About the Play:

The Short Tree and the Bird That Could Not Sing is a full-length fantasy for young audiences by Dennis Foon. A tree which resents its roots and a bird with the worst singing voice in the history of the avian species are the delightful characters in this quirky fable about two unlikely forces of nature: a spunky, unflappable bird and a stunted, insecure tree.

The Short Tree and the Bird That Could Not Sing follows the bird and tree's relationship as it builds around the joys of music, storytelling, the weather and the stars. Alone in the razed forest, the lonely tree is visited by the bird, who agrees to quit singing in return for being allowed to rest on the tree's branches – which are just the right size for her to hold onto. Each day the tree is delighted by the tales the bird tells him of the wonders she has seen when she flies away into the sky – a snow people's wedding, a circus, and a family of escaped balloons hiding in a cloud. Fall comes, and the bird flies south, unmoved by the tree's pleas for her to stay. Throughout the long cold winter, the tree finds company in the stars, the North Wind and even his own shadow. Spring returns, and so does the bird, bringing with her a souvenir from her winter in Florida — a piece of pink beach ball to adorn the tree's tiniest branch. And so the two unlikely friends are happily reunited. A moving fable about the environment, loneliness and love.

The Short Tree and The Bird That Could Not Sing, won the CBC Literary Award and has played across North America, from Halifax to Seattle, from Toronto to Tucson.

Cast: 4 to 6 actors with doubling. May be expanded to 26 actors.

What people say:

"A moving and totally delightful experience… alternately joyful and sad, it touches anyone, at any age." — Now Magazine, Toronto

"Long on charm… considerable entertainment value." — Seattle Times

"Let's be serious here. You can't really expect a little science, tenderness, friendship and philosophical depth from a 55 minute children's play, can you? When the show is the elegantly simple Short Tree and the Bird that Could Not Sing, you can." — Arizona Daily Star

About the Playwright:

Dennis Foon was born in Detroit, Michigan but has lived the majority of his life in Vancouver, B.C. Labeled as "unquestionably Canada's best young people's playwright" by the Children's Literature Journal, he has written more than 20 award-winning plays produced in Canada and internationally for adults and young people. After more than a decade as artistic director of Vancouver's acclaimed Green Thumb Theatre, he began writing screenplays and novels, which now occupy most of his time.