Ronnie Burkett, OC is a Canadian puppeteer, best known for his original theatrical plays for adults, performed with marionettes. Burkett, who hails from Medicine Hat, was the puppeteer for Ralph on the TV Ontario series Harriet's Magic Hats during seasons three and four. He was also credited on two TV shows; Chicken Minute and Little Star.
After winning a regional Emmy Award in 1979 for the puppets in "Cinderrabbit" on PBS in the US, Burkett formed his own theatre company in Alberta in 1986. His early works included Fool's Edge, Virtue Falls, The Punch Club and Awful Manors, as well as being an extra puppeteer on Under the Umbrella Tree . In 1994, his work Tinka's New Dress was his international breakthrough, winning two Dora Awards, four Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards and a special citation from the Obie Awards. Performed internationally, Tinka's New Dress was the first part of a trilogy which continued with Street of Blood in 1999 and Happy in 2000. He also won a Chalmers Award in 1996 for Old Friends, a piece commissioned by the Manitoba Theatre for Young People. In 2009, Burkett received the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for design. In 2015, Burkett was the recipient of the Distinguished Artist Award from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Archived 2019-03-07 at the Wayback Machine for his contributions to the arts in Alberta.
His work, Provenance, was performed for the first time in October 2003, premiering at Theatre Network in Edmonton. In November 2007, he finished touring his show 10 Days on Earth that premiered at CanStage in Toronto in April 2006. In October 2008, he premiered his quasi-autobiographical show, Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton; the show toured several cities in Canada, the UK, and Australia through late 2009. In 2011-12, he did an extensive Canadian tour of his new play, an apocalyptic comedy, Penny Plain. His latest work, The Daisy Theatre, inspired by underground Czech marionette theatre, is part improvisation and part cabaret and includes short vignettes penned by other Canadian playwrights.
Burkett usually writes his own scripts. Appearing onstage throughout each performance, he manipulates and is the voice of every character, from newborn ducks to dying mothers, Christ and Satan and everything in between.
Ronnie Burkett was born June 10, 1957, in Lethbridge, Alberta and spent his formative years in Medicine Hat. At age seven, he became fascinated with puppets after reading an article in the World Book Encyclopedia . After seeing Bil Baird's puppets in "The Lonely Goatherd" scene in the 1965 film The Sound of Music , Burkett was determined to become a puppeteer. He claims his first "real" show was a hand puppet musical titled The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which he wrote and began touring at age 14. He attended Medicine Hat College for a year and was awarded a theatre scholarship to Brigham Young University in Utah but left after a semester to pursue his career. [1]
Openly gay, Burkett lives in Toronto with his partner, jazz singer John Alcorn. [2]
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performance is also known as a puppet production. The script for a puppet production is called a puppet play. Puppeteers use movements from hands and arms to control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer sometimes speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, while at other times they perform to a recorded soundtrack.
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on television. The attachment of the strings varies according to its character or purpose.
Canada's contemporary theatre reflects a rich diversity of regional and cultural identities. Since the late 1960s, there has been a concerted effort to develop the voice of the 'Canadian playwright', which is reflected in the nationally focused programming of many of the country's theatres. Within this 'Canadian voice' are a plurality of perspectives - that of the First Nations, new immigrants, French Canadians, sexual minorities, etc. - and a multitude of theatre companies have been created to specifically service and support these voices.
Sandra Shamas is a Canadian puppeteer, comedic actress, writer, director and producer.
Howdy Doody is an American children's television program that was created and produced by Victor F. Campbell and E. Roger Muir. It was broadcast on the NBC television network in the United States from December 27, 1947, until September 24, 1960. It was a pioneer of children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. One of the first television series produced at NBC in Rockefeller Center, in Studio 3A, it pioneered color production in 1956 and NBC used the show to promote color television sets in the late 1950s.
William Britton "Bil" Baird was an American puppeteer of the mid- and late 20th century. He and his puppets performed for millions of adults and children. One of his better known creations was Charlemane the lion. He and his wife Cora Eisenberg Baird (1912–1967) produced and performed the famous puppetry sequence for "The Lonely Goatherd" in the film version of The Sound of Music. His son Peter Baird was also a puppeteer, and he continued his family's legacy until his own death in July 2004.
Ronnie Le Drew is a Canadian-born British puppeteer who was born in Toronto, Canada. He is best known for playing "Zippy" from the ITV children's show Rainbow since the early 1970s and trained at the Little Angel Theatre, London under John Wright. His association with the Little Angel spans over thirty years as performer, and later as director.
Alberta Theatre Projects ("ATP") is a professional, not-for-profit, Canadian theatre company, founded in 1972 by Lucille Wagner and Douglas Riske, currently based out of the Martha Cohen Theatre in Arts Commons, in Calgary, Alberta. The company is well-known in Canada and internationally for its development of new, Canadian plays and the art of dramaturgy.
The International Festival of Animated Objects is an annual festival which promotes the arts of puppetry, mask, and animated objects in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The FAO was produced by Xstine Cook as a project of the non-profit group Calgary Animated Objects Society from 2002-2016. It was formed as its own non-profit society, the International Festival of Animated Objects Society in 2015 by Xstine Cook, Bob Davis, and Peter Balkwill. It was originally produced biennially by Xstine Cook from 2002-2016, then by Gwen Murray in 2017 and 2019, and Amelia Newbert in 2021. Newbert transitioned the FAO to an annual event during the pandemic era in 2022. Cosmo Christoffersen took the helm in 2023, and is the current Managing Producer.
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The Augsburger Puppenkiste is a marionette theater in Augsburg, Germany.
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Richard Bradshaw is a leading Australian puppeteer.
Richard Link is a Canadian composer, musical director, teacher, and performer presently living in London, England. An accomplished pianist, he often music directs, conducts, and plays for his own productions.
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Peter Scriven MBE was an Australian puppeteer, writer and theatre producer, and the founding artistic director of the Marionette Theatre of Australia. Scriven played a huge role in establishing puppetry as a serious artform in Australia.
The Harlequin Puppet Theatre is a puppet theatre at Rhos-on-Sea, Wales. Britain's oldest permanent puppet theatre, the Harlequin was built in 1958 by Eric Bramall and was later run by his former puppeteer partner, Chris Somerville, who died in 2023. The small, 100-seat theatre is home to a collection of approximately 1,000 marionettes that featured in puppet shows during Britain's school holiday seasons.
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in ancient Greece.
Nikolai Zykov is a Soviet and Russian actor, director, artist, designer, puppet-maker, and master puppeteer.
Cheryl Wagner, is a Canadian puppeteer, producer, director and writer, who is the creator of the TV series The Big Comfy Couch, is a Gemini Award and Emmy award- winning Canadian children's television writer, showrunner and producer who began her career as a performer in both theatre and on the screen. Her Halifax-based touring Merrytime Clown and Puppet Company in which Wagner worked as a clown and puppeteer from 1977 to 1980 provided a fertile ground for her later work as a producer and writer in children's entertainment.
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