PREVIEW
GREEN FOOLS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED OBJECTS
January 3 to 27
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Fools start animated object festival
It’s been in the planning stages, you might say, for years, and Calgary finally has a festival of puppets, masks and other animated objects, thanks to local mayhem-makers the Green Fools.
"For years, Wendy Passmore (of WP Puppeteers) and I would meet at the Lethbridge Children’s Festival and say, ‘You know, we should really put together a puppet festival,’" explains Xstine Cook, Green Fools co-artistic director. "And then another year would go by, and we’d be sitting in Lethbridge saying the same thing. So finally last winter at the High Performance Rodeo, (One Yellow Rabbit’s) Michael Green and I started talking about it."
That was the magic moment, and this year, OYR’s annual High Performance Rodeo is helping to launch the Green Fools International Festival of Animated Objects from January 3 to 27. With more than 50 artists taking part in ticketed shows, free performances, street theatre, lectures and workshops, the festival will run for almost a month. Nine of the shows are co-presentations with OYR.
Performers range from local favourites like the Fools and the Old Trout Puppet Workshop to British Columbia’s Three on the Tree and mask carver-storyteller Victor Reece. Also appearing are internationally known U.K. puppeteer Newman and Medicine Hat native Ronnie Burkett, lately of Toronto. There is a relatively vast number of puppet and mask experts within Calgary alone – Cook speculates that something in the water must be responsible for the wealth of talent. Burkett’s marionette theatre (Tinka’s New Dress, Street of Blood and Happy, to name a few recent shows) has been blamed for at least some of the craziness.
"Or maybe it’s because of Buckshot and Benny the Bear – that’s who warped my mind," says Cook. "And I saw Arete Mime Theatre – they did mask stuff – in Grade 8. And that definitely sent me off in this direction. Of course, 2,000 kids saw that show, and not all of them ended up making massive puppets."
Of course, the Fools themselves have spawned at least a few of those local artists. The company is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
"If it were another 10 years down the road, I would try to claim responsibility (on behalf of) the Green Fools," Cook says. "But ten years of warping children’s minds in this city at folk festivals and children’s festivals and everything else has got to have an effect eventually." |
