Pochsy Productions (a.k.a. Keep Frozen)

Pochsy Productions was founded in 1992 for the company's first show, Pochsy's Lips, which won a loyal cult following, and went on to play theatres and festivals across Canada, the U.S.A. and Germany. Since then, the the Pochsy Plays and the short films adapted from them have traveled far and wide – all created with the collaboration of a remarkable company of artists. A brief history is noted below.

Pochsy Unplugged · Citizen Pochsy · Oh, baby · Pochsy's Lips
Everything’s Falling · I’ll believe · The Audit · A Tax on Pochsy · My Name is Pochsy

The Pochsy Films

Pochsy’s short films have traveled the globe, from Dawson to Boston, Palm Springs to Kuala Lumpur. They include Everything’s Falling (directed by Sandi Somers), Hines’ The Audit and My Name is Pochsy: An Industrial Film.

Pochsy works at Mercury Packers … where she packs mercury. Having missed some kind of mass evacuation, she is utterly alone on a ravaged industrial landscape. ‘My Name is Pochsy’ is Pochsy’s fictional ‘personal documentary’: a mercury-addled waif’s ode to life, death, karmic reckoning and the future of the human soul. 

The Pochsy Plays

  

Beckett meets Betty Boop in this trilogy of monologues by Canadian cult heroine Pochsy. In The Pochsy Plays, Hines remodels and melds traditions like stand-up, absurdism, clowning and neo-cabaret to create some of the most original and cutting satire to hit the stage - and, now, the page. Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, winner of the Writers Guild of Alberta award for Drama.

From Coach House Books https://chbooks.com/Authors/H/Hines-Karen

The Pochsy Productions

Pochsy Unplugged

"Karen Hines's Pochsy, the crown princess of narcissism, has become one of the little gems of Canadian theatre ... an unforgettable character steeped in equal measures of honey and acid." (Toronto Star)

A cabaret-style selection of the company's chosen favourites from the Pochsy trilogy. Stories and songs from the nastiest little minx this side of Alexanderplatz.

  • Written and performed by Karen Hines

  • Directed by Sandra Balcovske and John Turner

  • Score by Greg Morrison with Karen Hines

  • Music performed live by Greg Morrison

  • 2010 University of Toronto, Literature for Our Times Series

  • 2008 Joe's Pub N.Y.C. (The Canada Night)

  • 2005: World Stage Festival

  • Theatre Passe Muraille (late night cabaret)

  • Variations performed at Universty of Lethbridge (2006), York University (2007)

Citizen Pochsy: Head Movements of a Long-Haired Girl

A brilliant piece of play construction ... Karen Hines is an astonishing artist both as writer and performer. (Edmonton Journal)

 Set in the waiting room at an audit from hell, Citizen Pochsy takes a labyrinthine tour through the incomparable mind of Canadian cult cutie Pochsy. Take a peek through her thick-lashed eyes as she grapples with karmic reckoning, ponders the future of the human soul, and marvels at the wonders of a market-driven world. Sort of like a chat with the girl next door only ... more complex.

  • Written and performed by Karen Hines

  • Directed by John Turner

  • Dramaturgy by Sandra Balcovske

  • Score by Greg Morrison with Karen Hines

  • Music performed live by Greg morrison

  • 2003: Magnetic North Festival, Ottawa;

  • One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, Calgary;

  • Kaboom Festival, Edmonton; Ruby Slippers at The Firehall, Vancouver

  • 2004: One Yellow Rabbit's Big Secret Theatre, Calgary

  • (Citizen Pochsy has not played in Toronto)

Oh, baby (Pochsy's Adventures by the Sea)

Pochsy is a must-see, a blend of charm and vitriol who traipses blithely over mercuy-traced waters ... she skewers middle-class aspirations and consumer obsessions with poison-tipped arrows and relentless slings. (Eye Weekly)

On vacation from her job packing mercury, Pochsy trips lightly across a beach of slag, splashes in silver-lined waters, and communes with 2-foot minnows. From her perch atop a mammoth seashell, Pochsy delivers a Shirley-Valentine-on-ecstasy meditation on this, our horribly beautiful world.

  • Written and performed by Karen Hines

  • Directed by and written with the collaboration of Sandra Balcovske

  • Score by Greg Morrison with Karen Hines

  • Music performed live by Greg Morrison

  • 1993: Fringe Festivals: Sudbury, Toronto, Edmonton

  • 1994: Factory Theatre Studio, Toronto
    Vancouver East Cultural Centre (Women In View)

Pochsy's Lips

Pure poetry spun smooth as silk ... Imagine Greek Tragedy by Betty Boop. (Montreal Gazette)

Alone in her hospital room, Pochsy muses on her job at mercury packers, dances with her i.v. pole, fever-dreams about her doctor, and transforms complex consumer obsessions into gossamer fantasies. Black comedy. Not for children.

  • Written and performed by Karen Hines

  • Directed by and written with the collaboration of Sandra Balcovske

  • Score by Greg Morrison, David Hines and Karen Hines

  • 1992: Fringe Festivals: Orlando, Montreal, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria

  • Poor Alex Theatre (Toronto)

  • 1993: Festival of Wrack and Ruin: Alice's Fourth Floor (N.Y.C.)

  • 1994: Minneapolis Fringe, Mixed Blood Theatre, Denver International Women's Theatre Festival

  • 1995: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Centre

AWARDS AND CITATIONS - KEEP FROZEN:

  • Siminovitch Prize in Theatre - 2020 Finalist

  • Governor General's Literary Award for Drama Finalist: Drama: Pilot Episode

  • Governor General's Literary Award for Drama Finalist: The Pochsy Plays

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Nomination, Best New Play: Crawlspace

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations, Production,  Direction, Lighting, Set: Crawlspace (Award for Patrick Lavender: set)

  • Finalist, Playwrights Guild Carol Bolt Award, Best New Canadian Play: All the Little Animals I Have Eaten

  • Finalist, Playwrights Guild Carol Bolt Award, Best New Canadian Play: Crawlspace

  • Winner, Alberta Writers Guild Award for Drama: Drama: Pilot Episode

  • Winner, Alberta Writers Guild Award for Drama: The Pochsy Plays

  • Dora Mavor Moore Nomination, Best New Musical: Hello...Hello

  • Winner, Calgary Critics Award, Best New Play: Drama: Pilot Episode

  • Winner, Betty Mitchell Award, Best New Play: Drama: Pilot Episode

  • Chalmers Award (Canadian) Finalist: Hello...Hello

  • Chalmers Award (Canadian) Finalist: Oh, baby

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Nomination: Performance (Hello...Hello, Hines)

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Award, Performance: Oh, baby

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Award, Performance: Pochsy's Lips

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations, Best Production, Score, Direction: Hello...Hello

  • Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations, Best Production, Direction, Set, Lighting: Oh, Baby