The WychBourne Weekly — November 15, 2026

The Front Page

When the puppets found their voices

On Saturday, a little table with a red-and-white cloth stood in the window of Freyja’s Café. Three puppets could sit around it and hear exactly the same news. Put a different voice behind each one, though, and suddenly each seemed to have heard something different. That was the pleasure of the afternoon at JDF. An exercise that began with people warming up their voices ended with characters who had opinions of their own.

The workshops have been growing steadily this season, and moving into Room 202 at the Juan de Fuca 55+ Activity Centre made Saturday feel like a step forward. The room was bright, people could hear one another, and the way in was straightforward. There was plenty of parking close by, the Colwood Exchange was next door, and there were places to get lunch without having to go far. Several families stopped in, a welcome surprise. Special thanks to Birdie, who made time to sit with a young visitor and show her how the puppet worked.

ChrŸs opened the study boxes and explained what goes into them. Shannon then helped everyone settle with a grounding exercise before putting the group through a generous stretch of voice work. The difference was audible as soon as the puppets went on. A line could be hurried out, or given enough time for the other character to take it in. The skit book gave everyone somewhere to try that out. By the time the chairs were being put away, the group had a better sense of how to rehearse a scene, and ChrŸs had some rewriting to do in the script books.

Now in Share · Voices in Play

Sam has neighbourhood news, and the puppets on the stoop each have their own way of taking it. Watch what happens in the gap between one voice and the next. The workshop was about finding a voice that suits a character, and this little scene shows what that gives the other players to work with. Watch Voices in Play in Share.

Around the Village

Come celebrate at Festivus

Festivus is an afternoon for giving puppets an outing and meeting the people who bring them to life. Bring a puppet of your own or come get acquainted with the WychBourne cast. Local businesses have already started adding to the door-prize pile.

The First Annual All Puppet Festivus is Saturday, December 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. Pacific in Room 201 at the Juan de Fuca 55+ Activity Centre, 1767 Island Highway. Enter from Ocean Boulevard. There are 20 free places. Reserve a place at Festivus.

Festivus is also the last day to sign the charter and launch a troupe for this season. First Threads will use the planning session to see whether enough people are ready to make a show together. If the troupe doesn’t launch on December 19, the spring programme will be set aside and the next chance to form the troupe will be in September 2027.

ChrŸs has already signed as Troupe Guide. The charter calls for five people to step forward alongside the Guide, with eight member places in all. The first job is to make a one-hour Community Debut with two 15-minute segments, leaving time to welcome the audience, change scenes and bring the show to a close. The people who sign will choose the story and work out who wants to write, make things, operate the puppets or look after sound and backstage. A performance can run with four puppeteers and a Bard/Engineer. Signing also means making time for monthly workshops from January through April and doing whatever the group agrees to between meetings.

If that sounds like a spring you’d enjoy, put your name on the charter and bring your calendar to Festivus. Think of one person you know who loves puppetry, theatre, storytelling or the work that goes on behind the curtain, and ask them directly. They may have been waiting for just such an invitation.

Around Manzer Commons

What the Commons needs before it can move forward

Last Sunday’s paper asked what you’d make room for at Manzer Commons. A place to leave a half-built set overnight was one answer. The University of Toronto student team is looking at the larger question of what this property could support as a neighbourhood community and resource centre. Their feasibility report is expected in early December. Alongside that work is a question about the property as it stands today, and what it can afford to take on.

The highway project left Manzer Commons carrying a substantial debt. The agreement states that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure would cover costs arising from the work. Those costs remain unpaid. Three bodies have opened investigations into why the Ministry has yet to fulfil the agreement. Resolving the outstanding costs will help Manzer Commons act on the feasibility study without carrying the highway debt into the new project.

Your Two Cents · Jules at the café

What did Friday the 13th ever do to you?

There was plenty for Jules to talk over at Freyja’s this weekend. Trouble with Microsoft 365 spilled into Friday, and a separate communications failure led the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to halt departures nationwide for a time. Planes already in the air could still land. If you had an email to send or a flight to catch, it was a particularly good day to remember the date. Associated Press · FAA

Jules would like to hear about a Friday the 13th that stuck with you. Perhaps it was a day when two small things went wrong and the third turned into a story you’ve been telling for years. Or perhaps the date brought you better luck than anyone had any right to expect. Send your Friday the 13th story.

