Project: Whooping Crane

News

2009-08-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

JUST WON A STERLING AWARD for Outstanding Artistic Achievement Theatre for Young Audiencesin Edmonton! Whoop whoop!

3 Minute Video

2009-03-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

General Information

2008-12-16T12:01:00.001-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

TITLE: Project: Whooping Crane

COMPANY: Green Fools Theatre

GENRE: Theatre, puppetry, mask, music

AUDIENCE: All ages

LENGTH: 55 minutes

LANGUAGE: No words

AVAILIBILITY: Year- round

Contact Information

2008-12-16T10:27:00.001-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

PHONE: +01-403-237-9010

EMAIL: admin@greenfools.com

WEBSITE: www.greenfools.com

ADDRESS: 2404 Erlton Road S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2S 2X2

FAX: 403-266-1508

The Whooping Crane

2008-12-16T10:26:00.002-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

Only found in North America, the Whooping Crane was once endangered to only 16 birds. Tireless experimental conservation efforts have brought the Whooping Crane back from the brink of extinction and have inspired the world. Project: Whooping Crane gently illuminates this dramatic global concern through a Canadian story that is accessible, emotional, uplifting and joyously entertaining.

Find out more about the Whooping Crane,
visit the International Crane Foundation Website

The Play

2008-12-16T10:26:00.001-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

Internationally renowned Green Fools Theatre presents Project: Whooping Crane, an ecological puppet show of friendship, dedication, struggle, and survival.

Project: Whooping Crane wordlessly weaves its tale intertwining art and science told through music, mask, and life-size puppetry.

Through scientific fact and an imagined dream world, our story follows the lives of two cranes: one taken from the wild and placed in a captive breeding program and the other born in captivity and released into the wild and the tireless human stewards who dedicate their lives to their survival.

A beautiful story of conservation and love, the play illustrates our culpability in the strain to our planet, but also celebrates our ability and responsibility to save the world.

More About The Play

2008-12-16T10:25:00.001-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

To tell the tale we use an original sound design that includes musical compositions and sampled crane sounds. To create the show, our artists worked with biologists and cranes to accurately create and portray the world of the Whoopers and their human stewards. We also utilize a variety of puppetry styles including life size, hand, rod, shadow, stilt, bun raku, marionette puppets, and masked characters to tell our story.

Story telling without words, the production surpasses borders of countries, race, religion, age, sex & language making it inclusive to a vast range of audiences. As well, universal themes remind us of our shared humanity beyond cultural divisions.

What The Press Says

2008-12-16T10:24:00.002-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

FULL MEDIA PACK AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

"The Green Fools remind us of the magic of theatre."

"Project: Whooping Crane proves enchanting and educational for all ages."

"It’s simply a remarkable example of theatrical storytelling."

"This is a show for all ages and, child or adult, I predict the reaction will be the same- sheer delight."

Jocelyn Grosse, FFWD Weekly

"In the play, Dean Bareham and Jennie Esdale embody the birds as puppets that are as plausible as they are breathtaking."

"Without a hint of preaching, Project: Whooping Crane conveys a subtle message of environmentalism and a lingering sensation of tenderness."

Graeme McElheran, Calgary Herald

Technical Brief Overview

2008-12-16T10:24:00.001-08:00

Photo by Sean Dennie

FULL TECH PACK AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

STAGING: Proscenium

MINIMUM DIMENSIONS: 25 ft (7.62m) wide x 30 ft (9.14m) depth, 15 ft (4.57m) high to grid

LIGHTING: 1 light stand (min. 7 ft) that can hold two lights will be placed upstage center (behind set for shadow lights). 1 disco ball centre, hung from grid. 24 channel board and instruments minimum required total. Warm and cool wash stage right and left split at centre and 5 specials including 2 for upstage shadow light and 1 for disco ball.

SOUND: two (2) stereo inputs for two (2) minidisk players. There must be stereo output for playback. (We have our own Minidisk players. If we use supplied minidisk players they must have the “auto pause” feature.)

Production Credits

2008-12-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

WRITERS: Jennie Esdale, Eileen Sproule, Dean Bareham, Dave Clarke

DIRECTOR: Eileen Sproule

SOUND COMPOSER: Dave Clarke

CAST/ PUPPET, MASK, COSTUME, SET DESIGNERS:
Dean Bareham, Jennie Esdale

STAGE MANAGER: Erin Brett

ORIGINAL PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS:
Jen Winter, Cassandra Christie, Harold Bareham, Theresa Winter

ORIGINAL LIGHTING DESIGNER: Chris McPherson

PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS: Sean Dennie

Green Fools Theatre

2008-12-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

www.greenfools.com

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. 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.