sunday Consulting, Seared Restaurant, Graffiti Restaurant, Clear Heart Gallery, & Dance Underground.
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~ FOUNDING CREW MEMBERS ~

Tessa

Tessa Rae is a songwriter, poet, dancer, and teacher, and director of The Butterfly Ship. She believes in the linked essence of words, music, and dance, and the power of their combined expression. Her studies took her to the East Coast where she studied music and writing at Middlebury College, to France at the Ecole Normale de Musique, and back to the West Coast where she has performed in productions at Bay Area theaters and music venues, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and taught music and musical theater privately and at schools. When Tessa was 10, she told a local newspaper reporter that when she grew up, she wanted to "Tell tales woven with fantasy and set in the distant past, and sing and dance and play the piano." She couldn't say it better today. Art is the best way to interpret and connect with the essence of being alive.

Emily

Emily Katherine Cox has spent her life developing her innate talent for, and love of, understanding the human body in all its capabilities. Starting at age 3 when she enrolled in a gymnastics program, she has built a personal strength - literal and metaphorical - which has aided her on her journey through the world of traditional dance. She has been dancing competitively since adolescence, first with Terpsichore and later with the Cal Poly Ballroom Dance Team. Further formal dance education followed at the SFSU University Dance Theatre, where she graduated with a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography.  Since then, her energies have been devoted to The Butterfly Ship.

Emily A.

Emily Anglewing is the costume designer for The Butterfly Ship.  She holds a BA in Psychology despite having spent most of her class time drawing.  Her prior costume experience includes a wicked duct-tape quail (seen at left) and some unicorn heads.  She is currently working on designing a line of clothes, printmaking, and improving her aerial performance skills.

Caroline

Caroline Mannaerts is an artist and avid cyclist.  She is an artist, and the author of the story upon which The Butterfly Ship is based. Learn more about her artwork here: http://carolinemannaerts.blogspot.com/

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Sam

Sam Collier is a playwright and poet from Washington, DC, and a current MFA candidate in the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her plays have been developed by the Iowa New Play Festival, PTP/NYC, and Theater Nyx. Her poems have been published in Guernica, Broad!, and Pure Francis. Sam has taught with Young Playwrights' Theater, Imagination Stage, Indiana Repertory Theatre, and The University of Iowa.

Alex

Alex J. Ponting, though lacking in formal theater education, has starred in several extremely obscure stage productions and is currently happy to play a more behind-the-scenes role in The Butterfly Ship.  He has a BS degree from a moderately compromised institution of high learning and insists on using his middle initial as a means of distinguishing himself.  He is currently tall, and divides his copious free time amongst a (to-him) dazzling array of hobbies, including thinking about space travel, thinking about writing about space travel, thinking about social justice issues, and tacos.  For the time being, he resides in relative comfort in a tastefully eclectic basement.

Sophia Elizabeth

I stand before you with my shadow at hand.
I have one request,
and empathetic demand,
to delve deep inside yourself
and find the whys of your eyes;
We can take a self-knowing stand
and stop spreading judgment with lies.

Sophia Elizabeth is a Bay Area poet and performing artist with a background in child development, dance, and philosophy and describes herself as "a self-expressionist and motivational messenger." She is intrigued by emotion, order and chaos, the stability of beauty in pain, and the constant need for change as she writes about individual growth and universal acceptance.  As an outgrowth of her various interests, she seeks to help others express themselves through the art of being seen, heard, and understood.  Find more of her work at www.sopoetry.com or via Facebook: PhiaMeSo.

Jamei

Jamei Tierney has been a performer of stories and poetry for over two decades to audiences of all ages, mostly on the West Coast and in Hawai'i. He's been a collector of gems of spoken word that inspire and uplift, from a diversity of sources – Rumi, Mary Oliver, William Blake, Hafiz, Dr. Seuss... He's also been known to build light-weight wooden hand-carts, and once used one to move from Oregon to northern Washington. He's excited to be part of the creative synergistic community of artists that is the Butterfly Ship.

Christopher

Christopher is a permaculture landscaper by day, musician by night. He has played music all over the country since he was 15, serenading folks on the farms where he's worked, busking on sidewalks on his travels, and appearing on stage most recently in "Petaluma the Musical".