Tau Medicine Garden

Some herbs ask for a kettle, others for a saucepan

The kettle goes on and the leaves go in the cup. That familiar bit of kitchen work is an infusion. Freshly boiled water is poured over the herb and left to steep for the time given in the directions. It often suits delicate leaves and flowers. The same short steep may do very little with a tough piece of root or bark. Some of those are prepared as a decoction, brought up to the boil and then simmered for the time that particular plant calls for.

The third method, maceration, asks for patience instead of a boiling kettle. The plant material soaks in water at the temperature specified for it. The European Medicines Agency’s guide explains why the details matter. The parts of a plant, the amount of water and the time spent steeping or simmering all affect what ends up in the cup. Use drinking water, check the directions for the particular herb or blend, and make it fresh. Tinctures and concentrated extracts have their own instructions and measures. European Medicines Agency guide to herbal tea preparations

These are accounts of herbal tradition rather than treatment advice.

A Moment of Practice

Something the hand can remember

A strand of beads is easy to leave beside a favourite chair or tuck into a pocket. Earlier this year, the social prescribing project tried a ten-bead strand as a physical anchor for a moment of quiet. The habit has stayed with ChrŸs. Anyone who’s turned a modest intention into an ambitious daily challenge will recognise part of its appeal. It gives the hand something to do on the days when the mind is busy drawing up rules.

If you have prayer or meditation beads nearby, try resting your thumb on one. Let an ordinary breath come and go. You can move to the next bead if you feel like staying a little longer. One is enough for today, and the strand will be there tomorrow.

The Study Box

What goes into a Chōsa box?

A recipe box belongs on a kitchen shelf where it can be opened with one hand and put away again before the kettle boils. That is much of what makes it a good home for character cards. If there’s an old one in a cupboard, see whether it takes 4 × 6 cards. A kitchen shop or second-hand store is a good place to look. A plain index-card box works just as well. The goal is to publish all learning materials in 4 × 6 card format whenever possible, so the box can grow with the work.

For the first of three Sundays with the Chōsa box, start with the cards used at JDF. Sign in and open the Voice Found character cards. Find the three gestures, the character’s history, their set lines and the short autobiography. When a print-ready card is available, load blank 4 × 6 stock and select that paper size in the print dialog. It comes out ready to file. Find blank index cards on Amazon Canada. Try one line with a gesture and listen for the point where it begins to sound like the character. Next week comes sorting the cards, followed by a look at how to use the box between rehearsals.

Puzzle or Riddle

A question from an Irish school notebook

Schoolchildren in Ireland collected riddles and stories from their neighbours and families in the 1930s. This small question was recorded in Kells and still works nicely across a kitchen table. Give someone else a chance to guess before you lift the answer.

What is it that has teeth and cannot eat?

Support our Troupe and Friends

A January evening at the Belfry

There’s a night of theatre to look forward to after the holidays. Frances Riley’s Genderality Show returns to the Belfry in Victoria on Saturday, January 23, 2027. It’s a one-night variety show with trans and gender-diverse artists bringing stand-up, drag, dance, live music and more to the same stage. If you know someone who loves the quick changes and surprises of a variety show, this is a good date to pass along. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the curtain goes up at 7:30. Show and ticket details

Closer to home, if you have something that would make a good Festivus door prize, there’s still room on the table. Offer a door prize for December.

From the Troupe Guide

Staying long enough to listen

There’s a story of Covey’s I think of when a conversation has gone badly. As I remember it, a sales team had just lost the sale. They stayed to hear what the client was saying and took the trouble to tell it back in a way the client recognised. At forty, I doubt I’d have had the patience. I’d have been sharpening my next argument while the other person was still speaking.

I still have days when taking an argument apart sounds wonderfully satisfying. Then I picture the morning after. If I’ve won the point and the people involved can’t bear to work together afterward, what have I won? Covey’s advice to seek first to understand and think win-win gives me something to do in that moment. Listen for what matters to the other person, then say plainly what matters to me. I’d like to leave room for everyone to heal.

That’s one reason I want people of different ages making a show together. Someone may recognise a difficulty they’ve lived through before. Someone else may ask the question that never occurred to them at the time. A rehearsal is a good place to practise hearing both. The 7 Habits

ChrŸs Tei
Troupe Guide