Still, real or not, rat kings might always be with us, the result of humans’ loathing of rats themselves. More rats together, in our eyes, just means more of the things we revile about rats in the first place.

Feeling lonely? Left out? Like everyone you know has found their special someone(s) and left you behind? Join us in the lobby of the Cuomo Theatre Collaborative to tie your tail to our growing community. We’ve got arts and crafts, puppetry, and zines!

Still fascinated by the rat king even after my play Nothing Kingly About It, I decided to explore the same ideas of community, loneliness, and codependency with a new performance installation at Stage Fright festival in 2025.

For the piece, I edited the rat puppets from Nothing Kingly into masks, which we donned as we convinced people to join our rat king. The process was simple, we offered a stack of white matteboard rats along with coloring impliments, stickers, yarn, and pipe cleaners in order for the participant to design themselves in their own rat persona. Afterwards the rats would be named, and their tails tied to the growing knot of other participants, forever linking a piece of their souls to the rat king so they would never be lonely again.

I also printed out a handful of zines using lines written for Nothing Kingly, with additional rat doodles of course.

Learn more about the build process for the puppets/masks

10/10/2025 to 10/18/2025 - Stage Fright Festival @ Coho Theatre

Info:

• 6pm - 9pm (aproximately) on Oct 10th, 11th, 17th, & 18th in the lobby of the Cuomo Theatre Collaborative
• Stage Fright Festival
• Coho Theatre - 2257 NW Raleigh St, Portland, OR 97210

Program:

• Rat: Notion
• Rat: Weevil
• Rat: Anne Reinders
• Puppets by Notion with help from Presley Ellison

10/10/2025 to 10/18/2025 - Stage Fright Festival @ Coho Theatre

Phots taken by L. Parker, do not post without credit.

10/10/2025 to 10/18/2025 - Stage Fright Festival @ Coho Theatre

10/10/2025 to 10/18/2025 - Stage Fright Festival @ Coho Theatre