Calgary theatre company creating lifelike puppets for zoos across North America

Calgary's zoo started a puppet parade three years ago. A local theatre group uses realistic, life-sized puppets to capture the imagination of children.

A Calgary theatre company is getting requests from zoos all over North America to make them lifelike animal puppets.

Dean Bareham, founder and artistic director of the Green Fools Theatre, has been creating puppets of all sizes since 1991.

He’s developed a partnership with the Calgary Zoo over the last three years to help shine a light on endangered species through puppets.

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“One of the coolest ones we started with was with a giant polar bear,” Bareham said.

“We’ve made almost 30 different puppets, like whooping cranes, leopard frogs, swift foxes, burrowing owls, you name it.”

In 2024, the Calgary Zoo hosted the Aquariums and Zoos of America conference and invited Bareham to take part with his puppets and many of the organizations were impressed.

“They came to Calgary and they saw all of our puppets and because of that, we’ve had calls from six or seven different zoos saying, ‘We love this style of puppets,’” Bareham said.

“So now we’ve made some puppets for the Tampa Aquarium, Florida Aquarium, we’re making puppets for the Albuquerque, New Mexico, zoo, the South Carolina Aquarium, so it’s really catching on.”

Thea Killen-Smith, Green Fools’ lead builder who has worked for the company since 2021, has created a variety of puppets and even gets to try them out before they’re sent to the clients.

“One of the perks of the job is you have to make sure that someone else is going to be able to be comfortable and manage the piece,” she said.

“You’ve got to try it on. I’m only 157 centimetres (5′2”) so it really helps give a sense of size and who can manage it and we have a lot of fun putting them on and getting into character."

Killen-Smith says she loves her job and is excited for her work to be featured at many zoos across North America.

“I take a lot of pride in my work and being able to make it beautiful,” she said. “But also strong and well-made is just another layer to the craft, so it’s just another thing where we pour the passion into.”

Once the puppets are complete, they’re sent to the various zoos. Bareham travels with them to teach operators how to make them look realistic.

Bareham has 35 years of experience with puppets and has worked on many television productions, including with the Henson Company.

“I like to bring that expertise to them to teach the people, ‘Here’s how you operate it, here’s how you bring this puppet to life, here’s how you bring breath to the puppet,’” he said.

“Essentially what I really like doing is making sure they have a real understanding of that animal and that we imbue that puppet with the animal’s characteristics as best we can.”

Madisen Steele, manager of visitor engagement at the Calgary Zoo, says guests, especially the young ones, love the puppets.

“I think that there is this really beautiful marriage that can happen between arts and sciences,” she said.

“Where we do build so much of that empathy for these animals and these animals that are endangered, not easy to see in the wild, not necessarily visible on site, so this has been really an opportunity to get people to engage with those species.”

Steele says her team at the zoo has well over a dozen puppets they use throughout the summer months to interact with guests.

“We’re incredibly proud of our partnership with the Green Fools and their commitment to the conservation message as well,” she said.

“We’ve been so fortunate that so many other zoos and aquariums have recognized this as a really engaging way of bringing that mission to life.”

The zoo’s first puppet parade of the year starts June first. Green Fools Theatre is a nonprofit charity in Calgary that does physical theatre, including mask, mime, clown, circus and all things puppets.

Learn more about the Green Fools Theatre on its Facebook page.