BIO:
Established in 1991 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Green Fools Theatre is a non-profit, charitable society that creates, performs, and teaches physical theatre arts focusing on masks, puppets, and stilts for diverse audiences locally and internationally.

Artists are the centre of our Fools' society; we are writers, musicians, painters, sculptors, inventors, singers, actors, acrobats, instructors, puppeteers, and clowns led by Co-Artistic Directors Dean Bareham and Jennie Esdale and many artists have shaped and created the ever evolving work and the company.

We are a magnet for physical theatre artists and offer multiple training, creating and performing opportunities. We have also been a building ground for artists and have fostered the development of other puppetry troupes and performers, including The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, the Calgary Animated Objects Society, and several Cirque du Soliel performers. In addition we develop strong relationships with other sectors, including the Calgary Zoo and International Crane Foundation, the Glenbow Museum, and the Alberta College of Art & Design to research, produce or present our work in traditional or non-traditional theatre venues.
Our diverse programming, including workshops, puppet and mask shows, street theatre, spectacle animation, events, and fundraisers allow artists and audiences to fully explore our art form across a wide spectrum of artistic styles and forms.

With an eye on the past and hands on tradition, Green Fools Theatre also strives to advance our work and our art form by inventing and engineering new puppetry styles and ways of storytelling as well as innovative artistic processes merging content and form to create new world mythology. We utilize a variety of physical theatre, puppet and mask techniques as well as multiple artistic disciplines to tell our original stories, producing puppet shows and physical theatre productions that are literally out of the box. Styles meet the needs of the story; puppets share the stage with actors and masked characters. In a single production we may we also challenge the boundaries of scale from a finger puppet to a giant stilt character. Often, our work explores non- text based storytelling. In our performances we include music and on occasion dance, performance art, video, and animation. Our work is contemporary, handcrafted, original, and collaboratively created.
Green Fools Theatre reaches thousands of audience members each year through performances, community events, festivals, and creative training by extensive local touring, as well as some National and International touring.

HISTORY:
1991: Christine Cook and Dean Bareham start the company in Calgary. Both graduated from the Dell 'Arte School of Physical Theatrein california with an ambition to create their own work, travel the world and impact their community. They begin creating roving stilt characters that still perform today (along with many new creations) all over the world at festivals and events. Determination, creativity and mastery of their skills allowed Green Fools to become roving festival favourites.
The Fools began experimenting with theatre performance and collaborated with other artists. Early theatre work includes Ubu Roi and Bosch as well as Cabaret Performances and the Annual Halloween Howl party and show.

1995: Dean and Christine are joined by Judd Palmer, Steve Kenderes and David Lane who go on to become Old Trout Puppet Workshop when they leave the Green Fools in 1998. We create and produce The Death of Benvenuto Cellini, The Ice King and Cabin Fever. Shannon Anderson and then Patricia Duquette are Green Fools administrators.

1998: Mooky joins the Fools to collaborate on the B&E Circus until she’s swept away by Cirque du Soleil in 2001. Theatre artist Jennie Esdale joins the company as a core member of the artistic and management team.

1999: We create The Seven Deadly Sins and host a series of professional development classes includngi Bouffon, Le Jeu and the The Fool. We begin development of the B&E Circus.

2000: We produce the B&E Circus and tour Alberta. Jack McClymont becomes General Manager.

2001: Green Fools Theatre begin to refine their artistic process and pay artists by equity standards. We create The Blackbird Puppet Project, which flew to venues and festivals in Canada, the U.S. and Brazil.

2002: We begin creation of Project: Whooping Crane.

2003: Jennie Esdale becomes Co-Artistic Director. Isabel Lehmann becomes General Manager. We produce Project: Whooping Crane, a life-size puppet show inspired by the endangered species. The show continues to tour.

2004: Co-Founder Christine Cook resigns from the company to spearhead Calgary Animated Objects Society and has since been producing Calgary's own Festival of Animated Objects.
The Fools move to #103–1215 13th Street S.E. in Calgary and go on to renovate it into an alternative rehearsal and performance venue.

2005: We partner with the Glenbow Museum to create and present the first Canadian production inspired by Vietnamese Water Puppetry: Dancing On Water.

2006: Judith Mendelsohn and Stacy Clark join the team as Administrator and Marketing Director respectively. The Fools move again to 2404 Erlton Road S.W. Bill Beauregarde become house Technician.
We create and present our second show in partnership with Glenbow Museum: Crossing the Mediterranean.

2007: Dean and Stacy travel to Lesotho, Africa to teach circus camp. We begin creation of Rapture Study in Seven Songs.

2008: Judith Mendelsohn heads to Paris to study with Lecoq. And Stacy Clark heads to Montreal to work for Cirque du Soleil. Leslie Sawchenko becomes Administrator and Jamie Tognazzini comes on board as Fool Apprentice. We poduce Rapture Study in Seven Songs. We begin creation of Isis: A Shadow Opera. We partner with the Alberta College of Art and Design to produce the Halloween Howl.

2009: Nathalie Novak takes over as Administrator. Sam Nicholls becomes house coordinator. We produce Isis: A Shadow Opera. We partner with the Uptown Cinema to produce the Halloween Howl.

2010: Johanne Deleeuw joins our team as Marketing Coordinator. We begin creation of Stream of Sand. We partner with the Uptown Cinema to produce the Howl again.