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The following characters live in a land named Ecos. This is a Greek word that means 'home', people may recognize this word as the root of other familiar words such as ecology, ecosystem, etc..** This fantastical place represents developing nations in general rather than one specific country, in order to depict the commonalties of the tobacco industry’s effect in developing nations.

It is our goal to portray these characters as archetype rather than stereotype. The characters work solely through movement and masks, which are painted with colors other than recognizable flesh tones. They are described here in the context of the people they represent.
Gaia - 34* years old, she works in tobacco agriculture. She is the mother of Lopi and Trotos.
Lopi - 15 years old, she works in tobacco manufacturing.
Kadeem - 12 years old, he works in tobacco agriculture.
Doyhen - 55 years old, the tribal elder of Ecos.
Trotos - 1 year old, child of Gaia, brother of Lopi, he represents the infants who are disproportionately affected by tobacco pesticide use.
Birds - these are played by actors on 3.5 ft. tall stilts, headdresses and large silken, vibrantly colored costumes with wings that span 11.5 feet. These characters are guardians of the culture of Ecos - their calls mark the state of affairs there.
*Please note the ages described here are those of the characters and not the actors who portray them.

**The true transliteration of this word from Greek into English is 'Oikos' but since the word is pronounced 'Ecos', we have, for ease in reading, written it that way in this script.

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