In 2016 we were living in Manchester, England. We got free tickets to the opera (in the Palace Theatre). It was the first time either of us went to the opera. I was a bit amused that the musicians were in this hovel below the front of the stage. To my comic mind it looked like a cage, and they were locked up forced to play for a few morsels! I didn’t throw a sandwich to them, but was very tempted. Thus, the comic idea was born.

We had started to construct Being Bears and this was one of the early stories that I filed away.