Ingrid Hansen spends a fair amount of time in prison.
Hansen, of SNAFU Dance Theater, has worked with William Head on Stage for the past six years, teaching, performing, designing, choreographing and directing with inmates of the Metchosin correctional facility.
She spent the past seven weeks working with 27 prisoners at William Head correctional facility to create Fractured Fables: The Prison Puppet Project.
“Puppetry is a perfect fit at prison because it offers creative jobs to people who might be hesitant to get on stage and call themselves actors,” Hansen said. “It’s also a universal access point to the innocence and confidence we all experienced when we
puppeteered our toys as children. In addition to the inmate puppeteers and actors, we have a whole entire crew of guys you won’t see onstage, who have been working with us from day one, sharing their stories and collaborating to conceive, design and build the puppets and the puppet world.”
The hour-long collage of 13 stories was conceived, written, designed, built and performed by the inmates in collaboration with Hansen and Anne Cirillo from SNAFU, Peter Balkwill from Calgary’s Old Trout Puppet Workshop, Island musician Katrina Kadoski (Cougar Annie Tales), plus designers Carole Klemm and Poe Limkul.
“Our guys have an unending supply of captivating stories. This show is the first in a long time that WHoS has written their own show, telling their own stories, along with fictional fables inspired by true life experiences,” Hansen said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Shows start tonight (Oct. 11) and continue Oct. 12, 18, 19, 25, 26, 31 and Nov. 1, 2, 7, 8, 9.
Tickets, $20, must be purchased in advance at MyChosen Café, Intrepid Theatre office (1609 Blanshard St.), by phone at 250-590-6291 or online at www.ticketrocket.org. Gate opens at 6:15 p.m. and closes at 7:15. Show starts at 7:30 at 6000 William Head Rd.