Fractured Fables
The Prison Puppet Project
Show description
27 prisoners embarked upon an impossible task: to build a giant show from scratch, using the art of puppetry to tell all their own stories. There is no instruction manual. The result is an hour of pure madness–an intense collage of stories where animals and humans reveal themselves through humour, darkness, and love.
Featuring
Large-scale Shadow Puppetry
Original Live Soundtrack of Incarcerated Bluegrass Funk, composed by the inmate band
More than 50 hand-built puppets
Free coffee and cookies
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Performed for five weeks October 2013.
Audience Reminders:
WHoS is located inside a Federal Institution. Must be 19+ to enter.
You may be electronically scanned
Personal belongings (purses, wallets, cell phones, money, etc.) are forbidden and must be left in your car.
No smoking materials are permitted
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Men at William Head Prison have been running WHoS from inside the prison for the past 30 years. The prisoners choose the plays, build the sets, manage tickets, sew costumes and perform in the shows. The Prison Puppet Project marks the company’s first-ever full-on puppet theatre production.
Press
“The most passionate actors and audience I have ever seen. This program is priceless for the questions it raises and the barriers it takes down.”
“The hidden messages totally touched my heart and resound in me. Respect to you all”
“What a life-changing process. I feel a real sense of hope for these men, knowing that this WHoS production was a part of their preparation to re-enter society. I hope they emerge changed, strengthened and opened by this experience.”
“Enter the cast of WHoS like a new dawn they refreshed me and renewed my zeal for my faith and gave me a sense of wonder for the simple experiences of the day. By being involved with WHoS I am able to stop harbouring greed, hatred, grumpiness, self-pity, and other counter-productive contents and put in grace, kindness, patience, and compassion, and reflect a wonderful nature. They gave me the trust I needed to put one foot in front of the other, gratitude for being in their care, peacefulness about my destiny,
trusting that some day I will be home.”
“I hope that the WHoS department goes on to change someone else’s life like it changed mine for the better.”
“The evening at Williams Head was uplifting, engaging, funny, compassionate, seriously undertaken and beautifully realized…the interaction between player and audience was a positive experience for both I felt; a rare interchange between those inside and the outside world.”
Photo by Jam Hamidi
Credits
Conceived, Written, Designed, Built, & Performed by the Prisoners of William Head Prison
Co-Produced by the prisoners at William Head on Stage Theatre Company
Co-Directed by Ingrid Hansen & Peter Balkwill
THE “Outside” ARTIST Team
Ingrid Hansen - Co-Director
Peter Balkwill - Co-Director
Anne Cirillo - Performer & Creative Collaborator
Katrina Kadoski - Band Leader
Carole Klemm - Design Coordinator
Poe Limkul - Lighting Designer
Jeni Luther - Puppet Construction Support
Thank yous
This project gratefully acknowledge the support of the CRD Capital Regional District Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.