With over 30 years in the entertainment industry, Crystal has been blessed to work both across the country and internationally stage managing some wonderful productions. She has had the pleasure of working with Ronnie fo the past 11 years. She has also worked with companies such as Blyth Festival, Kidoons Network, Calgary Stampede, Necessary Angel, Soulpepper Theatre, Canadian Stage, Harold Green Jewish Theatre, just to name a few. Other work experience includes Operations for Field of Dreams and Little League Classic (BaAM Productions), Sales Manager (Westsun), Concert Stage Manager (Marquis Entertainment).

John Alcorn is one of Canada’s premiere jazz vocalists, delivering his distinctive renditions of jazz standards on the most prestigious bandstands and concert stages across Canada. His list of citations and acknowledgements in music and theatre include both Jazz Report (Male Vocalist of the Year) and Dora (Outstanding Music) awards. As composer, lyricist, musical director, arranger and producer, he has collaborated with numerous significant Canadian theatre artists, including Daniel MacIvor, Deanne Taylor, Sky Gilbert, Theresa Tova, and Tomson Highway, and eight collaborations with Theatre of Marionettes.

Ronnie Burkett has been captivated by puppetry since the age of seven, when he opened the World Book Encyclopedia to “Puppets”.  He began touring his puppet shows around Alberta at the age of fourteen and has been on the road ever since.

Recognized as one of Canada’s foremost theatre artists, Ronnie Burkett has been credited with creating some of the world’s most elaborate and provocative puppetry. Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes was formed in 1986 and has stimulated an unprecedented adult audience for puppet theatre, continuously playing to great critical and public acclaim on Canada’s major stages, and as a guest company on numerous international tours abroad.

Ronnie has received numerous awards in the Canadian theatre as a playwright, actor and designer for his work with Theatre of Marionettes, including the 2009 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, The Herbert Whittaker Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre, and international recognition including a Village Voice OBIE Award in New York for Off-Broadway Theatre, The GLAAD Award for Outstanding Theater, Broadway/Off-Broadway,  and four Citations of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from the American Center of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. In 2019, he was appointed as an Officer of The Order of Canada. In June 2024, Ronnie received the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.  

Ronnie’s highly acclaimed and wildly popular improvised marionette vaudeville cabaret The Daisy Theatre has played a decade of sold-out touring seasons including Los Angeles to New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney and Auckland, and follows the international successes Penny Plain, Billy Twinkle, 10 Days on Earth, Provenance and the “Memory Dress Trilogy” of Tinka’s New Dress, Street of Blood and Happy. Little Dickens (The Daisy Theatre version of A Christmas Carol), premiered in 2017. In June 2019, Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes premiered a new audience-interactive production, Forget Me Not. In 2022, The Loony Bin premiered, Ronnie’s first solo salon hand-puppet show since he was a teenager. In 2023, The Daisy Theatre cast took on Shakespeare in Little Willy for a seven-city tour. In 2024, Wonderful Joe had its world premiere at Theatre Network in Edmonton followed by engagements in California at Stanford University and UCLA. In the 2024-25 season, the production tours to Toronto, Calgary AB, Banff AB, Vancouver BC and to the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Quinn Czejkowski (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist exploring movement, costumes, floral design, and tattooing. Based in Brooklyn, they are intensely curious about how we move, dress, treat, adorn, and otherwise ascribe meaning and identity to and from our bodies. Most recently, they were constructing costumes for the new immersive show, Life & Trust. Past and future collaborators include: Helen Simoneau, Adrienne Westwood, Kimberly Bartosik, Jen Rosenblit, among others.

Anusree is a Governor General’s Award-nominated and four-time Dora Award-winning writer, actor, and director.

For theatre, Anusree’s plays include: Through the Eyes of God, Sisters, Trident Moon, Little Pretty and The Exceptional, Sultans of the Street, Brothel # 9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma, and Pyaasa. She is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award, the RBC Emerging Artist Award, the Carol Bolt Award and the Siminovitch Protégé Prize. She was the 2018 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (the largest and oldest playwriting prize for women writing for English-speaking theatre). Currently, she is the commissioned playwright at Tarragon Theatre, writing her new play, 147, 8th Street. Anusree is presently developing a feature film inspired by her audio play, Sisters, as well as directing and premiering her short films, The Birthday Party and God’s Plan (winner of Best Performance & Best Editing at WIFF). She is also an adjunct professor of playwriting at the University of Toronto and a professor of creative writing, teaching advanced drama to MFA students, at the University of British Columbia.

Anusree's playwright residencies include: Nightwood Theatre, Young People's Theatre, Factory Theatre, The Blyth Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Canadian Stage Company and Tarragon Theatre. Anusree spent two seasons as an actor at the Stratford Festival of Canada. She holds a B.A. from York University and an M.A. from the University of Toronto, and most of her plays have been published by Playwrights Canada Press. 
 

Sylvie Moquin is a dance artist, mother, performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and educator based out of Calgary, Alberta (Mohkinstsis). She is the Co-Artistic Director of Project InTandem, a creation and production platform to propel opportunities for artists in Canada.

She received her BFA in Performance Dance from the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), and has been working professionally in the field for over ten years.

As a dancer, she has worked extensively with various individual artists and companies, including Karissa Barry, Laja Field of LajaMartin, Meghann Michalsky, Davida Monk, J-Sik Movements, kloetzel&co, Rock Bottom Movement, Corps Bara Dance Theatre, Dancers’ Studio West - Lab Emerging Artist Program, Pam Tzeng, Dancing Monkey Laboratories, and has performed in shows such as Dance: made in Canada, Ignite! Festival, Alberta Dance Festival, Dance Action Lab (DSW), Brian Webb Dance Series (Edmonton), Stream of Dance Festival (Regina), and the Fluid Festival (Calgary), among others.

She has showcased her choreographic works in a variety of festivals and platforms, including the Chutzpah! Festival, Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre, Project InTandem & the Decidedly Jazz Danceworks PTP Program. Most recently, she was the selected artist for the Special Creative Residency with Dancers’ Studio West where she expanded upon her choreographic research and mounted a new work for the TransFoRM series at the University of Calgary.

Photo Credit: Suzanne Nolan