Marrying science and spirituality with the theatre's skillful magic of puppet and mask wizardry, Winter Dreams is the antidote to below-zero blues. A cast of creatures descend into darkness for a journey that leads to illumination. But, there must be some reason winter exists, I think it's rest and regeneration for people's physical and spiritual selves. Rooting the fantastical in fact, Heimstead and the puppeteers did a great deal of research through the University's Bell Museum of Natural History, and other sources. Bears give birth while they're hibernating, the cubs are about the size of a squirrel, and are pre-programmed to suckle as their mother sleeps.
Snakes hibernate in masses.
They return to the same places every year to hibernate. All those critters and more, including some hilarious groundhogs, appear. But, the heart of the play is wolves. It goes into the history of wolves, how they were slaughtered in the West and the recovery of the wolf. The cast went to the film and studied videos.