About SNAFU, nonprofit performing arts company.

Kathleen Greenfield led a large group of artists to co-create New Earth Bandits 2. SNAFU commissioned "investigators" from three distinct community groups: Brazilian artists, artists on parole, and artists of all abilities from the Embrace Arts Foundation. These investigators were asked to envision possible futures, from utopian dreams to dystopian landscapes - and the SNAFU ensemble created a choose-your-own-adventure outdoor show from these dreams.  SNAFU had our first round of creation on SNAFU’s Sexy Puppet Show (Epidermis Circus 2) which had a sold-out run at the largest fringe festival in North America. Epidermis Circus  and The Baby Tyler Show toured across BC, New Brunswick, France, Netherlands, Korea, Danmark, Estonia, Portugal, and Mexico.

Epidermis Circus had a Sold-Out run Off-Broadway at SOHO Playhouse andat Festival Casteliers in Montreal. We were invited to perform at the Le Chainon Manquant showcase in France, and at the Festival Cervantino, the largest performing arts festival in Central/South America. In New York, the Lincoln Centre presented Epidermis Circus, and David Byrne hired Baby Tyler to perform in his cabaret for 1400 new yorkers.  At home in Victoria, we brought together dozens of artists to create Unexpected Spectacles in Macaulay Point Park, with workshops, roaming outdoor performances, and music video shoots for Hank Pine and Katrina Kadoski. Kathleen Greenfield had their first round of development with a workshop production of Middle Child, an elaborate mind-bending clown-logic ritual.

New Earth Bandits, led by Kathleen, saw a horde of artists collaborate to create a choose-your-own-adventure spectacle in MacCaulay Point Park, Esquimalt BC. We welcomed over 1100 audience members, including youth and family audiences.  Epidermis Circus toured to sold-out houses in Winnipeg and Edmonton. Ingrid and Stephanie Morin-Robert co-created a new live show with The Merkin Sisters: Deux, and Suitable Transpo: A Junk Puppet Spectacle, premiered at SKAMpede.

The Prison Theatre Time Machine, a co-pro with William Head on Stage Prison Theatre, launched in downtown Victoria to sold-out audiences. The interactive gallery commemorated 40 years of Prison Theatre in Metchosin. Epidermis Circus toured to the INONOUT Festival, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringes, and won the Edmonton Fringe Hold-Over Award. We created a new piece for the SKAMPEDE Festival, and completed film co-production on another series of WHoS short films.

Epidermis Circus launched live-at-the-drive in, performing for sold-out audiences in Victoria during freezing January 2021 and in Vancouver during the heat-dome in June, presented by Pi Theatre. In July we performed Atmosphere at the SKAMPEDE Festival, featuring giant brain-sucking sea-squatches. With WHoS, we recorded and launched The Dark Traveller podcast, and began filming a short film series titled Common Threads.

We toured Kitt & Jane: An Interactive Survival Guide to the Undercurrents Festival in Ottawa RIGHT BEFORE “The Thing” hit. Then we premiered Epidermis Circus during lockdown as a livestream from Ingrid’s attic, selected as part of the National Art Centre's #CanadaPerforms initiative. In July we performed The Goosening at the SKAMPEDE Festival, where businesspeople devolved into dancing geese.  In partnership with William Head on Stage Prison Theatre, SNAFU launched the Creative Exchange, where inside and outside artists shared creative writing and visual art through an ongoing series of creative prompts and group feedback.

Kathleen Greenfield directed The Emerald City Project with William Head on Stage Prison Theatre.  Ingrid was mysteriously absent from Victoria…filming Helpsters in NY. 

SNAFU's show Table Top Tales was presented by the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and Little Orange Man toured to the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam, The ACT Centre in Maple Ridge, the Festival of Living Things in Kelowna. Snack Music was presented by the Undercurrents Festival in Ottawa, and The Merkin Sisters live at Nanaimo's Port Theatre.  The Crossroads: A Prison Cabaret, directed by Kate Rubin, is a sold-out hit with WHoS prison theatre.

SNAFU undertook cross-Canada tours of The Merkin Sisters co-produced by Stephanie Morin-Robert, and silent sci-fi comedy Interstellar Elder. 

Sleeping Giants wasco-produced by SNAFU and WHoS prison theatre, directed by SNAFU’s Kathleen Greenfield and choreographed by Ingrid Hansen.

The Next Stage Theatre Festival in Toronto commissioned Snack Music. With the success of the show, SNAFU and the Snack Music Collective are commissioned by Theatre Direct to create Table Top Tales, a food-puppetry show for family audiences. These shows toured to Toronto, Huntsville, and Almonte. SNAFU and PUENTE Theatre co-produced a roving outdoor production Lt. Nun, written by Elaine Avila, outdoors at Macaulay Point Park, winning “Best Drama” and “Best Ensemble.”

Kaleidoscope Family Theatre Festival commissioned SNAFU to create Somethingville, a new work for young audiences. SNAFU fundraised to buy a minivan and tour Kitt and Jane across the country to seven festivals.

SNAFU was incorporated as a Not-for-Profit Theatre Society in British Columbia. Fractured Fables: The Prison Puppet Project is co-produced by SNAFU and WHoS prison theatre. The ambitious puppet spectacle, featuring true stories from the incarcerated artist’s lives, was co-directed by SNAFU’s Ingrid Hansen and Peter Balkwill (Old Trout Puppet Workshop).

The Belfry Theatre commissioned Kitt & Jane: An Interactive Survival Guide to the Near-Post-Apocalyptic Future, a stand-alone sequel to Little Orange Man, which toured nationally to sold-out houses. (Victoria Critic’s Choice Best New Play, the Playwright’s Theatre Centre New Play Prize.)

Kathleen Greenfield joins SNAFU in 2010 with Little Orange Man. ​​SNAFU's current Co-artistic Directors are Kathleen Greenfield and Ingrid Hansen.  Little Orange Man, a puppet theatre piece for all ages, toured across the country for several years with over 100 performances in dozens of cities, including being presented by the Centaur Theatre, Great Canadian Theatre Centre, The International Festival of Animated Objects, and co-presented by Hectik Theatre in Regina. (Awarded Most Outstanding Overall Production – Ottawa & Montreal).  CHALK: physical theatre behind bars was co-produced by SNAFU and WHoS Prison Theatre Company. CHALK was the first piece to be collaboratively created by the men at William Head Prison. Ingrid Hansen and Elliott Loran co-created The Ginger Ninjas. 

Pretty Little Instincts, performed in the gardens of two national heritage sites, had a sold-out run in Victoria before touring to the SummerWorks Festival in Toronto. (Awarded Victoria Critic’s Choice Award, “Best Dance Show”, “Most Innovative”).

SNAFU was founded in November 2006 in Victoria, BC, by Victor Dolhai, Ingrid Hansen, and Sarah Jane Pelzer, with several productions of new Canadian work between 2006-2009.