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Despite the biggest controversy in Carousel Players’ 45-year history, artistic director Jessica Carmichael still stands behind the theatre company’s decision to stage a children’s show on gender identity.

Mark Crawford’s play Boys, Girls and Other Mythological Creatures has seen performances cancelled in seven local schools, which Carmichael blames on “misinformation” spread by people who have not seen the production.

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And as cancellations pile up, it’s affecting the St. Catharines company financially.

“We have no more performances this week,” Carmichael said. “We should have had two shows today (Wednesday), two tomorrow, and two Friday.

We have professional actors who’ve come down to work on this beautiful play. Now we don’t get to share it

“Mark Crawford has been working on this play for over two years. We have professional actors who’ve come down to work on this beautiful play. Now we don’t get to share it.”

For most productions, Carousel Players usually does upwards of 45 performances in southwestern Ontario schools. But the new show was a tough sell, and the cancellations have left only a handful of performances left to do.