The universally human search for intimacy does not culminate when true love is found. Oh, no: life partnership merely heralds the beginning of a terminal negotiation through metonymic cuddles, epistemological housework, and the labyrinthine semiotics of love's hilariously coded communication. Gretchen Holmes and Ross Moreno enact a couple's process for fabricating understanding in a story framed by a sensitive, agoraphobic man and his golden-throated ventriloquist dummy's rise to the top of karaoke stardom. Peppered by poetry, magic, and re-interpretive dance, the collaboration unfolds as a creative extension of the compromise and confusion Gretchen and Ross navigate as real-life newlyweds. The Butterfly Kisses Effect invites you to observe, empathize, live, learn, love, and experience the awkward jouissance that trickles and sputters between magicians and feminists, butterflies and ventriloquists, clairvoyant aliens and time-share real estate agents, and anyone who has ever said, "I love you, too."